Since its formation in 1969, the Raschèr Saxophone Quartet has appeared regularly at the major concert halls of Europe, Asia, and the United States, including Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, New York, Kennedy Center, Washington D.C., Opera Bastille, Paris, Royal Festival Hall, London, Philharmonie, Cologne, Finlandia Hall, Helsinki, Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, Schauspielhaus, Berlin, Musicverein, Vienna, Tonhalle, Zürich, Parco della Musica, Rome, Dwan Filharmonik Petronas, Kuala Lumpur, and the National Concert Hall, Taipei. The Vienna Zeitung hailed the quartet as “the uncrowned kings of the saxophone”, and a critic from Die Welt enthused, “If there were an Olympic discipline for virtuoso wind playing, the Raschèr Quartet would definitely receive a gold medal.”

The ensemble carries on a tradition established in the 1930s by the pioneer of the classical saxophone and founding member of the quartet, Sigurd Raschèr, who animated many composers to write music especially for him. In a similar fashion, the quartet has inspired over 300 composers to dedicate music to them, including Berio, Bergman, Denhoff, Donatoni, Firsova, Franke, Glass, Gubaidulina, Halffter, Haubenstock-Ramati, Kagel, Kaipainen, de Leeuw, Maros, Moe, Nilsson, Nordgren, Nørgard, Rosenblum, Raskatov, Stucky, Terzakis, Tüür, Wuorinen, Xenakis, Chen Yi, and Zechlin.

Numerous composers have been fascinated with the combination of the Raschèrs and orchestra, which has resulted in more than 25 new works for that combination as well as invitations from many of the world’s leading orchestras, including the Gewandhaus Leipzig, the Staatskapelle Dresden, American Composers’ Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Vienna Symphony, BBC, London Symphony, and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, and many other orchestras, chamber orchestras, and instrumental and vocal ensembles.