2017 June Concert Series

Béla Bartók:  String Quartet No. 1
Ludwig van Beethoven:  String Quartet in B-flat major, Op. 130 with Grosse Fuge

Saturday, June 3  | 
8pm  | 
Olin Hall
$30 single tickets; $5 for students; $70 for all three series concerts

The Juilliard String Quartet:

Joseph Lin, violin
Ronald Copes, violin
Roger Tapping, viola
Astrid Schween, cello

“Each of the four has a notably beautiful tone, a sound that sings out but also blends. They show a shared understanding of the music they play; every bow stroke adds to its meaning and its integrity.” — Chicago Tribune

“Whether playing Beethoven, Schubert, Bartok or Carter, the Juilliard Quartet remains unsurpassed in bringing attention to details and expressive devices.” — Cleveland Plain Dealer

“The Juilliard String Quartet, in its more than 50 years, has made it a point of honor to approach contemporary pieces with the same care and respect as it would established classics, and to approach antique masterworks with the sense of excitement and adventure it would the newly minted.” — The New York Times

Founded in 1946, the ever-evolving Juilliard String Quartet has become a living American legend. Widely known as the “quintessential American string quartet,” the Juilliard has been recognized for the boldness of its interpretation of the classics, with an equal and parallel tradition of championing the new — a vibrant combination of the familiar and the daring. The Quartet’s sound is famously characterized by clarity of structure, compelling rhythmic drive and an extraordinary unanimity of purpose, no matter the work at hand. In its milestone 2016/17 season, the Juilliard String Quartet welcomes its new cellist, Astrid Schween, and celebrates the Quartet’s 70th anniversary.

In January, the Quartet toured Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, and Austria, including appearances at the Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam, the Musikverein in Vienna, and the Berlin Konzerthaus. The JSQ also has return engagements in Philadelphia, San Francisco, Detroit, Toronto, Louisville, Cleveland, Tucson, and New York’s Alice Tully Hall. Last season, a yearlong celebration of Joel Krosnick’s remarkable 42-year tenure as cellist of the JSQ featured tours of Asia and Europe, concerts throughout the US and Canada, as well as special performances of the Schubert Cello Quintet with Astrid Schween in Detroit and New York City, and at the Ravinia Festival. In 2015 the Quartet was featured in the groundbreaking interactive app on Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden” Quartet, released by the innovative app developer Touchpress, in collaboration with the Juilliard School. In addition to the app, the JSQ’s new audio recording of “Death and the Maiden” is available on iTunes.

The Quartet’s recordings of the Bartok and Schoenberg quartets, as well as those of Debussy, Ravel and Beethoven won Grammy Awards, and in 2011 the Quartet became the first classical music ensemble to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. In 2014 Sony Classical reissued the Quartet’s landmark recordings of the first four Elliott Carter string quartets together with the more recently recorded Carter Quartet No. 5, making a complete historical document.