Biography
An adventurous string quartet blending time-honored classical techniques with spontaneous jazz, bluegrass rhythms, and Latin flavors, Quartet San Francisco formed in 2001 under violinist Jeremy Cohen. The ensemble quickly drew widespread praise, securing Grammy Award nominations for the 2006 release Latigo, the 2007 album Whirled Chamber Music, and the 2009 project QSF Plays Brubeck. Beyond reworking material from Dave Brubeck, The Beatles, and Raymond Scott, the musicians highlighted fresh scores by contemporary California composers on 2013’s Pacific Premieres, while Cohen’s own pieces on 2018’s A QSF Journey wove together the full spectrum of the group’s genre explorations.
Cohen established the San Francisco-based outfit to pursue classical repertoire alongside an eclectic mix of other styles, having grown up amid a household of musicians and studied under both Itzhak Perlman and Anne Crowden. His playing fuses the elegance of Fritz Kreisler with the swing sensibilities of Joe Venuti and Eddie South, experiences that also informed his contributions to film scores, orchestral performances, and earlier recordings as a member of the Turtle Island String Quartet alongside Linda Ronstadt, Diane Reeves, and Regina Belle.
The ensemble’s 2002 self-titled debut captured the original roster of violinists Cohen and Kronos Quartet founder James Shallenberger, violist Emily Onderdonk, cellist Joel Cohen, and bassist James Kerwin. By the follow-up Latigo in 2006, Kayo Miki had taken the second-violin chair, the group had dispensed with a permanent bassist, and John Santos supplied occasional percussion, earning the quartet’s first Grammy nomination for Best Classical Crossover Album. Cohen has remained the sole enduring member through frequent personnel shifts that later included violinist Dawn Harms from 2002 to 2004, cellist Michelle Djokic, violist Keith Lawrence from 2008 to 2012, violinist Alisa Rose from 2009 to 2012, and cellist Kelley Maulbetsch from 2011 to 2015.
Whirled Chamber Music arrived in 2007, folding blues, funk, jazz, and tango into interpretations of works by Duke Ellington, Chick Corea, and Alan Menken together with seven compositions by Raymond Scott, and again received a Best Classical Crossover Album nomination. Two years afterward the musicians issued QSF Plays Brubeck, an immersion in the catalog of innovative jazz pianist Dave Brubeck that was captured at Skywalker Sound by engineer Judy Kirschner and earned a Grammy nod for Best Engineered Album, Classical. The 2011 disc Five by Four followed, spotlighting three songs by the Beatles.
Pacific Premieres in 2013 presented new works by modern California composers Gordon Goodwin, Vince Mendoza, Patrick Williams, and Cohen himself, with both Goodwin and Mendoza later nominated for Grammys in the Best New Instrumental Composition category. A QSF Journey surfaced in 2018, comprising Cohen-penned pieces that traversed classical, swing, and bluegrass idioms.
Cohen established the San Francisco-based outfit to pursue classical repertoire alongside an eclectic mix of other styles, having grown up amid a household of musicians and studied under both Itzhak Perlman and Anne Crowden. His playing fuses the elegance of Fritz Kreisler with the swing sensibilities of Joe Venuti and Eddie South, experiences that also informed his contributions to film scores, orchestral performances, and earlier recordings as a member of the Turtle Island String Quartet alongside Linda Ronstadt, Diane Reeves, and Regina Belle.
The ensemble’s 2002 self-titled debut captured the original roster of violinists Cohen and Kronos Quartet founder James Shallenberger, violist Emily Onderdonk, cellist Joel Cohen, and bassist James Kerwin. By the follow-up Latigo in 2006, Kayo Miki had taken the second-violin chair, the group had dispensed with a permanent bassist, and John Santos supplied occasional percussion, earning the quartet’s first Grammy nomination for Best Classical Crossover Album. Cohen has remained the sole enduring member through frequent personnel shifts that later included violinist Dawn Harms from 2002 to 2004, cellist Michelle Djokic, violist Keith Lawrence from 2008 to 2012, violinist Alisa Rose from 2009 to 2012, and cellist Kelley Maulbetsch from 2011 to 2015.
Whirled Chamber Music arrived in 2007, folding blues, funk, jazz, and tango into interpretations of works by Duke Ellington, Chick Corea, and Alan Menken together with seven compositions by Raymond Scott, and again received a Best Classical Crossover Album nomination. Two years afterward the musicians issued QSF Plays Brubeck, an immersion in the catalog of innovative jazz pianist Dave Brubeck that was captured at Skywalker Sound by engineer Judy Kirschner and earned a Grammy nod for Best Engineered Album, Classical. The 2011 disc Five by Four followed, spotlighting three songs by the Beatles.
Pacific Premieres in 2013 presented new works by modern California composers Gordon Goodwin, Vince Mendoza, Patrick Williams, and Cohen himself, with both Goodwin and Mendoza later nominated for Grammys in the Best New Instrumental Composition category. A QSF Journey surfaced in 2018, comprising Cohen-penned pieces that traversed classical, swing, and bluegrass idioms.
Albums
