Violist Hezekiah Leung Joins VC Artist Dover Quartet for One Season

Leung will join Dover for a season-long appointment starting in September

In August 2022, violist Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt will depart from VC Artist Dover Quartet, after deciding to pursue other musical interests. She has played with the Dover Quartet since its inception in 2008 at the Curtis Institute of Music (CIM), where the quartet was named its Penelope P. Watkins Ensemble in Residence.

In Milena's place, violist Hezekiah Leung will join the Dover Quartet starting this September.

As a founding member of the Rolston Quartet, Leung was a 2018 recipient and the first international ensemble chosen for the prestigious Cleveland Quartet Award from Chamber Music America. In 2016, the group won First Prize at the 12th Banff International String Quartet Competition, Grand Prize at the 31st Chamber Music Yellow Springs Competition, and Astral’s National Auditions.

"He is a fantastic musician and a wonderful person and we can’t wait to begin performing together!" the quartet wrote on social media.

The Dover Quartet is a former top prize winner at the Fischoff, Wigmore Hall and Banff International String Quartet Competitions — and a recent recipient of the prestigious Cleveland Quartet Award, the Lincoln Center Hunt Family Prize and an Avery Fisher Career Grant. Comprising violinists Joel Link and Bryan Lee, and cellist Camden Shaw, the quartet was dubbed by the New Yorker as “the young American string quartet of the moment.”

The ensemble performs more than 100 concerts internationally each year, and the Quartet was nominated for a 2021 Grammy Award for recording The Schumann Quartets on the Azica label.

“It is bittersweet that our time making music with our dear friend and colleague is coming to an end, but we are excited for the new ventures ahead of her,” the quartet posted on Facebook. “Please join us in wishing Milena all the best!”