Visiting Quartet Residency Program
Welcomes Its Second Visiting Quartet
Juilliard String Quartet
After an extremely successful beginning to the Visiting Quartet Residency Program, inaugurated in 2005-2006 by the St. Lawrence String Quartet, ASU's Herberger College School of Music welcomes the Juilliard String Quartet during the 2006-2007 season. This innovative program integrates visiting artists with a comprehensive chamber music curriculum, providing the greatest educational chamber music experience possible.
"What makes our program unique is that we bring in a different professional string quartet each year and structure the chamber music curriculum around that particular quartet's strengths and interests," said Jonathan Swartz, artistic director of the Visiting Quartet Residency Program. Each quartet works with students several times a season. "The visits are incredibly intense, creating an environment of immersion with the highest level of artistry in the field. Our students also benefit from the relationships they develop with the visiting quartet throughout the year."
Between visits, the students work regularly with ASU faculty, getting the best of all worlds. "This program augments typical chamber music study," Swartz said. "Over the course of a four-year degree, a chamber music student has the opportunity to work with four major professional string quartets, in addition to the regular guest artists and faculty coaching ASU provides."
Last year's visiting quartet in residence was the St. Lawrence String Quartet, a young, vibrant and distinguished quartet. They concentrated on Haydn, Mozart and Shostakovich in three visits throughout the 2005-2006 season. "We worked with a good bunch of students, and I think our visits gave them real-world experience," said Geoff Nuttall, violinist for the St. Lawrence String Quartet. "It was amazing to open student's eyes and ears to this experience. A lot of them didn't realize musicians like Haydn were so great until they worked with their music on an intimate level."
St. Lawrence String Quartet
Like the St. Lawrence String Quartet, the Juilliard String Quartet will visit the School of Music three times - November 14-16, 2006, with a concert on November 16; January 22-24, 2007, with a concert on January 24; and April 3-6, 2007, with a concert on April 5 - bringing a new theme with each visit. This internationally renowned quartet put on a series of performances, open rehearsals, demonstrations and lectures, and master classes. "Jonathan has been able to get one of the greatest quartets in the world," Nuttall said. "I hope students realize how lucky they are to hang out with the Juilliard Quartet."
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 players around the world. The quartet continues to play an important role in the formation of new American ensembles and was instrumental in the formation of the Alexander, American, Concord, Emerson, La Salle, New World, Mendelssohn, Tokyo, Brentano, Lark, St. Lawrence and Colorado string quartets.
In its history, the Juilliard String Quartet has performed a comprehensive repertoire of some 500 works, ranging from the great classical composers to masters of the current century. It was the first ensemble to play all six of Hungarian composer Béla Bartók quartets in the United States, and it was through the group's performances that the quartets of Arnold Schoenberg were rescued from obscurity. An ardent champion of contemporary American music, the quartet has premiered more than 60 compositions of American composers, including works by some of America's finest jazz musicians.
For more information on the Visiting Quartet Residency Program and the Juilliard String Quartet visit, http://music.asu.edu/visitingquartet.
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