The Dante Quartet is a major presence in British musical life, concertizing widely, appearing on radio, teaching, and shaping the musical scene through the foundation and maintenance of its own summer festival. Beginning early in its career, the quartet has also consistently issued acclaimed recordings. The Dante Quartet was founded in 1995. Its four members -- violinists Krysia Osostowicz and Oscar Perks, violist Yuko Inoue, and cellist Richard Jenkinson -- named the quartet to connote "an epic and adventurous journey." The group was soon playing top British venues and has made multiple appearances at London's Wigmore Hall and Kings Place as well as at various festivals around the U.K., and have added venues in the Netherlands, Germany, France, Spain, Finland, Switzerland, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Japan to their touring résumé. A specialty of the Dante Quartet in performance has been intensive explorations of the music of a single composer: the quartet played all of Beethoven's quartets in a single weekend under the auspices of the Bromsgrove Music Society and has developed a mixed-media program with dramatic readings aimed at presenting Beethoven's music to new audiences. They have collaborated several times with the King's Singers. The quartet has also championed contemporary music, giving premieres of quartets by Michael Finnissy, Roxanna Panufnik, and other top British composers. A major thrust of the Dante Quartet's activities involve teaching. The members have created and taught at an annual string quartet course in France and at another in Cornwall, pitched to young musicians. The quartet's recording catalog began with an album of Russian string quartets on the ASV label in 1999 and has been unusually deep, encompassing albums on the Dutton Laboratories, Meridian, Hyperion, Signum Classics, Epoch, Toccata Classics, and Somm labels; for Somm they released albums devoted to string quartets of Charles Villiers Stanford in 2016 and 2018. The Dante Quartet has received the Philharmonic Society Award for Chamber Music as well as a variety of recording industry prizes. ~ James Manheim, Rovi