Search - Potomac String Quartet :: Complete String Quartets of Quincy Porter

Like Charles Ives, Quincy Porter was a die-hard Connecticut Yankee from a well-to-do family with strong ties to Yale University. In fact, both studied composition under Horatio Parker at Yale. And both of them were staunchly patriotic and nationalistic, although Ives was the more radical composer. Porter, as part of his day job, served as an educator and administrator at many of the nation s most prominent schools: Cleveland Institute, Vassar College, New England Conservatory and, finally, Yale where he taught for two decades. It has been claimed that the String Quartets of Porter are some of the most substantial contributions to that literature made by an American in no less an authoritative source than the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Yet, until now, most of them have never been available commercially. The current recorded performances by the Potomac Quartet a collection of all nine numbered Quartets as well as several shorter pieces will offer most listeners their first opportunity to explore and access this inexplicably neglected body of work. This immensely important release is the follow-up to the Potomac Quartet s acclaimed cycle of the David Diamond String Quartets (TROY504, 540, 613 and 727) and is the perfect supplement to Albany s equally admired disc of Porter s orchestral music (TROY 574).