Juilliard String Quartet

The Juilliard String Quartet heads east this month, playing concerts and offering masterclasses throughout Japan, following a round of critically acclaimed concerts in Houston, San Francisco and Philadelphia:

“Most performers are heard probing the piece from the outside; the Juilliard reading exuded inside understanding, particularly in the pulsating slow movement." -- David Patrick Stearns for THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, October 30, 2009

The JSQ returns to New York for a December 1 concert at Alice Tully Hall, heads to Baltimore for masterclasses at the Peabody Institute of Music and a concert at Shriver Hall Concert Series, and will join a celebration of founding member Robert Mann at the Manhattan School of Music on December 15.
 

(November 2009)

On October 20, 2008 Juilliard President Joseph W. Polisi announced that 36-year-old violinist and Juilliard alumnus Nick Eanet will join the Juilliard String Quartet as first violinist in July 2009. He also becomes a member of the Juilliard violin faculty beginning with the fall 2009 semester. A Brooklyn native, Nick is concertmaster of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, former first violinist of the Mendelssohn Quartet, a former student of founding member Robert Mann, and very natural fit for the Juilliard String Quartet Family.

Mr. Eanet follows violinist Joel Smirnoff as first violin; Mr. Smirnoff has become President of the Cleveland Institute of Music and performs with the Quartet through the 2008-2009 season, finishing his stellar tenure at Tanglewood on June 28, 2009.

Click to read the full press release and the New York Times piece by Daniel Wakin that broke the story. (October 2008)

Join the Juilliard Quartet in the 2009/10 season as they celebrate the 200th birthdays of Felix Mendelssohn (b. 1809) and Robert Schumann (b. 1810) with programs that pair their compositions with contemporary masterpieces by Mario Davidovsky and Charles Wuorinen:

PROGRAM NO. 1:
Robert SCHUMANN: Quartet in F Major, Op. 41, No.2
Mario DAVIDOVSKY: Quartet No. 5 (1998)
(intermission)
Felix MENDELSSOHN: Quartet in D Major, Op.44, No.1

PROGRAM NO. 2:
Felix MENDELSSOHN: Quartet in F Minor, Op. 80
Charles WUORINEN: Quartet No. 4 (2000)
(intermission)
Robert SCHUMANN: Quartet in A Major, Op.41, No.3

(July 2008)

Mr. Smirnoff to Continue Performing with the World Famous Quartet and Teaching at The Juilliard School During a 2008-09 Transitional Year as the Quartet Chooses its New Member. According to Juilliard President Joseph W. Polisi, who is credited with strengthening the Quartet's faculty involvement over the years, "Joel Smirnoff's artistry, intellect, and integrity will make him an extraordinary president of the Cleveland Institute of Music. We will all miss Joel's exceptional leadership and his warm personality, and we wish him the very best in this important new endeavor. We look forward to welcoming a new member of the Quartet to the Juilliard community." Read More. (June 2008)

Last month the JUILLIARD STRING QUARTET gave the world premiere performance of Ralph Shapely's "Two for Five" in a performance at the Juilliard School. Scored for string quartet and clarinet, the JSQ performed the piece with clarinetist Charles Neidich in a performance that was "the picture of fleetness and energy." (New York Times, 10.24.07)

The concert also featured Mozart K.546 and Elliott Carter's Quartet No. 2 - a work that received its premiere by the JSQ in 1960.

This January the Juilliard String Quartet will be honored by Chamber Music America with the 2008 Richard J. Bogomolny National Service Award. The prestigious award, which will by presented at the 2008 CMA conference in New York City, recognizes the Juilliard String Quartet's incalculable contributions to American chamber music, in their premieres of more than 60 new works, in the mentoring of innumerable musicians and ensembles, and in their influence on American chamber music styles and traditions. (November 2007)

The celebrated Juilliard String Quartet gave the first US performance of the complete Bartók cycle in 1948; this season, the current group performs them with its own contemporary perspective, a unique view informed by several generations' close contact with the works. Last month's performance of the cycle in Dallas was "played with taut ensemble yet expressive fluidity, the tone fine-grained and much of the time frankly beautiful," Scott Cantrell, The Dallas Morning News, 10/23/06. This week, the Juilliards bring the cycle to Alice Tully Hall; other Bartóks will be in El Paso, Houston, Lexington, Tokyo and at the Ravinia Festival. Click here to read Andrew L. Pincus' article exploring the Juilliard's historic relationship with the Bartók quartets. (November 2006)

October 11, 2006 marks the groundbreaking Juilliard String Quartet's 60th anniversary, with nation-wide public radio programming devoted to interviews with the Juilliards and broadcasts of their discography. The season is marked by performances of the complete Bartok cycle (given its American premiere by the Juilliard String Quartet at Tanglewood in 1948,) at Alice Tully Hall in New York, in Dallas, Houston, El Paso, Virginia, at Ravinia and in Tokyo. The celebration continues with performances of the Mozart quartets K.421, K.428 and K. 465, newly informed by first-edition manuscripts recently donated to the Juilliard School. The Quartet also conducts a three-part residency at the Herberger College of Fine Arts at Arizona State University. In honor of the anniversary, Sony BMG Masterworks releases a 2 CD set of the Quartet's recordings of Shostakovich quartets Nos. 3, 14 15 and the Piano Quintet with Yefim Bronfman in October 2006. (September 2006)

NPR will broadcast the Juilliard String Quartet's January 27th performance of Mozart's Quartet in G major, K.387, and Quartet in F major, K. 590 along with Friedrich Gulda's Quartet in F sharp minor at the Musikverein in Vienna. Their January tour throughout Europe also includes Salzburg, Mozart's birthplace, and a command performance in Madrid for Queen Sofia of Spain performing on a royal collection of matched Stradivarius instruments. (January 2006)

In a tour de force in Europe last month, the eminent Juilliard String Quartet joined with the equally distinguished Heinz Holliger in a program of Schubert, Beethoven, and the oboe quartets of Elliott Carter (commissioned for Holliger) and Mozart, k. 370. Audiences in Rome, Florence, Genoa, Amsterdam, Warsaw, and Paris were the lucky listeners twice blessed. The Juilliards and Holliger performed on a Saturday night at La Cite de la Musique, and the Quartet on its own mounted a special performance of their version of Bach's "Art of the Fugue on Sunday afternoon -- leading to an immediate re-engagement.

The Juilliard Quartet returns to Europe next month for a tour that includes a concert for the Queen of Spain on the royal strads in Madrid; a performance of the Brahms piano quintet with Emmanuel Ax in Salzburg; and, on January 27th, a 250th Mozart birthday celebration concert at the Musikverein in Vienna.

Heinz Holliger continues his life of playing, composing, and conducting throughout Europe.  He makes a rare sojourn to the U.S. in the month of November 2007 for a series of recitals and orchestral engagements.

(December 2005)

Andrew Pincus reports on the JUILLIARD STRING QUARTET's season opening concert at Tanglewood July 1: "Nothing is left unexamined; notes are not bricks in a wall, but jewels individually polished and set into place. The players are like explorers pushing ever deeper into an unknown land."

Enrapt Ravinia audiences greeted the same program (Haydn/Bartok/Dovrak's "American" Quartet) with whoops and shouts, and burst into a standing ovation even before the Dvorak quartet's finale. The Juilliard excitment continues, and return engagements at both festivals are planned for the end of the 2005/06 season.

In the meantime, the Juilliards open the fall season with a West Coast tour, including a re-engagement with the Los Angeles Philharmonic for a pair of concerts at Disney Hall. On returning to New York they will perform the world premiere of Ezequiel Viñao's quartet, "The Loss and the Silence," at Lincoln Center. The work was commissioned for them by the Juilliard School in honor of its 2006 centenniel year. (August 2005)

The Library of Congress and its resident Juilliard String Quartet extended their reach to Southern California for free concerts and student activites co-sponsored by three presenting organizations: the University of California in Santa Barbara, the Idyllwild Academy, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Disney Hall (see photo at left). Staff from the Library were also on hand to demonstrate their impressive website. In January, the Juilliards changed the repertoire to include Mozart and Elliott Carter's Oboe Quartets with Heinz Holliger, touring from New York, Philadelphia, Detroit, and Montreal to San Francisco, and Fairbanks and Anchorage, Alaska. Next autumn, the Juilliards and Holliger take the Carter/Mozart program to Rome, Amsterdam, and the Cite de la Musique in Paris. (March 2005)

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg declared February 11, 2003 JUILLIARD STRING QUARTET / FELIX GALIMIR DAY in the city of New York. At their second Alice Tully Hall concert this season, the Juilliards played the New York premiere of Gunther Schuller's Fourth Quartet, which was dedicated to the memory of influential violinist and teacher Felix Galimir. The composer Mr. Schuller was in attendance, as well as Brian Sands, a friend and admirer of Mr. Galimir's, who commissioned the piece. Juilliard School President Joseph Polisi read Mr. Bloomberg's declaration at the concert. "For more than 50 years the Juilliard String Quartet has been an American institution. The intensity and technical precision of their performances are unmatched. During this 100th anniversary of the Juilliard School, it is appropriate that the city of New York honor this illustrious ensemble for its innumerable wonderful performances and for helping us to remember the beloved musician Felix Galimir." The Quartet also began celebrating its 40th anniversary as Quartet-in-Residence at the Library of Congress with the first of a ten concert series of the complete Beethoven cycle intertwined with works by contemporary American composers. (February 2003)