A
Boston-based ensemble, the Hawthorne String Quartet takes its name from the
New England novelist
Nathaniel Hawthorne and was founded in 1986.[3] Its
violist, Mark Ludwig, is also the Founder and Director of the Terezin Music Foundation.[4] Since its founding, the Quartet have toured both in the United States and internationally, and performed in
Prague in 1991 at the commemorations marking the 50th anniversary of the first transportations of Jews from that city to the Terezin concentration camp.[5] They have since returned several times to Prague, most notably for the 2009 and 2010 editions of the
Prague Spring International Music Festival. At the 2009 Festival, they gave a concert to mark the inauguration of the Terezín Living Legacy Commission, playing works by
Josef Suk,
Gideon Klein,
Charles Ives,
Elliott Carter and the world premiere of
Pavel Zemek's Zvony světla (Bells of Light).[6] At the 2010 Festival, they played in the world premiere of
André Previn's Clarinet Sonata with Thomas Martin on clarinet and the composer on piano.[7]
One of the ensemble's more unusual collaborations, was their 2009 performance at the
Tanglewood Music Festival where they played
Hans Krása's String Quartet while artist Jim Schantz simultaneously created a landscape painting in response to the music.[8] The Quartet also perform for the community outreach programs of both the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Terezín Chamber Music Foundation,[9][10] and since 1998 have been artists-in-residence at
Boston College, where Mark Ludwig also teaches music in the Faculty of Jewish Studies.[11]