THOUSAND OAKS, CA - The renowned Emerson String Quartet will present a free concert in California Lutheran University’s Samuelson Chapel at 8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 22.

With an incomparable list of achievements over three decades, the group stands alone in the history of string quartets. Of its nine Grammy Awards, two are for Best Classical Album, an unprecedented honor for a chamber music group. The quartet also has collected three Gramophone Awards and the coveted Avery Fisher Prize.

The quartet has an international reputation for groundbreaking projects, including cycles of the complete Beethoven, Bartók, Mendelssohn and Shostakovich string quartets in the world’s musical capitals, from New York to London and Vienna. Though dedicated to the performance of classical repertoire, the group has also demonstrated a commitment to the commissioning and performance of 20th- and 21st-century music, including more than 20 important commissions and world premieres.

The quartet’s debut album for Sony Classical, “Mozart's Prussian Quartets K. 575, K. 589 and K. 590,” will be released in October to coincide with a series of concerts at Wigmore Hall in London and Alice Tully Hall in New York City. In 2011-2012, its 35th season as an ensemble, the Emerson is performing extensively throughout North America and Europe. The Emerson also continues its residency at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, now in its 32nd season.

Formed in 1976, the New York City-based quartet took its name from the American poet and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson. Violinists Eugene Drucker and Philip Setzer alternate in the first chair position and are joined by violist Lawrence Dutton and cellist David Finckel.

At CLU, the quartet will perform Ludwig Van Beethoven‘s String Quartet in F Major, Op. 135, Thomas Ades’ 2010 piece “The Four Quarters” and Bela Bartok’s String Quartet No. 5.

The chapel is located south of Olsen Road near Campus Drive on the Thousand Oaks campus. Additional parking is available in lots at the corner of Olsen and Mountclef Boulevard.

CLU’s Artists and Speakers Committee is sponsoring the free concert. Donations will be accepted. For more information, call the Music Department at 805-493-3306 or visit http://www.callutheran.edu.