by Jarrett Hoffman
It bears explaining when headlines have announced the disbanding of a storied ensemble, their Wikipedia entry reads in the past tense, and yet the group appears on the calendar for an important upcoming occasion.
That event in this case is the opening of the Rocky River Chamber Music Society’s 63rd season on Monday, October 4 at 7:30 pm at Lakewood Congregational Church, with an audience both in-person (masks required) and remote, in both cases with free admission.
And that ensemble, performing in Cleveland for the first time, is the German-based Auryn Quartet — founded in 1981, winners of both the London International Competition and ARD Munich Competition a year later — who after four decades have not undergone a single change of personnel.
So, are the Auryn back from the dead? Not exactly. “Corona changed everything,” violist Stewart Eaton explained in a telephone conversation. “We had to delay the final implementation of the ending of the quartet.”