Juilliard String Quartet
widely known as the quintessential American string quartet, welcomes its new cellist, Astrid Schween, and celebrates its 70th anniversary during the 2016/17 season with return engagements in Philadelphia, San Francisco, Detroit, Toronto, Louisville, Cleveland, Tucson, and New York’s Alice Tully Hall. The JSQ premieres Fragments, String Quartet No. 6 by renowned Argentine-American composer Mario Davidovsky, jointly commissioned by the Arizona Friends of Chamber Music and the Juilliard School. In January, the Quartet tours Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, and Turkey, including appearances at the Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam, the Musikverein in Vienna, and the Berlin Konzerthaus.

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, 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.

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four Elliott Carter String Quartets together with the more recently recorded Carter Quartet No. 5, making a complete historical document. Devoted master teachers, the members of the Juilliard String Quartet offer classes and open rehearsals when on tour. At the Juilliard School, where they are the String Quartet in Residence, all are sought-after members of the string and chamber music faculty and annually, in May, they are hosts of the 5-day Internationally recognized Juilliard String Quartet Seminar.

In performance, recordings and incomparable work educating the major artists and quartets of our time, the Juilliard String Quartet has carried the banner of the United States and The Juilliard School throughout the world.