David Cheng:

>It seems to me that Shostakovich's string quartets are infrequently
>performed by string quartet ensembles here in the USA.  Would you agree?

The Fine Arts Quartet plays Shostakovich and has recorded six of his
quartets.  They are resident at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Peck School of the Arts and tour extensively (more than I realized).
For this year's schedule see their site at www.fineartsquartet.org.

Jim Tobin