(GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass.) – The Dover Quartet, dubbed by the New Yorker “the young American string quartet of the moment,” will perform works by Beethoven, Dvorak and Alban Berg at the Mahaiwe on Saturday, May 14, at 6pm, as part of the Close Encounters With Music chamber series.

The program’s triad of Beethoven, Dvorak and Alban Berg offers up the “American” Quartet, a triumph of Dvorak’s astonishing melodic vision, disarming immediacy, and attempt to capture the American spirit; Beethoven’s cosmic “Razumovsky” Quartet; and Alban Berg’s Second String Quartet Op. 3 (1908), written during a turbulent courtship with his wife-to-be Helene. It is the composer at a compositional as well as personal crossroads and, in spite of its rigor, is full of Viennese flavor — somewhat like eating a Sachertorte with cream. These three core works of chamber music will be delivered by the first quartet to be honored with a residency at the venerable Curtis Institute.

The Dover Quartet catapulted to international stardom following a stunning sweep of the 2013 Banff International String Quartet Competition. The Dover has performed at Kennedy Center, Wigmore Hall in London and in festivals such as Chamber Music Northwest, the Festival Internacional de Musica de Cartagena, La Jolla SummerFest, Bravo! Vail, and the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival.  They have been the Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence at the Caramoor Festival.

Individual members of the Dover Quartet have appeared as soloists with some of the world’s finest orchestras, including the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Tokyo Philharmonic. The Dover Quartet draws from the musical lineage of the Cleveland, Vermeer, and Guarneri Quartets, having studied at the Curtis Institute and Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, where they were in residence from 2011-2013. Its members are Joel Link and Bryan Lee, violin; Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, viola; and Camden Shaw, cello.

“The Dover, among the finest of their generation, presents for us a program of landmarks,” says Close Encounters With Music artistic director Yehuda Hanani. “There is Dvorak’s tribute to America, Berg’s fascinating synthesis of his teacher Schoenberg and his idol Mahler, and Beethoven’s “Razumovsky,” which changed the course of quartet writing.”

Close Encounters With Music continues to expand its original programming of classical, contemporary and cutting-edge music. Each concert is framed by an introduction before the music, and is followed by an AFTERGLOW reception with an informal “talk-back” and an opportunity to meet the musicians.

Tickets, $45 (Orchestra and Mezzanine) and $25 (Balcony), are available at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center box office, 413.528.0100.