Cuarteto Latinoamericano

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Cuarteto Latinoamericano is a celebrated string quartet from Latin America. They tour extensively in Europe, the Americas and New Zealand. The recipient of a prestigious Mexican Music Critics Association award in 1983 and “most adventurous programming" awards from CMA/ASCAP in 1997, 1999 and 2000, the group has introduced more than a hundred works written for them and has participated in over a hundred world premieres. They have recorded over forty CDs, which include the complete works for quartet by Heitor Villa-Lobos, Silvestre Revueltas, Alberto Ginastera, Rodolfo Halffter, Carlos Chávez, Manuel M. Ponce, Julian Orbon, and many other Latin American composers. Their sixth, and final, album of Hector Villa-Lobos's string quartets, Quartets Nos. 4, 9 and 11, was nominated for two Grammy Awards (Best Chamber Music and Best Latin Music) in 2002.

They have collaborated with many artists including cellists Janos Starker and Yehuda Hanani, pianists Santiago Rodriguez, Cyprien Katsaris and Rudolph Buchbinder, tenor Ramon Vargas, and guitarists Narciso Yepes, Sharon Isbin, David Tanenbaum and Manuel Barrueco. With Mr. Barrueco, they have played in some of the most important venues of the USA and Europe, have recorded two cds, and commissioned guitar quintets from American composers Michael Daugherty and Gabriela Lena Frank.

Formed in Mexico in 1981, Cuarteto Latinoamericano was, from 1987 until 2008, quartet-in-residence at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. Its members are:

Saul Bitran - violin I, Aron Bitran - violin II, Javier Montiel - viola, Alvaro Bitran - cello

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