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Juilliard String Quartet
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The members of the Juilliard String Quartet are all American-born and trained. Violinist Joel Smirnoff is a native of New York City and has been a member of the Quartet since 1986, and the ensemble's leader since 1997. Formerly the group's second violinist, Mr. Smirnoff attended the University of Chicago and the Juilliard School and was a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra for six years. Second Prize-winner in the International American Music Competition in 1983, he made his New York recital debut in 1985 at Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall. Mr. Smirnoff has participated in the world premiere of numerous contemporary works, many of which were composed for him. He is chair of the Violin Department at the Juilliard School, and pursues an active career as a conductor, both in the U.S. and abroad.
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The Juilliard String Quartet continues to be "the yardstick against which all other groups are measured" (Newsweek). The quartet began in 1946 as a coaching ensemble for chamber music students at the Juilliard School. Since then, the quartet has attained international acclaim. First violinist Robert Mann, the only original member of the quartet, is president of the Walter W. Naumburg Foundation and a past winner of the Naumburg Competition (1941). Mr. Mann appears frequently as a soloist and has recorded a number of works, including the Sonata for Unaccompanied Violin by BÇla Bart¢k. He is ... a composer, conductor, lecturer and coach of many of the quartets active in the world of chamber music.
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The Juilliard String Quartet has achieved international recognition for its clarity of sound, structure and purity of line. Till date, it has performed an impressive as well as a inclusive repertoire of some the famous and great classical composers, of present times, to the masters of the current century. It has played all the six Bartók quartets in the United States and has became one the first ensemble, in the world to do so. The Quartet has performed more than 60 compositions of the American composers as well as some of the works of the finest jazz musicians. In the year, 1991, all those works played by the Juilliard String Quartet was released by Sony Classical. It ... gives performances of works by famous composers such as Beethoven, Schubert, Bartók and Elliott Carter.
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With the premiere recording of Darius Milhaud's Études, based on the original synagogue melodies of Provençal Jewry, the world-renowned Juilliard String Quartet leads off this unique collection of five Judaically inspired string quartets. A rich bouquet of Ashkenazi sacred melodies pervades the string quartet by Sholom Secunda, the composer of Yiddish theatrical music better known for the song hit Bay mir bistu sheyn. German refugee composer Ruth Schonthal expands the quartet medium with a striking work dedicated to the memory of the murdered victims of the Holocaust. The Kol Nidre by John Zorn is a highly original exploration of motifs of the best-known Yom Kippur chant. A new recording of this work, as well as Two Hassidic Moods by the liturgical composer Abraham Wolf Binder, complete the program.
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Considering that two of the group's current members were not yet born at the time of its founding (and the other two were kindergarten age), the Juilliard String Quartet has maintained a remarkably consistent identity during its 60 years in existence. The principal reason for this is certainly the dynamic imprint of Robert Mann, who remained as the ensemble's first violinist for an astonishing 51 years. When Mr. Mann retired in 1997, what could have been a difficult transition was smoothed by the repositioning of Joel Smirnoff, the quartet's second violinist for the previous 11 years, as first violinist. Ronald Copes won the position of second violinist, joining Mr. Smirnoff, cellist Joel Krosnick, and violist Samuel Rhodes as the quartet's single new member.
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The Juilliard String Quartet, one of the world's foremost chamber ensembles for the past half century, was formed in 1946, partly at the instigation of William Schuman, then president of The Juilliard School. It has been a feature of the Juilliard landscape ever since, giving master classes and concerts every year and serving as quartet-in-residence at the conservatory, where all its members are on the Juilliard faculty. In this capacity the group has shaped and influenced generations of string players. In addition to its regular concert appearances in the major performing venues of Europe, Asia, and North and South America, the Juilliard Quartet has since 1962 been quartet-in-residence at the Library of Congress. The group has given more than 60 premieres of new American works. It was the first ensemble to play Bartók's quartets in the United States, and its performances of Schoenberg's quartets in the 1950s helped rescue those works from obscurity.
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Juilliard String Quartet