Philip Setzer

violin, chamber music

Violinist Philip Setzer, a founding member of the Emerson String Quartet, was born in Cleveland, Ohio. He studied with Josef Gingold and Rafael Druian, and later at the Juilliard School with Oscar Shumsky. In 1967, Philip Setzer won second prize at the Marjorie Merriweather Post Competition in Washington, DC, and in 1976 he received a Bronze Medal at the Queen Elisabeth International Competition in Brussels.

Philip Setzer has appeared as a soloist with many of the world’s leading orchestras and has participated in the Marlboro Music Festival. He also holds the position of Professor of Violin and Chamber Music at Stony Brook University and has given master classes at schools around the world.

“The Noise of Time”, a groundbreaking theater collaboration between the Emerson Quartet and Simon McBurney about the life of Shostakovich, was based on an original idea of Mr. Setzer’s. In April of 1989, Philip Setzer premiered Paul Epstein’s “Matinee Concerto”, dedicated to and written for Mr. Setzer, and has since been performed by him in Hartford, New York City, Cleveland, Boston and Aspen. Recently, he has also been touring and recording the piano trio repertoire with David Finckel and Wu Han.

The Emerson String Quartet stands apart in the history of string quartets with an unparalleled list of achievements over three decades: more than thirty acclaimed recordings, nine Grammys® (including two for Best Classical Album), three Gramophone Awards, the Avery Fisher Prize, Musical America’s “Ensemble of the Year”, and collaborations with many of the greatest artists of our time.