Brahms: Quintet in B minor for Clarinet, Two Violins, Viola, and Cello, Op. 115
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David Shifrin
The Schumann Quartett
A Yale University faculty member since 1987, clarinetist David Shifrin is artistic director of Yale’s Chamber Music Society and the Yale in New York concert series. He has performed with CMS since 1982 and served as its artistic director from 1992 to 2004, inaugurating CMS’s Bowers Program and the annual Brandenburg Concertos concerts. He was the artistic director of Chamber Music Northwest from 1981 to 2020. Winner of the Avery Fisher Career Grant (1987) and the Avery Fisher Prize (2000), he has held principal clarinet positions in numerous orchestras including the Cleveland Orchestra and the American Symphony under Leopold Stokowski. As soloist, Shifrin has performed recitals at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and the Library of Congress. Notable concerto performances include the Philadelphia and Minnesota orchestras; the Dallas, Seattle, Houston, Milwaukee, and Denver symphonies; as well as orchestras in China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Switzerland, Germany, and Italy. Shifrin performs on clarinets made by Morrie Backun in Vancouver, Canada, and Légère synthetic reeds.
The Schumann Quartett has been acclaimed as “personal and profound” (BBC Music Magazine) and “one of the most exciting string quartets of the present day” (Fono Forum). Highlights of the 2026–2027 season include appearances in renowned venues such as Wigmore Hall London, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Musikverein Vienna, Bozar Brussels, and the Laeiszhalle Hamburg. The quartet will also perform at the Tsinandali Festival with Lisa Batiashvili, the Cartagena Music Festival in Colombia, and the Ludwig van Beethoven Easter Festival in Warsaw. Their US tour in fall 2026 includes performances with CMS and at Stude Concert Hall in Houston, Texas, among others. Upcoming collaborators include artists such as Andreas Ottensamer, Kit Armstrong, Anna-Lucia Richter, Sabine Meyer, Katharina Konradi, Sharon Kam, and Alexey Stadler.
The quartet’s third album, Intermezzo (2018), featuring works by Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, and Aribert Reimann—and recorded in collaboration with soprano Anna-Lucia Richter—was praised nationally and internationally, and received the 2019 Opus Klassik Award in the category of Chamber Music Recording. In 2020, the ensemble expanded its discography with Fragment, a powerful exploration of the work of one of the great masters of the string quartet: Franz Schubert. To mark the 100th anniversary of radio broadcasting, the quartet undertook a unique project: in autumn 2023, they released an album entirely dedicated to the music of the year 1923. Created in collaboration with Bayerischer Rundfunk, the much-praised recording features works by Alban Berg, Leoš Janáček, Paul Hindemith, and Aaron Copland.
The three brothers, Mark, Erik and Ken Schumann, have been playing together since early childhood. They are joined by violist Matthew McDowell, who completes the quartet. The quartet’s formative influences include teachers such as Eberhard Feltz and the Alban Berg Quartet, and partners such as Menahem Pressler. From 2016 to 2019, the quartet took part in CMS’s Bowers Program.
Erik Schumann plays a violin by Domenico Montagnana, Venice, c. 1733, generously on loan from a private collection. Ken Schumann plays an Italian violin from the mid-18th century, kindly made available to him privately. Matthew McDowell’s viola was made for him by Frédéric Chaudière in 2025. Mark Schumann plays a cello by Giovanni and Francesco Grancino from 1680, generously loaned to him by Merito String Instruments Trust, Vienna.
Recorded live in the Daniel and Joanna S. Rose Studio on November 15, 2018.
Video directed by Tristan Cook.