Avalon String Quartet: Continuing and Furthering a Proud Legacy

One of the proudest traditions of the NIU School of Music is having a world-class string quartet-in-residence. Starting in 1970 with the internationally renowned Vermeer Quartet, the legacy continues with the Avalon String Quartet.

The Avalon’s members are faculty in the School of Music and perform at NIU and in major venues around the world like Carnegie Hall, the Library of Congress, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., Wigmore Hall in London and Herkulessaal in Munich, just to name a few. They have also released a number of recordings of their work.

Violinists Marie Wang, M.M. ’98 and Blaise Magnière are original members of the Avalon. Cellist Cheng-Hou Lee and violist Anthony Devroye joined the group after it was founded. This current lineup worked together as artists-in-residence at Indiana University before coming to NIU in 2007. They are all full professors in the School of Music, and Magnière serves as the Richard O. Ryan Endowed Chair in Violin.

“They really are spectacular people,” said Andrew Glendening, director of the NIU School of Music. “They are wonderful colleagues who play exceptionally well, are confident and share their skills openly and without restraint with their students. Each member of the quartet is a world-class player. You put them together and the chemistry builds into something that is even better.”

The original formation of the Avalon worked at NIU as a graduate student string quartet-in-residence. Now, nearly 30 years later, they are in the role of mentors as NIU has restarted the graduate string quartet program with the Dáikiti String Quartet made up of performers from around the globe. Javier Santiago Polania Cleves is a violinist from Colombia, Sofia Vrettou is a cellist from Greece, and violinist Sally Waterhouse and violist Jacob Seabrook both hail from Australia.

“NIU is the only school within a 100-mile radius of Chicago with a full-time artist-in-residence string quartet where the members are faculty and an ongoing professional performing entity,” said Devroye. “It is unique, and a clear way for NIU to demonstrate something exceptional from what any other program in the region can offer.”

Each member of the Avalon mentors a member of the Dáikiti. They know firsthand the benefits of studying with an exceptional professional quartet-in-residence. “You need to have the technical proficiency at your job to be able to have your own individual say over a piece to bring it to the highest level it can be,” Devroye said. “Chamber music is the most challenging way for individuals to develop their skills and their musicianship.”

The Avalon String Quartet performs regularly at NIU.
Visit avalonquartet.com for a listing of upcoming performances.