The Quartet Program, in residence at S.U.N.Y.Fredonia, is a unique 7-week summer program for intensive study and performance of chamber music and solo repertory, founded in 1970 by violinist Charles Castleman. Joseph Silverstein, former Boston Symphony concertmaster, former music director of the Utah Symphony and Chautauqua Festival, said in the Winter 1989 issue of Chamber Music magazine: "Summer programs such as Charlie Castleman's Quartet Program, and Marlboro and Tanglewood, have developed such a level of expertise and repertoire that was unknown 25 years ago." Yo-Yo Ma calls it "the best program of its kind...a training ground for lifemanship".

Master-classes have been given at the program by such renowned performers as Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, Josef Gingold, Edith Peinemann, Joseph Silverstein, Walter Trampler, and members of the Juilliard and Guarneri Quartets. The Cleveland, Emerson, Orion, Vermeer, Tokyo, and Ying Quartets have performed and coached at the program.

Alumni have won top prizes at the TCHAIKOVSKY, BRUSSELS, MUNICH, NAUMBURG, LEVENTRITT, and SZERYNG solo competitions and, in groups, have won every important ensemble competition, including the BANFF, PORTSMOUTH, EVIAN, NAUMBURG, CONCERT ARTISTS GUILD, ARTISTS INTERNATIONAL, FISCHOFF, COLEMAN, and CARMEL. They are represented by major concert management and major record companies and participate in the Marlboro, Prussia Cove, Spoleto and Lochenhaus festivals. They are on the faculties of more than eighty universities, and are members of more than eighty professional chamber groups, including the Artaria, Brentano, Cavani, Chester, Chiara, Ciompi, Harrington, Johannes, Lafayette, Lydian, Maia, New Zealand, Orion, Quartet 21, Shanghai, Whitman and Ying String Quartets, the Amelia, Kandinsky, and Peabody Trios, the Vienna String Sextet, Horseflies, Les Adieux, New Millenium, Opus One, Tafelmusik, and Tashi. They are in every top-ranked American symphony, chamber, opera, and ballet orchestra, one of three on the 1st desk. They are employed in Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Great Britain, Holland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Poland, Portugal,, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, The Ukraine, and Venezuela. Almost half of the orchestrally employed alumni are first desk players, and 88% of those who attended the program for two or more summers and have completed their education have become professional musicians.

Some of the world's most respected musicians have come to praise The Quartet Program:

See what other great musicians say about The Quartet Program on the Testimonials page.