56 | SEPTEMBER 29 • 2022 

T

he 18th performance 
of the Emerson 
String Quartet for the 
University Musical Society in 
Ann Arbor will be counted 
Saturday evening, Oct.1, at 
Rackham Auditorium.
What stands out this time is 
that it will be the group’s last 
appearance together in the city 
and will be among some 100 
farewell performances around 
the world in the quartet’s final 
year of working together. 
The four musicians — Eugene 
Drucker (violin), Philip Setzer 
(violin), Lawrence Dutton 
(viola) and Paul Watkins 
(cello) — are part of a quartet 
that formed in 1976. Emerson 
has been recognized with nine 
Grammy Awards, the Avery 
Fisher Prize and Musical 
America’s Ensemble of the Year 
honor.
Quartet members do not 
consider this a retirement. 
Rather, it’s a disbanding with 
bright outlooks for different 

commitments.
“We have been together for 
quite a long time and each of us 
is looking ahead to the future 
and thinking what we might do 
afterward,
” Drucker explained 
about plans that started just 
before pandemic isolation. 
“If we delayed the disbanding 
of the quartet, the three older 
members would not feel they 
could continue to function pro-
fessionally as performers. That 
might be a little too late for any 
other challenges we wanted to 
confront, and it seemed like the 
time was coming soon when it 
made sense for us to move on to 
the next phases.
”
Those phases include solo 
performances and more oppor-
tunities to extend teaching 
experiences at the college level. 
Group members currently 
instruct in the Emerson String 
Quartet Institute at Stony Brook 
University in New York. 

A ROMANTIC PROGRAM
For the group’s Ann Arbor 
audience, members will perform 
string quartets by Mendelssohn, 
Brahms and Dvorák as well as 
“Lyric for Strings” by George 
Walker, the first African 
American to win a Pulitzer Prize 
for Music.
“This is an entirely romantic 
program,
” Drucker said. 
“It represents Walker in 
his romantic phase, and it’s 
brimming with melodies and 
sumptuous harmonies in 
different aspects of romanticism. 
Each of these composers has 
a very pronounced aesthetic 
voice. They’re all different from 
each other, and each piece 
represents a different phase in 
the composer’s output.
”
Drucker, who also does 
composing and has been with 
the Emerson quartet since it 
started, derives musical interests 
from his father, Ernest, who 
immigrated to the United States 
in 1938, playing with the Busch 

Quartet and the Metropolitan 
Opera Orchestra.
The younger Drucker studied 
music at Juilliard at the same 
time he was enrolled in an 
English program at Columbia 
University. He went on to 
publish two books, The Savior 
and Yearning, and is working on a 
third. The first two projects have 
elements referring to his Jewish 
identity.
There have been other 
members in the quartet, and the 
four now performing express 
strong ties.
“We do get along well,
” 
Drucker said. “There are 
significant differences of 
personality, but I think a sense 
of humor is very important. 
That enables each of us not to 
take himself too seriously. It 
even enables the group to laugh 
at ourselves. It’s important to 
take a step back and see things 
in perspective. 
“It’s also important to have 
respect for each other, not only 

ARTS&LIFE
MUSIC

The Emerson String Quartet includes 
Ann Arbor in its last appearances.
The Farewell Tour

SUZANNE CHESSLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

PHOTOS BY JURGEN FRANK

Paul Watkins, 
Eugene Drucker, 
Philip Setzer 
and Lawrence 
Dutton.