Since its inception in 1946, the Juilliard String Quartet has made manifest the credo of founders Robert Mann and William Schuman to “play new works as if they were established masterpieces, and established masterpieces as if they were new.” The hallmarks of its distinctive sound – clarity of structure, beauty of sound, purity of line and an extraordinary unanimity of purpose – have been applied to virtually every era and genre in the literature, from Beethoven, Schubert and Bartók to Carter, Davidovsky, Babbitt and Wernick.
The Juilliard String Quartet continues its vibrant tradition of music making and teaching in the 2012/13 season, with performances at Ravinia and for the chamber music societies of Detroit, Albuquerque, Philadelphia, and Cleveland, among others. In New York City, the Quartet appears in its two annual Juilliard School concerts at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall. In addition to its educational work throughout the season at the Juilliard School, the Quartet returns to Arizona State University’s School of Music for a three-part residency, where they will present masterclasses and performances.
Internationally, the Quartet tours to Taiwan, China, Japan, Switzerland and Germany, where they will play the five late quartets of Beethoven (repertoire that is a particular focus throughout the season.) They have also been invited to join other international musical luminaries for the opening celebrations of a major new performing arts center in Wroclaw, Poland, in June 2013.
In 2011, the JSQ and its recently appointed first violinist Joseph Lin were the subject of the film “Keeping Beethoven Contemporary” produced by Michael Blackwood productions, which showed the Quartet in a rehearsal and performance of Beethoven’s Quartet in B Flat Major, Opus 130, in its original form with the Grosse Fuge as the last movement.
In recent seasons, the Quartet has performed at the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Konzerthaus Berlin, the International Beethoven Festival in Bonn, the Palacio Real in Madrid, the Cité de la musique in Paris, the Miyazaki Festival in Japan, the Moscow International Performing Arts Centre, London’s Wigmore Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Musica Viva Chamber Music Festival in Australia, and the Israel Festival in Jerusalem. In the United States, they have appeared at Carnegie Hall, the Tanglewood Festival, the Kennedy Center, Boston’s Jordan Hall, Los Angeles’s Disney Hall and San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre.
During the course of its history, the Juilliard String Quartet has performed over 500 works, including the premieres of more than 60 pieces by American composers, with works by the country’s finest jazz musicians among them. It was the first ensemble to play all six Bartók quartets in the United States, and its performances of Schoenberg’s quartets helped establish the works as cornerstones of the modern string quartet catalog.
The Quartet has carried the banner of the United States and The Juilliard School throughout the world, contributing to the reputation of the school as one of the world’s foremost conservatories. The Juilliard String Quartet was Quartet-in-Residence at the Library of Congress for more than 40 years and held a residency at Michigan State University for more than a decade. The members of the Quartet have taught masterclasses and seminars worldwide, and have appeared many times as guest artists and lecturers at the Conservatoire de Paris. Through its annual Juilliard School String Quartet Seminar, and its work with graduate quartets in residence, the Quartet has been instrumental in the formation of numerous ensembles, among them the Alexander, American, Emerson, Tokyo, Brentano, Lark, St. Lawrence, Shanghai, Afiara and Colorado string quartets.
With more than 100 releases to its credit, the JSQ is one of the most widely recorded string quartets of our time. The Quartet’s recordings of the complete Bartók quartets, the late Beethoven quartets, the complete Schoenberg quartets, and Debussy and Ravel 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 first recording of the complete Bartók quartets, the Juilliard String Quartet was awarded the Deutsche Schallplattenkritik Prize in 1993 for Lifetime Achievement in the recording industry. In 2011, the Juilliard String Quartet became the first classical music ensemble to be honored by The Recording Academy with its Lifetime Achievement Award.
Joseph Lin, Violin
An active solo and chamber musician, Joseph Lin was a founding member of the Formosa Quartet, winner of the 2006 London International String Quartet Competition. He was named a Presidential Scholar in the Arts and has won numerous awards, including the Concert Artists Guild International Competition, the Pro Musicis International Award and First Prize at the inaugural Michael Hill World Violin Competition in New Zealand. His recordings include the music of Korngold and Busoni on the Naxos label, the unaccompanied works of Bach and Ysaÿe on the N&F label, and the Formosa Quartet’s debut CD released by EMI. Mr. Lin has appeared as a soloist with the New Japan Philharmonic, the Sapporo Symphony, the Taiwan National Symphony, the Auckland Philharmonia, the Ukraine National Philharmonic, and the Boston Symphony.
After graduating from Harvard in 2000, he began an extended exploration of China in 2002, and studied Chinese music in Beijing as a Fulbright Scholar in 2004. From 2007 to 2011, Mr. Lin was an Assistant Professor at Cornell University, where he organized the inaugural Chinese Musicians Residency. Joseph Lin’s violin teachers have included Mary Canberg, Shirley Givens and Lynn Chang.
Ronald Copes, Violin
Praised by audiences and critics alike for his insightful artistry, violinist Ronald Copes has toured extensively with Music From Marlboro ensembles, the Los Angeles and Dunsmuir Piano Quartets, and with the Juilliard String Quartet. During the 2011-13 seasons, he and Seymour Lipkin will perform cycles of the complete Beethoven Sonatas for Piano and Violin at the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival and the Juilliard School.
Mr. Copes has recorded numerous solo and chamber music works for radio and television broadcast as well as for Sony Classical, Orion, CRI, Klavier, Bridge, New World Records, ECM and the Musical Heritage Society. He has worked closely with composers including Stephen Hartke and Donald Crockett, and has garnered prizes in the Artists’ Advisory Council International Competition, the Merriweather Post Competition and the Concours International d’Exécution Musicale in Geneva. During the summer he is on faculty of the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival. For two decades, he served as Professor of Violin at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and joined the faculty of The Juilliard School in 1997, where he serves as chair of the violin department.
Samuel Rhodes, Viola
Samuel Rhodes is celebrating his 44th year as a member of both the Juilliard String Quartet and the faculty of the Juilliard School, where he is chair of the viola department. He has served on the faculty of the Tanglewood Music Center, and has been a participant in the Marlboro Festival since 1960. He has appeared as a guest artist with many ensembles including the Beaux Arts and Mannes Trios and with the American, Brentano, Cleveland, Galimir, Guarneri, Pro-Arte, Mendelssohn and Sequoia String Quartets.
Mr. Rhodes received his instrumental training from Sydney Beck and Walter Trampler. He has a B.A. from Queens College, New York and an M.F.A. from Princeton University where he studied composition with Roger Sessions and Earl Kim. As a composer, he wrote a String Quintet for two violins, two violas and cello, which has been performed by the Blair, Composer’s, Galimir, Pro Arte and Sequoia Quartets. The Pro Arte recently recorded the quintet with the composer as guest artist.
Joel Krosnick, Cello
Joel Krosnick has performed as soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician around the world. As the cellist of the Juilliard String Quartet since 1974, Joel Krosnick has performed the great quartet literature throughout North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. With his sonata partner of more than 30 years, pianist Gilbert Kalish, Mr. Krosnick has performed recitals throughout the U. S. and Europe. The duo have recorded the complete sonatas and variations of Beethoven and the sonatas of Brahms as well as works by Poulenc, Prokofiev, Carter, Hindemith, Debussy, Janáek and Cowell for the Arabesque label. Mr. Krosnick’s recording of the Sonata for Solo Cello by Artur Schnabel appears on the CP2 label, and his CD of Roger Sessions’ Six Pieces for Solo Cello is available on Koch Classics.
Mr. Krosnick is chair of the cello department of The Juilliard School and is on faculty of the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival. A recipient of the Chevalier du Violoncelle Award from the Eva Janzer Memorial Cello Center at the Indiana University School of Music, Mr. Krosnick completed his Bachelor of Arts degree at Columbia University and holds honorary doctoral degrees from Michigan State University, Jacksonville University, and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
(October 2012. Please discard previously dated materials and contact publicity@colbertartists.com before making any alterations or cuts.)
