Chamber Music Concerts to open 2025-26 season with prestigious Dover Quartet

Chamber Music Concerts to open 2025-26 season with prestigious Dover Quartet

Published 5:45 am Tuesday, September 30, 2025

The two-time Grammy-nominated Dover Quartet will be heading to town in October to kick off the performing season for Chamber Music Concerts, bringing world class talent to the Rogue Valley. 

“The Dover Quartet is quite interesting; we’ve had them several times over the years and had them when they were still young … since then, over the years, they’ve skyrocketed with performances,” said Jody Schmidt, executive director of Chamber Music Concerts. “They were named one of greatest string quartets of the last 100 years (by BBC Music Magazine).”

The quartet will perform pieces including “Strum” by Jessie Montgomery, String Quartet No. 1 in C major by Karol Szymanowski, String Quartet in D major by Joseph Hadyn and Quartet No. 6 in F minor by Felix Mendelssohn. 

The group’s awards include grand and first-place prizes at the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition at the University of Notre Dame, awards at the Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition in London and a sweep of all prizes at the 2013 Banff International String Quartet Competition in Canada.

“Obviously, they’re more than qualified to play in our series, and it’s been neat watching (the Dover Quartet) progress over the years,” Schmidt said. 

The concert series kick-off with the is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 12, in the Music Recital Hall, 450 S. Mountain Ave., at Southern Oregon University. 

Tickets for the concert range from $53 to $63 and discounted tickets are available for full-time students and Oregon Trail Card holders.

Tickets and information for the Dover Quartet and upcoming concerts can be purchased at chambermusicconcerts.org.

Chamber Music Concerts offers a free, pre-concert lecture for each concert one hour before each performance led by musicologist Ed Wight, giving insight on the compositions being performed. Pre-concert lectures are held in Room 132 in SOU’s music building. 

A particularly exciting aspect of the Dover Quartet’s return to the Rogue Valley is the homecoming of one of the group’s members. 

“The cellist, Camden Shaw, is originally from Ashland and the son of Arthur Shaw of the Rogue Valley Symphony,” Schmidt said. “A contingent of Ashland knew Camden as a kid and love seeing how he’s doing now.” 

The other members of the Dover Quartet include violinists Joel Link and Bryan Lee as well as viola player Julianne Lee. 

Outside of the distinguished Dover Quartet, Chamber Music Concerts will have 11 highly talented groups performing in Ashland during the 2025-26 season. 

“It’s a wonderful season coming up and we have a great mix of audience favorites that we’ve had before, of which the Dover Quartet is one,” Schmidt said. 

Those performers include: Reverón Piano Trio (Oct. 18); Galvin Cello Quartet (Nov. 2); Stile Antico (Nov. 14); Dudok Quartet Amsterdam (Jan. 16); Baltimore Consort (Jan. 30); Esmé Quartet (Feb. 21); Mandelring Quartet (March 14); Trio Bohémo (March 28); Borromeo Quartet and Verona String Quartet (April 18); Amit Peled and Daniel del Pino (May 2); and Canadian Brass (May 17). 

“The Stile Antico vocal group in November is going to be wonderful; they’re the best group of that kind in the world,” Schmidt said of the upcoming performers. “The last concert is Canadian Brass, and that group is one of the most famous brass quintets in the world.”

After performing in Ashland, Canadian Brass will work with brass students in local high schools, hearing the teens play and providing valuable feedback. 

“It really is a life-changing experience for those brass players to work with someone on that level with their instrument,” Schmidt said, adding, “It’s a special experience for everyone.” 

Chamber Music Concerts was founded in 1984 as a nonprofit concert presenter dedicated to bringing world-class chamber music to the Rogue Valley and is a self-supporting affiliate of the Oregon Center for the Arts at SOU. 

In addition to its concerts, the organization offers an educational outreach program for music communities across Southern Oregon. 

To learn more about Chamber Music Concerts, visit chambermusicconcerts.org. 

Reach reporter James Sloan at [email protected].