Lawrence Dutton

Lawrence Dutton was the violist of the nine-time Grammy Award–winning Emerson String Quartet, whose distinguished discography includes more than 50 recordings. In February 2026, Four Rational People, a documentary film about the Emerson Quartet, premiered in New York and Los Angeles.

Throughout his career, Mr. Dutton has collaborated with many of the world’s most celebrated artists, including Isaac Stern, Mstislav Rostropovich, Oscar Shumsky, Leon Fleisher, Sir Paul McCartney, Renée Fleming, Sir James Galway, André Previn, Menahem Pressler, Barbara Hannigan, Walter Trampler, Rudolf Firkusny, Emanuel Ax, Yefim Bronfman, Lynn Harrell, Evgeny Kissin, Joseph Kalichstein, Misha Dichter, Jan DeGaetani, Edgar Meyer, and Joshua Bell, among many others.

He has appeared as guest artist with leading string quartets including the Juilliard, Guarneri, Pacifica, Escher, Calidore, Modigliani, Talich, Amernet, and Quartetto di Cremona, and with distinguished piano trios such as the Beaux Arts Trio, Kalichstein–Laredo–Robinson Trio, and the Eroica Trio.

Since 2001, Mr. Dutton has served as Artistic Director of the Hoch Chamber Music Series, presenting concerts in Bronxville, New York, and Greenwich, Connecticut. He has been featured on three Concord Jazz recordings with Grammy-winning bassist John Patitucci. With the Beaux Arts Trio, he recorded Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet, Op. 57, and Fauré’s Piano Quartet in G minor, Op. 45, for Philips. His Aspen Music Festival recording with Jan DeGaetani for Bridge Records was nominated for a Grammy Award.

As a soloist, Mr. Dutton has appeared with numerous American and European orchestras. He is a frequent guest artist with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and has performed at major festivals including Aspen, Santa Fe, Ravinia, La Jolla, the Heifetz Institute, the Great Mountains Festival in Korea, Chamber Music Northwest, the Rome Chamber Music Festival, Music@Menlo, and the Great Lakes Festival. With the late Isaac Stern, he collaborated in the International Chamber Music Encounters at Carnegie Hall and in Jerusalem.

Mr. Dutton currently serves as Distinguished Professor of Viola and Chamber Music at Stony Brook University in New York and as Distinguished Artist at the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia. Beginning in the 2026–27 season, he will assume the role of Artistic Director of the Fabian Series at Mercer University.

He began his violin studies with Margaret Pardee and viola studies with Francis Tursi at the Eastman School of Music. He earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from The Juilliard School, where he studied with Lillian Fuchs.

Mr. Dutton and the members of the Emerson String Quartet have received Honorary Doctorates from Middlebury College, The College of Wooster, Bard College, The Hartt School, and, most recently in 2024, The Juilliard School. In 2023, they were presented with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Award for Extraordinary Service to Chamber Music. Additional honors include the Richard J. Bogomolny National Service Award from Chamber MusicAmerica (2015), the Avery Fisher Award (2004), induction into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame (2010), and Musical America’s Ensemble of the Year (2000).

Mr. Dutton performs exclusively on Thomastik Spirocore strings. His viola was crafted in 2025 by Samuel Zygmuntowicz in Brooklyn, New York.