A long time favorite with Candlelight audiences, the Ying Quartet returns.  Its exceptional musical qualities earned it the 1993 Naumburg Chamber Music Award.  Now in its second decade, the Quartet has established an international reputation for excellence in performance with appearances in virtually every major North American city, and in Europe, Asia, Mexico and Australia, winning acclaim for its "clear-eyed vision of what the music means and how best to communicate that to an audience."  Detroit Free Press

Now in its second decade, the Ying Quartet continues to develop ways of making artistic and creative expression an essential part of everyday life. Their current projects in this direction include an innovative visiting residency at Symphony Space in New York City connecting music with other art forms, including dance, poetry, and film; an exploration with the Turtle Island String Quartet of jazz, improvisation and the classical string quartet tradition; and a variety of visiting residencies on campuses and in communities across the United States.

Natives of Chicago, the Ying siblings began their career as an ensemble in 1992 in the farm town of Jesup, Iowa (population 2000) as the first artists involved in the National Endowment for the Arts Chamber Music Rural Residencies Program. The Quartet participated fully in the community, performing on countless occasions for audiences of six to six hundred people in a residency so successful that it was widely chronicled in the national and international media, including features in The New York Times and STRAD magazine and on CBS Sunday Morning.

While the Quartet was in Jesup, its exceptional musical qualities earned it the 1993 Naumburg Chamber Music Award. In the years since, the Yings have established an international reputation for excellence in performance with appearances in virtually every major American city; at numerous festivals including Tanglewood, Aspen and San Miguel; and in Europe, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Japan and Taiwan. The Yings' enthusiasm for performing in diverse settings has led to concerts in Carnegie Hall, the White House, hospitals and juvenile prisons. Frequent musical collaborations have included such artists as Menahem Pressler, Paul Katz, Gilbert Kalish, Jon Nakamatsu, and the St. Lawrence and Turtle Island String Quartets. The EMI Classics recording of works by Osvaldo Golijov on which the Ying Quartet appears with the St. Lawrence Quartet was nominated for a 2003 Grammy Award.

In 1999, the Quartet introduced LifeMusic, a multiyear commissioning project supported by the Institute for American Music, designed to produce a distinctively American string quartet repertoire. Each season, a pair of new works by established and emerging composers is featured in the Yings' diverse performance activities. Thus far the project has introduced new quartets by Michael Torke, Kevin Puts, Carter Pann, Paquito D'Rivera, Chen Yi, Daniel Kellogg, Augusta Read Thomas, Ned Rorem, Jennifer Higdon, and Bernard Rands. The newest additions, which will be premiered in the 2004-2005 season, are works by Pierre Jalbert and John Duffy. Quartz Records will begin releasing LifeMusic works in 2004.

With “Musical Dim Sum,” the Yings continue to extend their repertoire of innovative programming concepts while celebrating their own cultural heritage. On these programs, the Quartet includes a selection of short works by Chinese American composers in the framework of a traditional concert, giving audiences the treat of a diverse sampling of this music. The Quartet plans to commission new works by composers of Chinese background living around the globe to join existing pieces by Chou Wen-Chung, Zhou Long, Tan Dun, Bright Sheng, and Chen Yi. 

As Quartet in Residence at the Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester, the Ying Quartet plans and directs a rigorous, sequential chamber music curriculum that integrates intensive musical instruction with training in creative presentation and communication skills, and includes practical performance opportunities throughout the greater Rochester community. The Quartet has also taught at Northwestern University and at the Interlochen and Brevard Music Festivals, and since 2001, the members of the Ying Quartet have been the Blodgett Artists in Residence at Harvard University.