What is a string quartet?

A String Quartet consists of two violins, a viola, and a violoncello, also called a cello.

Many composers from Haydn and Mozart to Schostakovitch and Bartok have enjoyed the challenge of writing music for these four stringed instruments. And many people enjoy listening to the elegant sounds of these four interweaving string voices, both rich and clear in texture, trading melody, harmony and rhythmic pulse back and forth among themselves.

Who is the Stratton Quartet?

The Stratton Quartet's founding members are Elizabeth Bell, Lorie Hippen, Laurel Browne and Kristen Anderson.

Elizabeth Bell, violin, has performed extensively over the past two decades, in a career spanning two continents. A former member of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra and the American Chamber Symphony, she was concertmaster and soloist with the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra for ten years. Her experience includes opera, ballet musical theater, chamber music and studio recording. She played nearly 200 performances of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat with Donny Osmond and appeared with Rod Stewart on a recent tour. She is a current member of Arius Chamber Music Society.

Lorie Hippen, violin, holds a BS degree in Music Education from the University of Minnesota and has two additional years of post graduate work in violin performance there. She is the orchestra teacher at South High School in Minneapolis. She has conducted for several Twin Cities area civic orchestras and has performed with the Minneapolis Opera, the North Star Opera, Vocalessence and the Minneapolis Pops Orchestra. She is a member of Arius Chamber Music Society.

Laurel Browne, viola, studied with Clyn Barrus at the University of Minnesota (BA in Music Performance) and Siegfried Fuhrlinger in Vienna, Austria. She has attended two Karen Tuttle workshops and has also taken some lessons with Mary West. Previously with the San Jose Symphony Ms. Browne is a current member of the Minnesota Opera Orchestra, Minnesota Sinfonia and Arius Chamber Music Society.

Kristen Anderson, violoncello has studied cello in San Francisco and in England. She is a dedicated player and teacher, a former member of the Minneapolis Chamber Symphony, and a much sought-after freelancer in the Twin Cities metropolitan area.

**Qualified substitute players may be used if members have unavoidable conflicts arise.