Audubon Quartet

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Audubon Quartet is a string quartet based in Winchester, Virginia. Current members include: cellist and founder C. Tom Shaw, violist, Doris Lederer, and violinists, Ellen Jewett and Akemi Takayama. The quartet was formerly the resident quartet of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and recently announced plans begin a residency at Shenandoah Conservatory at Shenandoah University. Over their more than three decade career together, the Audubon Quartet has enjoyed international recognition including top prizes at The International String Quartet Competition in Evian, France (1977); The String Quartet Competition at the Festival Villa Lobos in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (1977); and in 1979, The International String Quartet Competition in Portsmouth, England. They were the first American string quartet ever to win a first prize in international string quartet competition. The quartet has gained some notoriety in recent years when a Pennsylvania court ruled that the ouster of a first violinist by quartet members Shaw, Lederer, and Takayama "showed selfish motive and breach of fiduciary duty by the 3 players in control."