The Takács Quartet

Formed in Budapest in 1975, the world-renowned Takács Quartet has become an international favorite for its unique blend of drama, warmth, humor, and precision, bringing fresh insights to the string quartet repertoire.

For its Blacksburg debut, the esteemed quartet is joined by award-winning Jamaican-American violist Jordan Bak, winner of the Juilliard Concerto Competition, whose “haunting lyrical grace” (Gramophone) is blazing new trails in the music world.​ 

The swoon-worthy program includes two of the most iconic and famous chamber works ever: two Mozart viola quintets alongside Schubert’s one-movement — and rarely heard — masterpiece, Quartetsatz.

The Takács Quartet

Now entering its 50th anniversary season, the Takács Quartet features Edward Dusinberre and Harumi Rhodes (violins), Richard O’Neill (viola), and András Fejér (cello). The group is excited about upcoming projects, including a new concerto for them and the Colorado Music Festival orchestra by Gabriela Lena Frank. In November the group will release its latest Hyperion project, Flow by Nokuthula Ngwenyama, and a new album with pianist Marc-André Hamelin will be released in the spring featuring works by Florence Price and Antonín Dvořák.

The quartet maintains a busy international touring schedule and will perform in South Korea, Japan, and Australia in 2025. The Australian tour is centered around a new piece by Kathy Milliken for quartet and narrator. As associate artists at London’s Wigmore Hall, the group will present four concerts featuring works by Haydn, Britten, Ngwenyama, Beethoven, and Janáček, as well as two performances of Schubert’s cello quintet with Adrian Brendel. During the season the ensemble will play at other prestigious European venues, including Barcelona, Budapest, Milan, Basel, Bath Mozartfest, and Bern. The group’s North American engagements include concerts in New York; Vancouver; Philadelphia; Washington, D.C.; Lajolla; Berkeley; Ann Arbor; Chicago; Tucson; Portland; and Princeton, as well as collaborations with pianists Stephen Hough and Jeremy Denk. 

Takács Quartet members are Christoffersen Fellows and artists-in-residence at the University of Colorado, Boulder. During the summer months, they join the faculty at the Music Academy of the West, running an intensive quartet seminar. 

The quartet has recorded for Hyperion since 2005. Its most recent album includes Schubert’s final quartet, D887. In 2021 the group won a Presto Music Recording of the Year Award for its recordings of string quartets by Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn and a Gramophone Award with pianist Garrick Ohlsson for piano quintets by Amy Beach and Elgar. Other releases for Hyperion feature works by Haydn, Schubert, Janáček, Smetana, Debussy, and Britten, as well as piano quintets by César Franck and Shostakovich (with Hamelin), and viola quintets by Brahms and Dvorák (with Lawrence Power). For its CDs on the Decca/London label, the quartet 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. 

The quartet has recorded for Hyperion since 2005. Its most recent album includes Schubert’s final quartet, D887. In 2021 the group won a Presto Music Recording of the Year Award for its recordings of string quartets by Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn and a Gramophone Award with pianist Garrick Ohlsson for piano quintets by Amy Beach and Elgar. Other releases for Hyperion feature works by Haydn, Schubert, Janáček, Smetana, Debussy, and Britten, as well as piano quintets by César Franck and Shostakovich (with Hamelin), and viola quintets by Brahms and Dvorák (with Lawrence Power). For its CDs on the Decca/London label, the quartet 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. 

The quartet has recorded for Hyperion since 2005. Its most recent album includes Schubert’s final quartet, D887. In 2021 the group won a Presto Music Recording of the Year Award for its recordings of string quartets by Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn and a Gramophone Award with pianist Garrick Ohlsson for piano quintets by Amy Beach and Elgar. Other releases for Hyperion feature works by Haydn, Schubert, Janáček, Smetana, Debussy, and Britten, as well as piano quintets by César Franck and Shostakovich (with Hamelin), and viola quintets by Brahms and Dvorák (with Lawrence Power). For its CDs on the Decca/London label, the quartet 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. 

Jordan Bak

Violist Jordan Bak has achieved international acclaim as a trailblazing artist, praised for his radiant stage presence, dynamic interpretations, and fearless power. Critics have described him as “an exciting new voice in Classical performance” (I Care If You Listen) and “a powerhouse musician, with a strong voice and compelling sound” (The Whole Note). The recipient of the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Alexandra Jupin Award and former Young Classical Artist Trust’s (YCAT) Robey Artist, Bak was also a prizewinner in the Sphinx, Lionel Tertis, and Concert Artists Guild competitions, and has received accolades from ClassicFM, MusicalAmerica, and WQXR.​

Bak’s enthusiastically received sophomore album, Cantabile: Anthems for Viola (Delphian Records), has garnered significant international attention, featuring works by Arnold Bax, Benjamin Britten, and Ralph Vaughan Williams, paired with contemporary compositions by Jonathan Harvey, Bright Sheng, and Augusta Read Thomas. A proud new music advocate, Bak has given numerous world premieres, including Kaija Saariaho’s Du gick, flög for viola and mezzo-soprano, Jessica Meyer’s On fire…no, after you for viola, mezzo-soprano and piano, Augusta Read Thomas’ Upon Wings of Words for string quartet and soprano, and Jeffrey Mumford’s stillness echoing for viola and harp. He has championed other works by Jeffrey Mumford, as well as works by H. Leslie Adams, Esteban Zapata Blanco, Carlos Carillo, Caroline Shaw, and Alvin Singleton.​

Bak has appeared as soloist with such orchestras as London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sarasota Orchestra, London Mozart Players, New York Classical Players, Juilliard Orchestra, and Brandon Hill Chamber Orchestra, among others, and has performed under such esteemed conductors as Howard Griffiths, Stephen Mulligan, Keith Lockhart, Gerard Schwarz, and Ewa Strusińska. As a recitalist and chamber musician, he has been heard at some of the world’s greatest performance venues, including Carnegie Hall, the Concertgebouw, Wigmore Hall, Jordan Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, Perelman Theater at the Kimmel Center, Elgar Concert Hall, and Helsinki Musiikkitalo. Bak’s recent performances include recitals at Kravis Center, Wiltshire Music Centre, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Harriman-Jewell Series, Lichfield Festival, and Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival.​

This is the first performance at the center for the Takács Quartet and Bak.

Photos by Amanda Tipton, Dario Acosta, and Titilayo Ayangade