The Juilliard String Quartet is internationally renowned and admired for performances characterized by a clarity of structure, beauty of sound, purity of line and an extraordinary unanimity of purpose. Celebrated for its performances of works by composers as diverse as Beethoven, Schubert, Bartók, and Elliott Carter, it has long been recognized as the quintessential American string quartet.
The current season sees the Juilliard String Quartet in performances throughout the US, with dates including its annual returns to Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, performing world premieres by Richard Wernick and Melinda Wagner; in concert at the Kennedy Center; at Baylor University, at Cornell, and at Oberlin Conservatory of Music. The JSQ also performs in New York City, Phoenix, Cincinnati, New Jersey and elsewhere. Appearances abroad include a tour of Australia and a European tour with dates in Istanbul, Vienna, Haarlem, Madrid, Helsinki and at the Konzerthaus Berlin.
In 2007/08, the Juilliard String Quartet offered special programming in recognition of Elliott Carter's 100th birthday – a composer with whom they have had a long and remarkable collaboration. As ardent advocates of Carter's complex and visionary string quartets, the Juilliard's landmark recording of Quartets Nos. 1-4 was released by Sony in 1991. The Quartet partook in special celebrations of his work at the Ravinia Festival and at the Juilliard School, where it performed the world premiere of his new Clarinet Quintet with Charles Neidich. The Quartet toured throughout the US, with notable appearances at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C.; at the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society; the La Jolla Music Society; Chamber Music Society of Detroit; in Florida, Massachusetts, Ohio, Michigan, and elsewhere. A tour of Europe featured performances at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, a performance at the Cité de la musique in Paris with an accompanying two-day residency at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique, and a return to Spain, where they performed, for the second time, on the Royal Family's matched set of inlaid Stradavari at the Palacio Real in Madrid.
In January 2008 Chamber Music America honored the Juilliard String Quartet with its highest honor, the Richard J. Bogomolny National Service award, in recognition of the Quartet's artistry, dedication and exemplary influence in chamber music
The 2006/07 season marked the Juilliard Quartet's 60th anniversary, with a year long celebration distinguished by the Quartet's performance of seven complete Bartók cycles (The Juilliard Quartet played the American premiere of the Bartók cycle at Tanglewood in 1948) in major cities throughout the U.S. and Japan. In honor of both the Juilliards' 60th birthday and the Shostakovich centennial, Sony BMG Masterworks released a 2-CD set of the Juilliard Quartet's recordings of Shostakovich quartets Nos. 3, 14, 15 and the Piano Quintet with Yefim Bronfman. The Juilliard Quartet also celebrated Mozart's 250th birthday, performing quartets K. 421, K. 428 and K. 465, newly informed by first-edition parts recently donated to the Juilliard School. The Quartet toured throughout the US and appeared abroad in London's Wigmore Hall, in Turkey, the Netherlands, Germany, Russia, Finland, and at the Palau de la Música in Barcelona, Spain.
Other recent highlights include a pair of concerts presented by the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Disney Hall; the world premiere of Ezequiel Viñao's Quartet II, "The Loss and the Silence," commissioned for them by the Juilliard School in honor of its 2006 centennial; and international performances of Bach's "Art of the Fugue". They were featured artists in the "Live From Lincoln Center" telecast of the Juilliard School's centennial gala program.
In 2003 the Quartet marked the celebrations of its 40th anniversary as Quartet-in-Residence at the Library of Congress with a twelve-concert complete Beethoven cycle interspersed with works by American composers whose work the Quartet has championed throughout its existence. The JSQ has performed complete Beethoven cycle in seven-concert series at Alice Tully Hall in New York, at Casals Hall in Tokyo, at Michigan State University and most recently at the International Beethoven Festival in Bonn and at the Tonhalle in Düsseldorf.
At Carnegie Hall, the Quartet appeared in Maurizio Pollini's "Perspectives" series with pianist Martha Argerich, and in the Hall's 100th anniversary gala. Annual guests at Tanglewood's Seiji Ozawa Hall, the Juilliards played in the Hall's opening concert and are the lead - off artists in the recent recording celebrating its 10th anniversary. They are frequent guests at the Miyazaki Festival in Japan, and at festivals in Europe including the Lucerne Festival and the Schubertiade in Feldkirch. In a departure from the classical norm, the Juilliard Quartet has twice been the featured ensemble - comedic and musical - on Garrison Keillor's "Prairie Home Companion."
As quartet-in-residence at New York City's Juilliard School, the Juilliard String Quartet is widely admired for its seminal influence on aspiring string players around the world. The Quartet continues to play an important role in the formation of new American ensembles, and was instrumental in the formation of the Alexander, American, Concord, Emerson, La Salle, New World, Mendelssohn, Tokyo, Brentano, Lark, St. Lawrence, Shanghai and Colorado string quartets.
In a momentous occasion at Tanglewood in 1997, the Juilliard String Quartet's founder and first violinist Robert Mann retired from the group after fifty years. Earlier that season, Musical America named the Quartet "Musicians of the Year," making it the first chamber music ensemble ever to appear on the cover of the publication's annual International Directory of the Performing Arts.
In its history, the Juilliard String Quartet has performed a comprehensive repertoire of some 500 works, ranging from the great classical composers to masters of the current century. It was the first ensemble to play all six Bartók quartets in the United States, and it was through the group's performances that the quartets of Arnold Schönberg were rescued from obscurity. An ardent champion of contemporary American music, the Quartet has premiered more than 60 compositions of American composers, including works by some of America's finest jazz musicians.
The ensemble has been associated with Sony Classical, in its various incarnations, since 1949. In celebration of the Quartet's 50th anniversary, Sony released seven CDs containing previously unreleased material as well as notable performances from the Quartet's award-winning discography. With more than 100 releases to its credit, the ensemble is one of the most widely recorded string quartets of our time; and its recordings of the complete Beethoven quartets, the complete Schönberg quartets , and the Debussy and Ravel string quartets have all received Grammy Awards. Inducted into the Hall of Fame of the National Academy for Recording Arts and Sciences in 1986 for its recording of the complete Bartók string quartets, the Juilliard Quartet was awarded the Deutsche Schallplattenkritik Prize in 1993 for Lifetime Achievement in the recording industry. In 1994, its recording of quartets by Ravel, Debussy, and Dutilleux was chosen by the Times of London as one of the 100 best classical CDs ever recorded.
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