Biography
The EUCLID QUARTET enjoys one of the most highly regarded reputations of any chamber ensemble of its generation, with its members’ constituting a multinational mix: violinists Jameson Cooper and Aviva Hakanoglu, violist Luis Enrique Vargas, and cellist Justin Goldsmith. Captivating audiences and critics ranging from Carnegie Hall to school classrooms to radio and television broadcasts, the quartet consistently performs to enthusiastic acclaim throughout the country.
​
Formed in Ohio in 1998, the Euclid Quartet takes its name from the famous Euclid Avenue in Cleveland, home to a wealth of renowned artistic and cultural institutions. Within three years, the ensemble was awarded the String Quartet Fellowship of the Aspen Music Festival, where it was invited to return for the subsequent summer’s concert season. The quartet was also invited to study with the Emerson String Quartet at the Carnegie Hall Professional Training Workshop. Highlights of the Euclid Quartet’s career include significant global recognition as the first American string quartet to be awarded a top prize at the prestigious Osaka International Chamber Music Competition. Prior to its Japanese laurels, the quartet also won awards in numerous United States competitions, including the Hugo Kauder International Competition for String Quartets, The Carmel Chamber Music Competition and the Chamber Music Yellow Springs Competition. In 2009, the Euclid Quartet was awarded the esteemed “American Masterpieces” grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
In 2007, the Euclid Quartet was appointed to the prestigious string quartet residency at Indiana University South Bend, where its members teach private lessons and coach chamber music. Passionately devoted to presenting the highest quality chamber music to young audiences, these seasoned teaching artists have performed for thousands of students and young adults, in part through support from the National Endowment for the Arts and collaborations with Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute and the Fischoff National Chamber Music Association.
​
The Euclid is a frequent guest ensemble at American and Canadian music festivals, among them the Mostly Modern Festival, Aspen, Music Mountain, Great Lakes, Kent/Blossom and Orford festivals, while expanded programs have included collaborations with internationally renowned artists, including James Dunham, Gregory Fulkerson, Warren Jones, Paul Katz, Joseph Silverstein and Alexander Toradze. As passionate advocates for new music, the Euclid Quartet has commissioned and premiered contemporary works by numerous notable composers including Robert Paterson, Armando Bayolo, Jorge Muniz and Dan Welcher. Recently, the Euclid Quartet premiered Anna Clyne’s concerto for string quartet and orchestra “Quarter Days,” commissioned to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Fischoff Chamber Music Association.
​
Active in the recording studio, the Euclid Quartet recently issued a disc of DvoÅ™ák and Wynton Marsalis on Afinat Records. The Strad Magazine praised the new recording: "The members of the Euclid Quartet hurl themselves into the fray with alacrity, relishing the music's invention with contagious wit and virtuosity." Previous releases include the complete string quartets of Béla Bartók on Artek Recordings. The American Record Guide raved about these discs, “rarely has a group found such meaning and vision.” Their debut CD, on Centaur records, features the first four quartets of Hugo Kauder, a refugee from Nazi-occupied Austria who fled to the United States in the 1940s. He defied the atonal trend of his generation with his uniquely harmonic, contrapuntal style. In 2023, the Euclid Quartet was awarded the IU Presidential Arts & Humanities Production Grant to produce an album of short, single-movement works for the string quartet, to be released January 2024 on Afinat Records.