They received their eighth Grammy Award in the category of Best Chamber Music Performance for their current release, Intimate Voices, at this year's 49th annual awards ceremony in February.

      The album features works such as Sibelius' String Quartet in D Minor, Op. 56 Intimate Voices, Nielsen's At the Bier of a Young Artist, Op. 58, and Grieg's String Quartet in G Minor, Op. 27.

      Their recent recording for Disney's Little Match Girl has also been receiving critical acclaim and has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. The soundtrack is set against a silent film that stays true to Hans Christian Andersen's tale about a young girl struggling to survive as a street vendor in 18th century Europe. The music features the Emerson's rendition of Borodin's String Quartet No.2: Third Movement: Nottorno (Andante).

      The Emerson String Quartet is a well-known name within the classical community and has been for over 30 years. Formed in 1976, the bicentennial year of the United States, the Emerson String Quartet took its name from the great American poet and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson. Violinists Eugene Drucker and Philip Setzer alternate in the first chair position and are joined by violist Lawrence Dutton and cellist David Finckel.

      The members have worked very hard to establish the group's name and receive acclaim throughout the world for their interpretation of both traditional and contemporary classical works.

      This year, they celebrate their 30th Anniversary Season with a collection of eight concert Perspectives Series in Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium. The world-famous venue has commissioned composer Kaija Saariaho to write a quartet for the group in honor of the project. They are also set to record an all-Brahms disc, which comprises the three Brahms Quartets and the Piano Quintet, with Leon Fleisher.

      Over the years, the group has collaborated with such artists as Emanuel Ax, Misha Dichter, Leon Fleisher, the Guarneri String Quartet, Thomas Hampson, Lynn Harrell, Barbara Bonney, Barbara Hendricks, the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio, Paul McCartney, Menahem Pressler, Mstislav Rostropovich, David Shifrin, Richard Stoltzman and the late Isaac Stern and Oscar Shumsky.

      Throughout its history, the Emerson String Quartet has made its mark on classical history. In 1988, the quartet attracted national attention with the presentation of the six Bartók quartets in a single evening for its Carnegie Hall debut. The subsequent release of the cycle received the 1989 Grammy Awards for Best Classical Album and Best Chamber Music Performance. This success marked the first time in the history of the award that a chamber music ensemble had ever received the top prize. In March 1997, the quartet released a seven-disc set of the complete Beethoven quartets that went on to earn them a Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Album. In 2000, the Emerson performed the complete Shostakovich quartets in a critically acclaimed five-concert series presented at New York's Alice Tully Hall, as well as at Wigmore Hall and the Barbican Centre in London. The sound production and editing was formed in a way that eliminated virtually all background noise, and the album was praised. The disc won the 2000 Grammy Awards for Best Classical Album and Best Chamber Music Performance.

      They went on to involve themselves in more theatrical performances, and as a result they became intrigued with the idea of standing while performing. The quartet began to experiment with this style in chamber music appearances. The two violinists and the violist of the Emerson now stand for all performances; the cellist plays on a small podium—a look that has become a trademark for the ensemble.

      They have used their knowledge and popularity to teach music students as well as help charitable causes ranging from nuclear disarmament to the fight against AIDS, world hunger and children's diseases.

      As if the recordings, awards, performances and charitable work weren't enough, the Emerson String Quartet has also published a book entitled Converging Lines, which was written in the members' own words and contains never-before-published text, graphics and photos from the group's personal archives.

      For more information, visit www.emersonquartet.com.