But wasn’t Walter Gropius an architect? You know: the 1920s founder of the Bauhaus style. Why did this string quartet take his name at their 2018 debut? These four contemporary musicians clearly identify with the revolutionary and visionary artistic spirit that drove their Berlin and Weimar countryman. Like him, they strive for clarity and boldness; they admire strict form and innovative design. Their stated goal is “to uncover the structure of a work, and make it alive through passionate interpretation.” As a result, while the ensemble handles the classical chamber music repertoire with aplomb and has recorded Mendelssohn and Dvorák, it hobnobs with contemporary composers and delights in premiering their works. Students together at the International Menuhin Music Academy in Gstaad and New York’s Juilliard School, the four are grounded in classical performance, yet describe themselves as intuitive, electric, and dynamic and their programming as exciting, unusual, and unknown. They founded their own music festival and premiered a composition that involves beatboxing. The Gropius Quartet, like its namesake, looks forward.

Haydn: Quartet in E flat major, Op 33, No. 2 (The Joke)
Mendelssohn: Quartet in F minor, Op. 80
Dvořák: Quartet in F Major, Op. 96 (American)