Juilliard String Quartet returns to ASU

The ASU School of Music in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts welcomes back the Juilliard String Quartet to its Visiting Quartet Residency Program, as ASU celebrates the eighth season of its innovative program.

Initiated in 2005, the program is the first of its type to integrate visiting artists with a comprehensive chamber music curriculum in a university setting.

The quartet visits three times during the 2012–13 year, each visit concluding with a featured concert by the Juilliard String Quartet: Oct. 19, 2012, Feb. 13, 2013, and April 12, 2013.

A subscription for all three concerts is available in a limited release from now until Oct. 1, 2012, for only $50. Single concert tickets are available beginning in August 2012 at $23 for adults, so the subscription represents more than a 27-percent savings. The student ticket rate will be announced in August. Please contact the Herberger Box Office for further information.

"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.

During visits to the university, the quartet works intensively with students on themed projects, while presenting a series of demonstrations and lectures, performances, open rehearsals and master classes.

"The visits are incredibly intense, creating an environment of immersion with the highest level of artistry in the field," Swartz said. "Our students also benefit from the relationships they develop with the visiting quartet throughout the year."

Students receive a chamber-music education from the best in the business, while using their developed skills to engage the community, welcoming the public to the ASU campus, as well as performing outreach activities at The Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale and the Phoenix Art Museum.

This is the second time the Juilliard String Quartet is featured in the residency program. Its members served as visiting quartet in residence in 2006–07, during the 50th anniversary-year of the quartet, and one of the final years first violinist Joel Smirnoff performed as a member of the group. Smirnoff has since become the president of the Cleveland Institute of Music, and the quartet has welcomed a new first violinist, Joseph Lin, into the fold.

The Juilliard String Quartet has been known for more than half a century as the “quintessential American string quartet,” performing a wide ranging repertoire of some 500 works all over the world. The quartet serves as Quartet in Residence at the Juilliard School and is comprised of Joseph Lin and Ronald Copes, violins; Samuel Rhodes, viola; and Joel Krosnick, cello.

Visit our website for more information on ASU's Visiting Quartet Residency Program.

The ASU School of Music in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts is ranked 19th in the country and eighth among public institutions by U.S.News & World Report. More than 100 music faculty artists and scholars work with approximately 800 music majors each year in research, performance and scholarly activities. It presents approximately 700 concerts and recitals each year. To learn more about the ASU School of Music, visit http://music.asu.edu.