For the final concert of the season the Tryon Concert Association will present members of the Takacs Quartet on Friday, March 12 at 8 p.m. at the Tryon Fine Arts Center, located on Melrose Ave.

These players has been described as having warmth, exuberance, buoyancy, a teasing subtlety, unanimity of purpose and the instinct to play from inside the music.

This prize-winning group was formed in 1975 at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, Hungary when four students came together as a string quartet. Almost from the beginning they received world-wide attention as they won numerous prizes in international competitions. Many gold metals and first prizes have come to them over the past thirty five years. Today they are recognized as one of the worlds great string ensembles.

In 1982 after their first tour of North America the Takacs Quartet decided to move their families to the United States, and they have been at the University of Colorado at Boulder since that time. Here they maintain an active teaching career, working with individual string students and a string quartet. The group also gives about ninety concerts annually to audiences extending across Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea.

Many award-winning recordings by the Quartet include the complete Beethoven Cycle which can be found on the Decca label. In 2005 the Late Beethoven Quartets won Disc of the Year and Chamber Award from BBC Music Magazine, a Gramophone Award, and a Japanese Record Academy Award. Other highly acclaimed recordings of nineteenth century composers are available on Decca and Hyperion labels.

The Friday night concert will be given by three members of the quartet because violinist Karoly Schranz will be unable to perform. He is to have rotator cuff surgery in the immediate future. The program will consist of works by Mozart, Zoltan Kodaly and Beethoven.

For ticket information contact Dorothy Wyckoff, 828-859-6065 or write Tryon Concert Association, P.O. Box 32, Tryon, NC 28782. Visit the TCAs new website at www.TryonConcerts.com