Joel Link

Joel Link is the first violinist of the internationally acclaimed Dover Quartet. He was appointed concertmaster of The Cleveland Orchestra in May 2025. An active soloist and chamber musician, Link has earned top prizes at numerous competitions, including the Johansen International Competition in Washington, D.C., and the Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition in England, where he was featured in The Strad magazine.

As a member of the Dover Quartet, Link won first prize and all special awards at the 2013 Banff International String Quartet Competition, as well as the gold medal and grand prize at the 2010 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. The Quartet’s many accolades include the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, Chamber Music America’s Cleveland Quartet Award, and Lincoln Center’s Hunt Family Award. Their recordings have received two GRAMMY nominations for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance: The Schumann Quartets (Azica Records) and Beethoven Complete String Quartets, Volume 2 – The Middle Quartets (Cedille Records).

Link has performed with many of the most distinguished artists of recent decades, including Emanuel Ax, Marc-André Hamelin, Peter Serkin, Leon Fleisher, Leif Ove Andsnes, Edgar Meyer, Michael Tree, Avi Avital, and Ray Chen, appearing in major concert halls around the world. He has also been featured at leading festivals such as the Marlboro Music Festival, Ravinia Festival, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Rosendal Chamber Music Festival, Schwetzingen Festival, and Rheingau Musik Festival, among others.

A graduate of both Curtis Institute of Music and Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, Link studied with renowned violinists Joseph Silverstein, Pamela Frank, and Frank Huang. He joined the Curtis faculty in 2020.

Link plays a fine Peter Guarneri of Mantua violin, generously loaned to him by Irene R. Miller through the Beare’s International Violin Society.