As a founding member of the Guarneri String Quartet, Michael Tree has concertized throughout the world and recorded more than 80 chamber music works, among them ten piano quartets and quintets with Artur Rubinstein.

Scroll down for full bio

Be sure to hear all of Michael Tree’s 2012 Festival performances listed below

Brahms / Franck
Wednesday, August 1, 2012, 7:30 PM at Simms Auditorium/Albuquerque Academy

Brahms / Franck
Thursday, August 2, 2012, 6:00 PM at St. Francis Auditorium

Mozart / Schoenberg / Mendelssohn
Sunday, August 5, 2012, 6:00 PM at St. Francis Auditorium

Mozart / Schoenberg / Mendelssohn
Monday, August 6, 2012, 6:00 PM at St. Francis Auditorium

Michael Tree was born in Newark, New Jersey.  He studied violin with his father, and his principal teacher was Efrem Zimbalist at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.  Following his Carnegie Hall recital debut, he has appeared as soloist on both the violin and viola with major orchestras, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Baltimore and New Jersey symphonies.  He has also participated in leading festivals, including Casals, Spoleto, Israel and Aspen, and he appears annually at Ottawa, Marlboro, Santa Fe and Taos.

As a founding member of the Guarneri String Quartet, Tree has concertized throughout the world and recorded more than 80 chamber music works, among them ten piano quartets and quintets with Artur Rubinstein.  In 1982, Mayor Ed Koch presented the quartet with the first New York City Seal of Recognition.  Other artists with whom he has recorded include Emanuel Ax, Richard Goode, Jaime Laredo, Yo-Yo Ma, Sharon Robinson, Rudolf Serkin, Isaac Stern and Pinchas Zukerman.

Michael Tree has recently founded the Schumann Trio for clarinet, piano and viola with clarinetist Anthony McGill and pianist Anna Polonsky.  Mr. Tree serves on the faculties of Bard College, the Curtis Institute of Music, the Juilliard School and the University of Maryland at College Park.  In 2010, he received the American Viola Society’s Career Achievement Award.  Mr. Tree’s violas are a Domenicus Busan, dated Venice 1750, and a Hiroshi Iizuka, dated Philadelphia 1996.