Woodward String Quartet

Center Stage Strings (CSS) – one of SMTD’s MPulse performing arts summer programs for youth – welcomes the public to a series of live concerts. Celebrating its 15th season in 2024, CSS develops the talents of serious young classical music students in the areas of solo and chamber music performance.

ABOUT THE GUEST ENSEMBLE

Possessing a unique blend of chemistry, pedigree, and vision, the WOODWARD STRING QUARTET performs with great daring and a tangible joy for chamber music. Comprised of titled musicians from the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Woodward String Quartet has capitalized on the vibrancy, energy, and quality emanating from that historic orchestral institution by seeking one another outside of their orchestral careers to form this quartet.

The Woodward String Quartet members join together with a long list of accolades to each of their names. As soloists they have each won prizes in numerous national and international competitions, and they appeared with the Boston Pops, the Detroit Symphony, the Grand Tetons Music Festival, and the Philadelphia Orchestra, among others. As individual chamber musicians, they have collaborated with such artists as pianists Richard Goode, Menahem Pressler, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, and Mitsuko Uchida; violinists Augustin Hadelich, Midori, and Pinchas Zukerman; and members of the Cleveland, Emerson, Guarneri, Juilliard, and New Orford Quartets. They also each appear as faculty or guest artists at numerous summer festivals, including the Brevard Music Center, Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, Mainly Mozart, Meadowmount School of Music, Taipei Music Academy & Festival, and others.

Collectively and individually the musicians of the Woodward String Quartet are active pedagogues. Individually they serve as faculty members at the Cleveland Institute of Music, Michigan State University, and Northwestern University, and they also maintain their own sought-after private studios. As an ensemble they are deeply invested in education, offering a specialized blend of chamber music coaching with orchestral sectionals and seminars in leadership and industry skills. With dynamic and engaging programming, the Woodward String Quartet is passionate about performing works of living and underrepresented composers alongside pillars of the chamber music canon.

Drawing on wide-ranging inspirations, each Woodward String Quartet concert is an experience in creativity, curiosity, and collaborative discovery for both performers and audience members alike.