The Vermeer Quartet was a string quartet founded in 1969 at the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont and active until 2007. With performances in practically every major city in North and South America, Europe, the Far East, and Australia, the Vermeer Quartet achieved an international stature as one of the world's finest ensembles. The Vermeer performed at virtually all the most prestigious festivals, including Tanglewood, Aldeburgh, Aspen, Mostly Mozart, Taos, Bath, South Bank, Lucerne, Stresa, Flanders, Kneisel Hall, Caramoor, Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Berlin, Schleswig-Holstein, Orlando, Florida, Daniel, Edinburgh, Great Woods, Spoleto, Ravinia, and the Casals Festival. Based in Chicago, they spent part of each summer on the coast of Maine as the featured ensemble for Bay Chamber Concerts. The Vermeer Quartet performed well over two hundred works, including nearly all the "standard" string quartets, many lesser-known compositions, a number of contemporary scores, and various other works with guests. Their discography includes the complete string quartets of Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, and Bartók, plus various other works by Haydn, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Dvořák, Verdi, Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, and Schnittke. In 2003 they received their second Grammy nomination for their CD of the Shostakovich and Schnittke piano quintets with Boris Berman on the Naxos label. Their recording of the six Bartók quartets was released by Naxos in May 2005, and received a 3rd Grammy nomination. The Vermeer was associated with Northern Illinois University as "resident artist faculty" since 1970, where they trained some of the most gifted young ensembles performing today, including the Shanghai String Quartet, Enso String Quartet, Avalon String Quartet, Pacifica String Quartet, and Arianna String Quartet. They were also Fellows at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England. The Seven Last Words of Christ The Vermeer Quartet's Grammy-nominated CD of Haydn's The Seven Last Words of Christ [Alden Productions: CD 23042] -produced by its violist, Richard Young- features introductions by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., evangelist Billy Graham, Father Virgil Elizondo, Dr. Martin Marty, Elder Dallin Oaks, Rev. Kelly Clem, Pastor T. L. Barrett, Father Raymond Brown, and Jason Robards. Rev. Theodore Hesburgh (President Emeritus of the University of Notre Dame) wrote, "It is difficult to imagine a more appropriate group of theologians and preachers for the Vermeer's Seven Last Words of Christ recording. The makeup of this group suggests not only a certain moral authority, but a spirit of inclusiveness. At the same time, in a most personal and