Music

Perugino String Quartet

The Perugino String Quartet is the quartet-in-residence at Grand Valley State University. Named for Renaissance artist Pietro Perugino of Perugia, Italy ( a sister city of Grand Rapids), the ensemble played its inaugural concert in January of 1998 at the Grand Rapids Art Museum as part of the museum’s Perugino exhibit. Since that time, the quartet has centered its activities in Grand Rapids and Allendale, doing more than fifty performances on the two GVSU campuses. In addition, the quartet has done concerts for high schools, colleges, and a variety of chamber music series in cities around the state including Saugatuck, Holland, Grand Haven, Muskegon, Mt. Pleasant and Lansing. A highlight for the quartet was their 1999 performance in an all-Beethoven concert in New York’s Lincoln Center as part of the prestigious Juilliard String Quartet Seminar.

The Perugino String Quartet performs a wide variety of repertoire, from the classics of the string quartet literature to new works, including Will Gay Bottje’s Fifth String Quartet premiered in 2001 and Lee Copenhaver’s St. Patrick’s Lorica premiered in 2004. The quartet also joins with other members of GVSU’s music faculty each year for performances of larger chamber works. In a new type of collaboration begun in 2006, the “Perugino Dialogues” brings the quartet together with classes in the Liberal Studies Department.

The members of the Perugino String Quartet are, Eric Tanner, violin; Diane McElfish Helle, violin; Barbara Corbató, viola; and Stacey Bosman Tanner, cello