Juilliard String Quartet

Photo: Eric Harttmann/Magnum

For over 50 years, the Juilliard Quartet has been renowned internationally for its uncompromising musicianship and the emotional intensity of its performances. The Ensemble has been celebrated for its performances of works as diverse as the string quartets of Beethoven, Bartok, and Elliott Carter - performances that are unfailingly characterised by clarity of structure, plasticity of line and compelling rhythmic drive.

During the 1997/8 season, the Juilliard String Quartet returns to the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. officially to re-open the Coolidge Auditorium, which has been under renovation for almost a decade. It will also perform concerts in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Chicago, Houston, Pasadena and other cities throughout the U.S. The Quartet will embark on its annual tours of Europe in November and March.

At Tanglewood this summer, the Quartet welcomed its newest member, Ronald Copes, who succeeds Joel Smirnoff as second violinist. Mr. Smirnoff is now the Juilliard String Quartet's primarius.

The 1996/7 season was a milestone period for the Juilliard Quartet: it celebrated its 50th anniversary and marked a major change of personnel with the retirement from the group of founding member and first violinist Robert Mann. In celebration of its 50th anniversary, which occured on 11 October 1996, the Juilliard String Quartet presented concerts featuring works - new and old - long associated with the ensemble. Early in its career the Quartet gave pioneering performances of all six Bartok quartets, and this legacy was celebrated with a Bartok cycle in New York in December 1996 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Quartet also gave premiere performances of a Quintet for Clarinet and Strings by Milton Babbitt and a Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra by David Diamond with the Juilliard School Orchestra at Avery Fisher Hall. The ensemble was also heard on tour in Europe and Japan.

In 1961, the Juilliard Quartet became the first American string quartet to visit the Soviet Union. A year later, it established a continuing residency at the Library of Congress, where, over three decades later, it performs on that institution's set of matched Stradivari instruments. Its concerts from the Library of Congress have been broadcast nationwide. The Juilliard String Quartet has been seen in televised concerts as part of the PBS Great Performances series.

In 1996, Musical America named the Juilliard String Quartet "Musicians of the Year", making it the first chamber music ensemble ever to grace the cover of the Musical America International Directory of Performing Arts.

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 instrumentalists from around the world. In particular, the Juilliard Quartet continues to play an important role in the formation of new American string ensembles. Some of the quartets it helped to create include the Alexander; American; Concord; Emerson; La Salle; New World; Mendelssohn; Tokyo; Brentano; Lark; St Lawrence; and Colorado String Quartets.

Long a favourite of audiences abroad, the Quartet is heard regularly in Europe and Asia. Highlights of the 1996/7 season include performances of the string quartet cycles of Beethoven in Bonn and Tokyo; and a Hindemith cycle in Venice. They have also played throughout Asia, in South America, the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand.

The Juilliard String Quartet has performed a comprehensive repertoire of some 500 works, ranging from compositions by Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms and Dvorak to works by 20th century masters.

It was through their performances that the quartets of Arnold Schoenberg were rescued from obscurity. The Quartet has been a particularly ardent champion of 20th century American chamber music. It has premiered more than 60 compositions of American composers, including works by some of America's finest jazz musicians. In recent seasons the Quartet has become a persuasive advocate for the complex and visionary four string quartets of Elliott Carter, which received a landmark recording from the Juilliard, on the Sony Classical label, in 1991.

All members of the Juilliard String Quartet are American-born and trained. Joel Smirnoff, first violinist, is a native of New York City.

He attended the University of Chicago and The Juilliard School. He was a violinist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra for six years before joining The Juilliard String Quartet in 1986 as second violinist. He won second prize in the International American Music competition in 1983, and in 1985, made his New York recital debut at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall. Joel Smirnoff has participated in the world premiere of many contemporary works, several of which were composed for him.

Ronald Copes, second violinist, comes to the Quartet after a long, distinguished career as a chamber musician, concert soloist and recitalist. A former member of the Dunsmuir and Los Angeles Piano Quartets, Mr Copes has also taught at the University of California at Santa Barbara for many years and has appreared as a featured performer in several renowned chamber music festivals. Devoting considerable energy to the development and playing of contemporary string literature, he has worked closely with composers and premiered a number of solo works.

Violist Samuel Rhodes, also a native of New York City, is a graduate of Queens College and Princeton University where he studied composition with Roger Sessions and Earl Kim. He is celebrating his twenty-seventh season as a member of The Juilliard String Quartet and the faculty of The Juilliard School. He is also a member of the faculty at Tanglewood and a frequent participant of the Marlboro Festival. His solo appearances have included several recitals at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., at Weill Recital Hall and with orchestras and chamber groups in the U.S.

and abroad. He has given world premiere performances of works for unaccompanied viola by Milton Babbitt and Arthur Weisberg.

Cellist Joel Krosnick, a native of Connecticut, is active as both performer and educator. His principal teachers were William D'Amato, Luigi Silva, Jens Nygaard and Claus Adam, whom he succeeded in The Juilliard String Quartet. A frequent recitalist and soloist, Joel Krosnick performs throughout the United States and Europe. He has performed at Weill Recital Hall, Merkin Concerto Hall, Symphony Space, and appears regularly at the Miller Theatre with pianist Gilbert Kalish. Mr Krosnick serves on the teaching faculties of the Juilliard School and Tanglewood.

The Juilliard String Quartet records exclusively for Sony Classical and has been associated with the label (formerly Columbia Records) since 1949. In celebration of the Quartet's 50th year, Sony released seven CDs containing previously unreleased material as well as notable performances from its award-winning discography. With more that 100 releases to its credit, the ensemble is one of the most widely recorded string quartets of our time. Works by composers as diverse as Bach, Bartok, Beethoven, Carter, Brahms, Berg, Puccini, Ginastera, and Ives are represented in its discography. The CD "Intimate Letters" features Berg's Lyric Suite and the String Quartet No.1 (Kreutzer) and Intimate Letters quartet by Janacek. The Juilliard Quartet's recordings on Sony of the complete Beethoven Quartets, the complete Schoenberg quartets, and the Debussy and Ravel Quartets have all received Grammy Awards. In 1993 the Juilliard Quartet was awarded the "Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik" (German Record Critics' Award) for Lifetime Achievement in the recording industry. In May 1994, the Juilliard String Quartet's Sony Classical recording of quartets by Debussy, Ravel, and Dutilleux was selected by the Times Magazine of London as one of the 100 Best Classical CDs ever recorded. At the end of April, 1996 Sony Classical released the Quartet's recording of Brahms Viola Quintets 1 & 2.