The Wall Street Journal

HUMANITY OVER HARD PERFECTION: THE DOVER QUARTET IS CREATING A GUTSY AND EARTHY SOUND

by Barrymore Laurence Scherer

Among the many performances I attended at the 2013 Savannah Music Festival was an evening of dance. However, it wasn't the free-form choreography that captured my attention, but the musical accompaniment—a masterly nuanced performance of Schubert's "Death and the Maiden" string quartet played by the Dover Quartet.

Comprising violinists Joel Link and Bryan Lee, violist Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt and cellist Camden Shaw, all now 25, the group was formed in October 2008 while its members were students at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, and gave its first official performance in February 2009. The Dover Quartet has quickly established a burgeoning presence in the music world. Having won a variety of competitions, including the first and grand prizes at the 2010 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, the Dover swept the first and all subsidiary prizes at the 2013 Banff International String Quartet Competition.