Mihai Marica, cello

Hailed for their "precision, assertiveness and vigor" (New York Times) and "gripping intensity...suspenseful and virtuoso playing" (San Francisco Chronicle), the Amphion String Quartet is a winner of the 2011 Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competiton. The ASQ has been selected to join the roster of the prestigious Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Two program, beginning the 2013 season. Most recently the Quartet has been named the 2012-2013 Ernst Stiefel Quartet-in-Residence at the Caramoor Center for the Music and the Arts. The ASQ has also been awarded the First Prize at both the Plowman Chamber Music and Hugo Kauder String Quartet competitions.

Highlights of the 2011-2012 season included performances at the Alexander Schneider Concert Series at the New School, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, St. Bonaventure University (NY), Elon University (NC), Bargemusic's Masterworks series and a World Premiere of John Sichel's String Quartet No. 4 in New Jersey. They recently made a return visit to the OK Mozart Festival where they performed Barber's Dover Beach with baritone Kelly Markgraf. In the summer of 2011 the ASQ performed at the OK Mozart Festival and were the Protégé Quartet-in-Residence at Chamber Music Northwest where they had the opportunity to collaborate with Artistic Director/Clarinetist David Shifrin. In the summer of 2010 the foursome performed at Music@Menlo as part of the International Program as well as at the Beethoven Institute at Mannes (NYC), working closely with members of the Brentano Quartet. This past January they participated in the first annual Robert Mann Quartet Institute at the Manhattan School of Music.

Highlights of the upcoming 2011-2012 season include their Carnegie Hall debut (Weill Hall) as well as performances at the Phillips Collection in Washington DC, the TCAN Center for the Arts (MA), The Caramoor Center and a tour of Northern California, among many others. This summer the ASQ is thrilled to return to Chamber Music Northwest where they will have the opportunity to perform alongside the Tokyo String Quartet. In August they will be performing at La Jolla's SummerFest where they will be collaborating with such musicians as Harpist Deborah Hoffmann and Violist James Dunham.