The Fine Arts Quartet, “one of the gold-plated names in chamber music” (Washington Post), is one of the most distinguished ensembles in chamber music today, with an illustrious history of performing success and an extensive recording legacy. Founded in Chicago in 1946, and based at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee since 1963, the Quartet is one of the elite few to have recorded and toured internationally for over half a century. Three of the Quartet’s current artists, Ralph Evans, Efim Boico, and Wolfgang Laufer, have now been performing together for over 25 years. Each season, the Fine Arts Quartet tours worldwide, with concerts in such musical centers as New York, London, Paris, Berlin, Rome, Madrid, Moscow, Tokyo, Beijing, Istanbul, Jerusalem, Mexico City, and Toronto.

The Quartet also continues to record actively, with over 70 works recorded since 1985. The latest releases include: the Franck Quartet and Piano Quintet (8.572009), the Fauré Piano Quintets with Cristina Ortiz (8.570938), the complete Bruckner chamber music (8.570788); the complete Mendelssohn String Quintets (8.570488) which MusicWeb International named a “Recording of the Year 2008”; the complete Schumann Quartets (8.570151) which the American Record Guide