Takács Quartet
The Takács Quartet has been an influential presence in chamber music for five decades, drawing an international following with performances shaped by intellectual curiosity, interpretative integrity and expressive warmth. Formed in Budapest in 1975, the ensemble has evolved continually, while remaining faithful to the ideals that first established its reputation. Now in its sixth decade, the Quartet comprises Edward Dusinberre and Harumi Rhodes (violins), Richard O’Neill (viola) and Mihai Marica (cello).
The Takács is known for its authoritative interpretations of the core quartet repertoire as well as imaginative programming and close collaborations with leading composers. In 2024 it gave the premiere of Gabriela Lena Frank’s Kachkaniraqmi, a concerto for solo quartet and string orchestra, and it continues to champion contemporary music through commissions and long-term creative partnerships. Since 2021 it has collaborated regularly with bandoneon virtuoso Julien Labro in a programme featuring new works by Clarice Assad and Bryce Dessner.
The Quartet has a long history of projects connecting chamber music with other art forms and traditions. In 2007 the players performed a programme inspired by Philip Roth’s novel Everyman at Carnegie Hall with Philip Seymour Hoffman, returning to the project with Meryl Streep at Princeton in 2014 and the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto in 2015. It has toured 14 cities with poet Robert Pinsky, and plays regularly with Hungarian folk group Muzsikás.
The Takács has an extensive international touring schedule. As Associate Artists at London’s Wigmore Hall (the first quartet to be awarded the Wigmore Hall Medal, in 2014) it gives four concerts there this season, with music by Haydn, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Carlos Simon and Gabriela Lena Frank, and including a collaboration with Steven Osborne. It also visits Vienna, Oslo, Bergen and Utrecht. North American engagements include Carnegie Hall and Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York, University of Chicago, Pittsburgh, Santa Monica, Vancouver, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Berkeley, Ann Arbor and Portland, and a tour of César Franck’s piano quintet with Jeremy Denk. The players serve as Visiting Artists at the University of Maryland and take up a new role as Official Chamber Ensemble of Segerstrom Center for the Arts. Committed to supporting the next generations of string quartets, the players have served as Artists in Residence at the University of Colorado Boulder since 1986, and lead the intensive summer quartet programme at the Music Academy of the West.
The Takács has recorded for Hyperion since 2005, building an extensive and acclaimed discography ranging from Haydn, Schubert and both Mendelssohns to Debussy, Janáček and Britten, alongside commissioned works by Nokuthula Ngwenyama and Stephen Hough. Recordings include collaborations with Garrick Ohlsson (Beach and Elgar), Marc-André Hamelin (Franck and Shostakovich) and Lawrence Power (Brahms and Dvořák). It has won three Gramophone Awards, a Grammy Award, three Japanese Record Academy Awards, Disc of the Year at the inaugural BBC Music Magazine Awards, and Ensemble Album of the Year at the Classical Brits. This season they release Mozart viola quintets with violist Timothy Ridout and record works by Gabriela Lena Frank.
The Quartet has received many of chamber music’s highest distinctions, most recently, Chamber Music America’s 2026 Richard J. Bogomolny National Service Award. It was the first string quartet to be inducted into the Gramophone Hall of Fame in 2012 and won the 2011 Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Chamber Music and Song.
Formed in 1975 by Gábor Takács-Nagy, Károly Schranz, Gábor Ormai and András Fejér while students at Budapest’s Franz Liszt Academy, the group first came to international prominence through victories at the Evian, Portsmouth, Bordeaux, Budapest and Bratislava international competitions before making its North American debut in 1982. Members of the Takács Quartet perform on instruments generously loaned by the Drake Foundation and are proud Thomastik-Infeld Artists.
