The Artisan Quartet played its first concert in the late 1980's. Originally known as the Austin String Quartet, members Richard Kilmer and Bruce Williams ultimately named the group the Camilli Quartet after the maker of Richard's boyhood violin. The fledgling ensemble began a four-year intensive tour through the string quartet repertoire, performing everything from Haydn and Beethoven to Bartok and Lutoslawski. The Quartet rehearsed three to five times a week during those years, and along with flutist Megan Meisenbach the quartet presented its own summer concert series through the early and mid-nineties called "Classical Splash" held in the Chapel at St. Martin's Lutheran Church. Those concerts presented Austin audiences with high calibre chamber music performances and especially the great string quartet repertoire. By the end of that Camilli Quartet era, which ended when two of the quartet members accepted professional positions overseas, the group had gained the recognition of The Texas Commission for the Arts with an appointment to its Touring Roster, had been in residency several seasons with the San Antonio Youth Orchestra's Summer Camp at the University of Texas San Antonio, and had started negotiations about at Southwest Texas State University (now Texas State) about a quartet residency, had retained professional management, and had carefully prepared and performed around forty of the greatest string quartets in existent repertoire.

After half the Camilli Quartet resigned, Richard and Bruce continued to perform quartets together much less formally for several years. They changed the name of the freelance quartet back to the Austin String Quartet and were content to appear on local chamber music series as guest artists using a variety of local musicians over those years to fill out the group. They both kept the dream alive of playing high quality quartets together that whole time, and with the arrival on the scene of cellist Douglas Harvey and his world class ability, the third piece of the puzzle was in place. The Quartet continued to perform with violinist Elise Winters during the last ten years but on a somewhat sporadic basis due to each member's very busy schedule. During this time, the Quartet had mini-seasons once or twice a year, clumping their performances around dates in Austin, out of town and out of state. In preparation for these concerts the Quartet rehearsed with the intensity of a touring string quartet.

The Artisan Quartet in its present configuration was born in 2009 with the addition of violinist Paula E. Bird. Her impressive violin playing and long list of accomplishments and abilities brings a vigor and direction to the group that has many thinking the sky's the limit.

The Artisan Quartet is poised to make history because it is dedicated to presenting only the greatest works of the string quartet literature and preparing performances with the unhurried attention to detail that truly defines string quartet playing. Audiences will know that to attend an Artisan Quartet concert will be an opportunity to share in this excellence.

--- Bruce Williams, viola

© 2010

In it's brief history, The Artisan Quartet has already performed many concerts around central Texas including at the Victoria Bach Festival, the Incarnate Word University in San Antonio, the Blanco Performing Arts Association Series, the Twilight Series (Jonestown/Lago Vista), the Santa Cecilia Series (Austin), Texas State University (San Marcos), and the Salon Concert Series (San Antonio). The Artisan's also offer future performances in Austin through the Fall of 2012 with their own "Genius at Play" Series, featuring the complete string quartets of Beethoven. The Quartet is presently in talks with the Austin Symphony to host a chamber music series through the ASO starting in the 2012-2013 season.

MidAmerica Productions, Inc. has invited the Artisan Quartet to make its Carnegie Hall debut performing on the Carnegie Hall Weil Recital Hall Chamber Music Series March 22, 2012. The Artisan received a very generous gift from the Classical Artist Development Foundation, Ben Gomez, Co-Founder and Director, to help fund the trip to New York.

The group also recently recorded part of the film score soundtrack for the documentary about Barbara Conrad Smith, the legendary Metropolitan Opera singer. The film, entitled "When I Rise" premiered to a standing ovation at its premiere during the SxSW film festival in Austin in March 2010 and aired February 2011 on PBS's "Independent Lens" series. The Artisan is very proud of its participation in this event. The film was excellent, and it was a pleasure to put the film score together with the director Mat Hames and the composer David Hamburger. The film DVD is available for purchase from www.shoppbs.org.

Richard Kilmer began playing the violin at the age of four in Tulsa, Oklahoma and quickly became an accomplished young violinist under the early tutelage of Mazie Kilmer, Richard's mother and first violin teacher. Richard performed on many recitals as a young man in Tulsa and decided to attend the Eastman School of Music where he was Concertmaster during an historic University Orchestra tour to the USSR in 1960. After achieving the Artist Diploma from Eastman, he moved overseas to study with Authur Grumiaux at the Royal Conservatory in Brussels, and with Szymon Goldberg in Amsterdam where he performed in the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra. Richard lived in Amsterdam for fifteen years as a member of the famed Amati Quartet and the Mendelssohn Trio, performing worldwide with these ensembles. In addition, he has appeared as soloist with the Orquesta Sinfonica del Estado de Michoacan (Mexico) and with the Sinfonica Nacional de El Salvador. He is currently Principal Second Violin with the Austin Symphony and maintains a busy teaching schedule of private violin students and chamber music ensembles.

Paula E. Bird, an accomplished violinist and pianist, received her J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law, her M.M. from Texas State University, and is a summa cum laude graduate of the University of Texas at San Antonio. She also studied music performance (violin and piano) at Temple University in Philadelphia with Helen Kwalwasser and Marian Filar, where Bird received the Dean's Outstanding Achievement Award. A former member of the San Antonio Symphony and the Austin Lyric Opera, Bird has been a member of numerous professional symphony orchestras in Pennsylvania and Texas, including the Harrisburg, Waco, Victoria, and Corpus Christi Symphonies. Bird has also played with the Winters Chamber Orchestra (Soloist and Assistant Concertmaster) and the Laredo Philharmonic. Bird has performed in numerous master classes as a violinist and pianist with Jaime Laredo, Elmar Oliveira, Leonard Rosen, Franco Gulli, and Eugene Fodor. Bird currently plays first violin with the Austin Symphony Orchestra and serves as Associate Concertmaster and Master Class Clinician with the Sunriver Music Festival in Oregon. She is also a principal player, soloist, and chamber player with the Conspirare Choir and the Victoria Bach Festival under the direction of Craig Hella Johnson. Paula currently teaches theory, chamber music, private violin lessons, Mariachi violin sectionals, and String Techniques classes at Texas State University. She is also a certified teacher of Dr. Suzuki’s Talent Education Method and maintains an extensive private studio in Wimberley, TX. In addition to her responsibilities with Texas State University, including the University Summer Strings Camp, Bird is a faculty member of the Youth Orchestras of San Antonio summer camp and was the Director of the former Texas State University Suzuki String Institute. As a pianist, Bird has accompanied recitalists at UTSA and SAC in San Antonio, Indiana University, Des Moines Metro Opera, and Texas Lutheran College. Bird was also the accompanist for the San Antonio Symphony's Operation Opera and for Richard Stoltzman (clarinet) in school concerts for the Austin Symphony.

Bruce Williams began his professional career at age sixteen and three years later won a position with the Fort Worth Symphony. Four years later, he traveled to Israel to become principal violist in the Haifa Symphony and a member of the Haifa Clarinet Trio, performing all over Israel and Europe. Upon returning to the United States, he became a member of The Orchestra of Santa Fe as assistant principal. During that time, he was in great demand as a free-lance player as well, traveling all over Texas performing with various musical organizations. Currently Bruce is the principal violist in The Victoria Bach Festival and The Austin Symphony and in 2003, won The Austin Critics' Table award for Outstanding Instrumentalist for his performance with the ASO of "Harold in Italy" by Hector Berlioz. He is also a member of the Allegro Chamber Trio with Flutist Megan Meisenbach and harpist Mary Golden. This group has been touring the United States for years and has been featured on National Public Radio's "Performance Today" and recorded on Centaur records as The Meisenbach / Golden Duo. Bruce also recently finished a recording project on the Harmonia Mundi label with the twice Grammy Award nominated Choral group Conspirare conducted by Craig Hella Johnson and featuring the music of the popular young British composer Tarik O'Regan.

In 2002, Douglas Harvey became the youngest principal cellist in the almost 100 year history of the Austin Symphony Orchestra. In 2005 he became the principal cellist of the Austin Lyric Opera Orchestra, which received recent reviews from the NY and LA Times for the US Premiere of Phillip Glass's 21st opera, "Waiting for the Barbarians." He has performed as soloist with orchestras such as the San Antonio, Flint, Austin, and San Angelo Symphony Orchestras, the Bear Valley Festival Orchestra, and the Austin Chamber Music Center Festival Orchestra, as well as many other chamber and university orchestras. Live solo broadcasts and recorded live performances have been heard on KMFA, KUT and other radio stations. Douglas has performed chamber music with the Salon Concert Series, Austin Chamber Music Center and the Chamber Soloists of Austin, the Austin Quartet, and guest appearances with other chamber music series. He has also performed in concert alongside legendary virtuosos Aaron Rosand and Douglas's teacher, Paul Olefsky, at Steinway Hall in New York City 2006, and The Miro String Quartet and Friends Concert at the 2006 International Debussy Congress *Live webcast. He has premiered solo and chamber works by first class composers Lowell Liebermann, Kathryn Mishell, Kevin Puts, Dan Welcher, and others.

Artisan Quartet Repertoire List

*In Preparation
**On the Horizon






String Quartets:
Haydn:
**Op. 76 no. 2 "Die Quinten"
*Op. 76, no. 3 "Kaiser"
Op. 77, no. 1

Mozart:
K. 465 "Dissonance"

Beethoven:
Op. 14 - Piano sonata transcription by Beethoven.
Op. 18, no. 1
*Op. 18 no. 2
Op. 18 no. 3
Op. 18, no. 4
Op. 18, no. 5
Op. 18, no. 6 "La Malinconia"
Op. 59 no. 1
*Op. 59 no. 2
Op. 59 no. 3 "Eroica"
Op. 74 "Harp"
Op. 95 "Serioso"
Op. 127
Op. 130 "Liebquartett"
*Op. 131
Op. 132
Op. 133 "Grosse Fuge"
Op. 135

Mendelssohn
**String Quartet # 2 "Ist Es Wahr?" ("Is It True?")

Tchaikovsky Op. 11 "Accordion"

Borodin String Quartet #2

Debussy String Quartet

Grieg String Quartet Op. 27

Philip Glass Quartet #5

Robert Sierra "Mambo 7/16"

Piano Quartets:
Mozart:
K.478
*K.493
Faure:
Op.15

Quintets:
Mozart:
Viola Quintet K. 515

Arthur Foote Nocturn and Scherzo for flute quintet


String Sextets:
Tchaikovsky Souvenere de Florence

Brahms Op. 18


Party Music:
Haydn String Quartets:
Op. 33, no 3 "Bird"
Op. 33, no. 6
Op. 50, no 6 "Frog"
Op. 64, no. 6

Various Classical and Light Classical arrangements.