The award-winning h2 quartet has enjoyed a partnership of
performance and teaching for twenty years. From their inaugural performance at
Los Angeles’ Walt Disney Concert Hall in 2006, their concertizing has taken
them around the globe where they have appeared at venues such Merkin Concert
Hall, the Andy Warhol Museum, the Times Center, and the National Concert Hall
in Dublin. h2 takes advantage of the great expressive capacity of their
instrument by programming traditional, avant-garde, minimalist, and jazz-influenced
works in surprising and compelling ways. h2 has performed throughout the United
States, in Europe, the UK and in Asia.
For their 20th anniversary year, h2 is working on a release
of music by Arvo Pärt and John Tavener and awaits a newly commissioned work
celebrating this milestone by Grammy-Award Winning composer Christopher
Cerrone. They will appear with the Midland Symphony in Michigan alongside a
residency at their shared alma mater of Michigan State University. A recording
of Viet Cuong’s Second Nature will also be released in the coming year.
The ensemble has another seven critically acclaimed
recordings: Generations, Times & Spaces, Groove Machine, Hard Line,
Enrapture, Soul Searching, and Infinity Mirror. These recordings feature some
of the most cutting-edge composers of today and often showcase unexpected and
intriguing relationships between different kinds of popular and avant-garde
music. The quartet has commissioned works by Drew Baker, Claudio Gabriele,
Takuma Itoh, David MacDonald, Victor Marquez-Barrios, Roger Petersen, Forrest
Pierce, David Rakowski, Jesse Ronneau, Bill Ryan, Matthew Schoendorff, Daniel
Wohl, and has premiered works by John Mackey, Marc Mellits, Mari Takano, Jerod
Impichchaachaaha' Tate, and Amy Williams.
The h2 quartet has been featured on NPR and PBS programs,
including the nationally syndicated Backstage Pass. The ensemble’s
recording of Marc Mellits’ “Groove Canon” was featured as the monologue theme
music for the Broadway show The Heidi Chronicles, starring Elisabeth
Moss and Jason Biggs.
The h2 quartet has won prizes at the Fischoff National
Chamber Music Competition (First Prize, Gold Medals) and the North American
Saxophone Alliance Saxophone Quartet Competition (first prize), among others.
The group was also finalists in the Concert Artists Guild Competition, and
earned Honorable Mentions at the Plowman Chamber Music Competition, the
Chesapeake Bay Chamber Music Competition, and the Coleman Chamber Music
Competition. h2 is also the recipient of several Aaron Copland Fund Grants.
The h2 quartet is a Vandoren and Yamaha Artist Ensemble.