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Founded in 1988, the Leipzig String Quartet is now widely acclaimed as one of the most exciting string quartets on the international chamber music scene: The "Neue Züricher Zeitung" has described the ensemble as "one of the towering and most versatile quartets of our time" and in 2002 "The New York Times" wrote "if there is a Leipzig sound, this is it!" Three of its members were first chairs in the famous Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig. After studies with Gerhard Bosse, the Amadeus quartet, Hatto Beyerle and Walter Levin, the quartet went on to win numerous prizes and awards, such as the 1991 International ARD Munich competition, and the Busch and Siemens prizes.

Today, the Leipzig String Quartet concertizes extensively throughout Europe, in Israel, Africa, Central and South America, Australia, Japan and Asia, including appearances at many of the major festivals. In North America, engagements include appearances at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, at Carnegie Hall's quartet series in Weill Recital Hall, the 92nd St. Y, The Frick Collection, Wolf Trap, the Library of Congress, and chamber music series in Baltimore, Boston, Cleveland, Chicago, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, Vancouver, Ottawa, Montréal and Quebec, earning them praise for their concerts: "superbly integrated" (Washington Post); "everything, but everything, was perfect" (Le Devoir, Montréal). Often offering its own thematic cycles (Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, the contemporaries), the quartet was also one of the initiators of the 1996 and 1997 Beethoven Quartet Cycle offered jointly with five other quartets as a sign of European friendship in more than 15 European cities.

Since 1991, the ensemble has has its own concert series "Pro Quatuor" at the Gewandhaus where it offered, among others, a multi-year cycle of the major quartets of the First and Second Viennese School. Within that series the quartet played the world-premieres of Schnittke's "With Three" for string trio and orchestra and works by Beat Furrer, Christian Ofenbauer, Wolfgang Rihm, Steffen Schleiermacher, Jörg Widmann, Cristóbal Halffter and others. As a member of the Leipzig-based "Ensemble Avantgarde", the quartet is dedicated to contemporary music and works by the classical moderns. With this ensemble, the quartet formed in 1990 the "musica nova" series at the Gewandhaus, and was awarded the 1993 Schneider-Schott prize of the City of Mainz.

Chamber music partners Juliane Banse, Christiane Oelze, Alfred Brendel, Hartmut Rohde, Michael Sanderling, Andreas Staier, Christian Zacharias and others enrich and expand the quartet's already large repertoire consisting of almost 300 works by approximately 100 composers.

The quartet's almost 70 recordings, spanning from Mozart to Cage and including the complete works of Brahms, Mozart, Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Schubert and the complete Second Viennese School have been met with international critical acclaim. They have brought the group such recognition as the "Diapason d'Or" and "Premios-CD-Compact" awards, two nominations for the "Cannes Classical Award" and the 1999, 2000, 2003 and 2008 "ECHO-Klassik" awards. Their recording of the complete Schubert quartet literature, a first, are considered by many the most important release for the Schubert year 1997. Of 18 recordings of the "Trout quintet", the French magazine "Répertoire" voted their recording with Christian Zacharias, piano, as the best recording of this work. Repeatedly, the quartet won the Quarterly Prize of the German Record Reviewers, the last for their recording of Hindemith's "Minimax" and the Quartets of Kurt Weill. Since 1992, the Quartet records exclusively for Dabringhaus&Grimm Music Productions (MDG).

“Adept in almost any setting, Wilson has the rare ability to say more with less and to let the space between each note breathe and resonate.” - The San Diego Tribune

These are some of the qualities that have earned STEVE WILSON a prominent position on the bandstand and in the studio with the greatest names in jazz, as well as critical acclaim as a bandleader in his own right. A musician's musician, Wilson has brought his distinctive sound to more than 100 recordings led by such celebrated and wide-ranging artists as Chick Corea, George Duke, Michael Brecker, Dave Holland, Dianne Reeves, Bill Bruford, Gerald Wilson, Maria Schneider, Joe Henderson, Charlie Byrd, Billy Childs, Karrin Allyson, Don Byron, Bill Stewart, James Williams, and Mulgrew Miller among many others. Wilson has seven recordings under his own name, leading and collaborating with such stellar musicians as Lewis Nash, Carl Allen, Steve Nelson, Cyrus Chestnut, Greg Hutchinson, Dennis Irwin, James Genus, Larry Grenadier, Ray Drummond, Ben Riley, and Nicholas Payton.

A native of Hampton, Virginia, Wilson began his formal training at age 12. Playing saxophone, oboe, and drums in school bands, he also played in various R&B and funk bands throughout his teens, and went on to a year-long stint with singer Stephanie Mills. He then decided to major in music at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, affording him opportunities to perform and/or study with Jimmy and Percy Heath, Jon Hendricks, Jaki Byard, John Hicks, Frank Foster and Ellis Marsalis. In 1986, he landed a chair with O.T.B (Out of the Blue), a sextet of promising young players recording on Blue Note Records. In 1987 he moved to New York and the following year toured the US and Europe with Lionel Hampton. Becoming a first-call choice for veteran and emerging artists alike, Wilson was the subject of a New York Times profile "A Sideman's Life", highlighting his work with Ralph Peterson, Jr., Michele Rosewoman, Renee Rosnes, Marvin "Smitty" Smith, Joanne Brackeen, The American Jazz Orchestra, The Mingus Big Band, The Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra, Leon Parker, and Buster Williams' Quintet "Something More". In 1996 he joined the acclaimed Dave Holland Quintet, and from 1998-2001 he was a member of Chick Corea's Grammy winning sextet "Origin".

Having been cited by his peers in a New York Times poll as one of the artists most likely to break out [on his own] as an established leader, Wilson recorded four CDs (New York Summit, Step Lively, Blues for Marcus and Four For Time) on the Criss Cross label. He then debuted on Stretch Records with Generations, his multi-generational quartet with Mulgrew Miller, Ray Drummond and Ben Riley. His second Stretch release Passages features his working quartet-Bruce Barth, Ed Howard and Adam Cruz, and special guest Nicholas Payton. Containing nine original compositions Passages established Wilson as a leader whose vision reveres the past, creates a soundscape of the present, and reaches toward the future.

Wilson's most recent recording Soulful Song, was released by MAXJAZZ in June 2003. It features his quartet and special guests Rene Marie, Carla Cook, Phillip Manuel, James Genus, Billy Kilson, Paul Bollenback and Wilson "Chembo" Corniel. The recording, which is the debut of the MAXJAZZ horn series, issues forth a powerful and provocative performance from these dynamic and versatile artists. As Wilson explains, "It's a tribute Black radio, as it was called then, that was particularly inclusive in its programming and a galvanizing force in the community. On the same station one could hear R&B, jazz, blues, gospel, comedy, local news and affairs, and social commentary". In addition to new original material the program includes songs by Stevie Wonder, Chick Corea, Abbey Lincoln, Gil Scott Heron, Earth, Wind & Fire, Patrice Rushen, and The Staple Singers.

Wilson was a featured guest with Dr. Billy Taylor in his series "Jazz at the Kennedy Center" which is broadcast on NPR. He was artistic consultant to Harvey Keitel for the film "Lulu On The Bridge" as well as being featured on the soundtrack. He has been Artist-In-Residence at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Hamilton College, Old Dominion University, and for the 2002/2003 season with the award winning arts organization CITYFOLK in Dayton, Ohio which included the performance of a commissioned work. He has been a featured performer, panelist, and clinician at conferences of the International Association of Jazz Educators, Association of Performing Arts Presenters, and Chamber Music of America. Wilson was honored with the Marc Crawford Jazz Educator Award from New York University in 2001, and the Virginia Jazz Award 2003 Musician of the Year presented by the Richmond Jazz Society, recognizing his outstanding service in the advancement of jazz and education in their respective communities. Since 1997 he has been regularly cited in the Downbeat Magazine Critics and Readers Polls in the soprano and alto saxophone categories.

Wilson continues to tour with the Steve Wilson Quartet and Generations. He performs in duo with his long-time friend and colleague Lewis Nash, in the Lewis Nash/Steve Wilson Duo. He is also a touring member of the Grammy winning Maria Schneider Jazz Orchestra, T he Buster Williams Quartet, and Mulgrew Miller's Wingspan. In July 2009, Wilson will make his orchestral debut performing the Villa Lobos Fantasia for Soprano Saxophone and Chamber Orchestra with the Vermont Mozart Festival Orchestra, conducted by Gil Shohat, at the Vermont Mozart Festival in Burlington, VT.

Wilson is on the faculty at The Manhattan School of Music, SUNY Purchase, and Columbia University, and is the Artist-in-Residence at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg (Canada) for the 2008/2009 school year.

“Pete Malinverni is one wild cat…his playing can be dark, gritty and oddly rapturous…he digs into the piano and emerges with exotic treasure…” -Philadelphia Inquirer

“Pete Malinverni doesn't seem capable of playing a dishonest line”, observed Down Beat Magazine in a recent four-star review of one of his many recordings. Never content with some current level of mastery, Pete Malinverni continues to seek new language and a widening and deepening of the jazz idiom. To those ends, he has written for and recorded in the solo piano, piano trio, quartet, quintet, gospel choir and big band formats in addition to arranging and producing recordings for several singers. Each of his ten recordings as leader has been released to excellent notices in Jazz and general publications and he continues to receive heavy radio airplay, several of his recordings having resided in the Top Ten nationally. Getting to the core of this multi-talented artist, Pietro d’Ottavia, writing in Italy’s La Repubblica, said, “In this artist one must recognize a brilliant vein of composition along with an original, pianistic voice.”

Since coming to New York in 1981, Pete Malinverni has made a mark for himself in live and recorded performances here and worldwide, his work earning him an entry in the "Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz" as compiled by Leonard Feather and Ira Gitler. His appearances on NPR's "Piano Jazz" with Marian McPartland have been hailed as informative and engaging presentations. He is likewise known as a writer on music, publishing articles and letters in publications worldwide as well as contributing liner notes for his and many other recordings.

Since 1992 Pete has been Minister of Music at the Devoe Street Baptist Church in Brooklyn, NY and he is pianist/conductor of the Westchester Reform Temple in Scarsdale, NY. In those capacities he enjoys exploring the critical intersection between art and spirituality. He serves on the Jazz Studies Faculty at the Conservatory of Music at Purchase College, SUNY. There, he founded the Soul Voices, a student choir whose mission is to explore the music of the African-American tradition. He has twice given solo piano recitals at Carnegie Recital Hall on which he featured his compositions for piano as well as those for Gospel Choir.