Biography

The award-winning h2 quartet has enjoyed a partnership of performance and teaching for twenty years. From their inaugural performance at Los Angeles’ Walt Disney Concert Hall in 2006, their concertizing has taken them around the globe where they have appeared at venues such Merkin Concert Hall, the Andy Warhol Museum, the Times Center, and the National Concert Hall in Dublin. h2 takes advantage of the great expressive capacity of their instrument by programming traditional, avant-garde, minimalist, and jazz-influenced works in surprising and compelling ways. h2 has performed throughout the United States, in Europe, the UK and in Asia.

For their 20th anniversary year, h2 is working on a release of music by Arvo Pärt and John Tavener, and awaits a newly commissioned work celebrating this milestone by Grammy-Award Winning composer Christopher Cerrone. They will appear with the Midland Symphony in Michigan alongside a residency at their shared alma mater of Michigan State University. A recording of Viet Cuong’s Second Nature will also be released in the coming year.

The ensemble has another seven critically acclaimed recordings: Generations, Times & Spaces, Groove Machine, Hard Line, Enrapture, Soul Searching, and Infinity Mirror. These recordings feature some of the most cutting-edge composers of today, and often showcase unexpected and intriguing relationships between different kinds of popular and avant-garde music. The quartet has commissioned works by Drew Baker, Claudio Gabriele, Takuma Itoh, David MacDonald, Victor Marquez-Barrios, Roger Petersen, Forrest Pierce, David Rakowski, Jesse Ronneau, Bill Ryan, Matthew Schoendorff, Daniel Wohl, and has premiered works by John Mackey, Marc Mellits, Mari Takano, Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate, and Amy Williams. 

The h2 quartet has been featured on NPR and PBS programs, including the nationally syndicated Backstage Pass. The ensemble’s recording of Marc Mellits’ “Groove Canon” was featured as the monologue theme music for the Broadway show The Heidi Chronicles, starring Elisabeth Moss and Jason Biggs.

The h2 quartet has won prizes at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition (First Prize, Gold Medals) and the North American Saxophone Alliance Saxophone Quartet Competition (first prize), among others. The group was also finalists in the Concert Artists Guild Competition, and earned Honorable Mentions at the Plowman Chamber Music Competition, the Chesapeake Bay Chamber Music Competition, and the Coleman Chamber Music Competition. h2 is also the recipient of several Aaron Copland Fund Grants.

The h2 quartet is a Vandoren and Yamaha Artist Ensemble.

MEMBERS

SELECTED PERFORMANCES

• Merkin Concert Hall, New York City
• Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles
• National Concert Hall, Dublin, Ireland
• Cankar Jev Dom, Ljubljana, Slovenia
• The Times Center, New York City
• Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand
• Michigan State University, East Lansing
• Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti
• Grand Rapids Art Museum, Grand Rapids
• Blue Lake Festival, White Lake
• University of Georgia, Athens