Shortly after the group's inception at Yale University in 1999, Ensō had success at the Banff International String Quartet Competition and won the Concert Artists Guild International Competition.
Strad Magazine called Ensō's debut recording "an auspicious start to their recording career" and its recording of
Ginastera's quartets was nominated for a
Grammy Award, with Music Web International calling it "playing of jaw-dropping prowess revealing masterpieces of the 20th century quartet literature". The disc was selected as one of Music Web's Recordings of the Year for 2009. In the 2009/10 season the Ensō won a Chamber Music America Commissioning Grant with composer
Kurt Stallmann for a new piece for string quartet and electronics. Since the quartet's inception in 1999, new music featured prominently – from winning the Piece-de-Concert prize at the Banff Competition for the best performance of the commissioned piece to premiering
Joan Tower's Piano Quintet to making premiere recordings released on Albany Records of works by composers
Anthony Brandt and Karim al-Zand. The Ensō Quartet's members also taught and coached chamber music. Institutions where they held substantial teaching or performing residencies include the
Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (2008/09), the
Boston University Tanglewood Institute (2006-08), Interlochen Adult Amateur Chamber Music Camp (2007–present), and
Rice University (04-06), where the quartet's members served as Guest Lecturers in String Quartet. The quartet received the Guarneri Quartet Award for its collaboration with Connecticut's Music for Youth program, with which it developed a program for string students in public schools in
Bridgeport and
Weston. The Ensō Quartet's members held degrees from The
Juilliard School,
Curtis Institute of Music,
New England Conservatory,
Guildhall School of Music, and the
University of Canterbury. The ensemble completed graduate residencies at
Northern Illinois University with the
Vermeer Quartet and at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. It was featured in the American Ensembles column of
Chamber Music magazine and its live performances were broadcast on PBS, Chicago's WFMT, Wisconsin Public Radio, Minnesota Public Radio's Saint Paul Sunday program, Houston's KUHF, Australia's ABC Classic FM, Radio New Zealand and Canada's CBC radio. The ensemble’s name,
Ensō, derives from the Japanese Zen painting of a circle. ==Competitions and honors==