Juilliard String Quartet - About JSQ

The Juilliard String Quartet Present The New York Premiere of Gunther Schuller's String Quartet No. 4 at Alice Tully Hall
on Tuesday, February 11, 2002 at 8 PM
As Part of The Daniel Saidenberg Faculty Recital Series
of The Juilliard School

Program also includes Mozart String Quartet in B-flat Major, K. 458, "The Hunt"; and Beethoven String Quartet in C Major, Op. 59, No. 3 "Rasumovsky"

On February 11, 2003 at 8:00 p.m. at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center, the Juilliard String Quartet will present a program showcasing its time-honored command of the great masterworks with Mozart's "Hunt" Quartet, K. 458, and Beethoven's "Rasumovsky" string quartet, and its continuing commitment to the presentation of new works with the New York City premiere of American composer Gunther Schuller's String Quartet No. 4.

Gunther Schuller is a time-honored presence in American music, and his work is prolific. Mr. Schuller played horn with both the Cincinnati Symphony and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. He was active in the New York City bebop scene performing and recording with such jazz greats as Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis. He has held prestigious posts at some of America's premiere music schools, including Professor of Composition at the Yale School of Music and President of the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. Among a dazzling list of awards, Mr. Schuller is the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize, the Gold Medal for Music from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and ten honorary degrees. As Alan Rich noted in New York Magazine, "Scholar, composer, conductor, teacher, author, music publisher, indefatigable advocate - Gunther Schuller isn't merely a musician, he's a monopoly."

A resident teaching and performing ensemble at The Juilliard School for over fifty years, the Juilliard String Quartet has established, and maintains a reputation as one of the world's greatest chamber ensembles. Consisting of first violinist, Joel Smirnoff, second violinist Ronald Copes, violist Samuel Rhodes and cellist Joel Krosnick, the Quartet has performed throughout the world in recitals, at music festivals and with major symphony orchestras as concerto quartet-soloist. Allan Kozinn of the New York Times said of their Alice Tully Hall performance this past Spring, "the quartet was in superb form . . . a composer could hardly have wanted a more polished or electrifying performance . . . the Juilliard players made the music sound as intricately assembled as a watch mechanism, yet never mechanical or predictable."

The 2002-2003 season will take the Quartet to Germany, Switzerland, Austria, the Netherlands, France, Italy, Spain, Japan and the Far East and throughout the United States. The season also includes a twelve-concert series at the Library of Congress where this season will mark the 40th anniversary of the Quartet's celebrated residency. The Juilliard Quartet has developed a passionate following at the Library of Congress for its time-honored performances of both classics and new American compositions, some of which are commissioned particularly for the Library. Another feature of the residency is that the Juilliard String Quartet plays on a matched set of Stradivarius instruments donated to the Library of Congress. This anniversary season will be marked not only by concerts but by lectures, round table discussions, and master classes with gifted students from area educational institutions.