The Composers String Quartet was a string quartet best known for performances of new works by contemporary composers,[1] including quartets by Elliott Carter[2] and Ruth Crawford Seeger.[3] Carter's Fourth Quartet was dedicated to the Composers Quartet, who premiered the work in 1986.[4] The group has performed quartets by more than 60 American composers, and has toured abroad extensively.[5]
The quartet was founded in 1965,[6] and remained active until the late 1990s. During the early 1970s it was the quartet-in-residence at New England Conservatory, where it sponsored a biennial composition prize.[7] In 1975, the group became the quartet-in-residence at Columbia University, remaining at Columbia for at least two decades.[8]
