Defying the odds in the demanding world of string quartets, the four women of the Lafayette Quartet have stayed together and flourished artistically for over thirty years.

Since 1991, the quartet members have served as Artists in Residence at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, inspiring students from across North America with their enthusiasm and commitment to the young musicians.   

Formed in Detroit, Michigan in 1986, the Lafayette String Quartet (LSQ) has, from its beginning, combined the two disciplines of performing and teaching to sustain them as artists. Their own mentors include members of the Cleveland, Alban Berg, and Amadeus Quartets, and especially Rostislav Dubinsky, first violinist of the Borodin Quartet and colleague of Shostakovich.

The Lafayette Quartet excels in performing music from all eras of the vast output of quartet literature. Their album Death and the Maiden on the CBC label (featuring that great work of Franz Schubert as well as the quartets of Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel and Rebecca Clarke) was awarded the 2003 Western Canadian Music Award for Outstanding Classical Recording. Other recordings on the Dorian and Adlar labels have received universal critical acclaim.

In celebration of their 20th anniversary, the LSQ commissioned R. Murray Shafer's 11th String Quartet.  In February 2017 the Lafayette String Quartet marked its 30th anniversary by performing all fifteen Shostakovich string quartets, in conjunction with a Shostakovich symposium at the University of Victoria.