The Juilliard String Quartet

Joel Smirnoff, violin • Ronald Copes, violin • Samuel Rhodes, viola • Joel Krosnick, cello

The Juilliard String Quartet is internationally renowned and admired for performances characterized by a clarity of structure, beauty of sound, purity of line and an extraordinary unanimity of purpose. Celebrated for its performances of works by composers as diverse as Beethoven, Schubert, Bartók and Carter, it has long been recognized as the quintessential American string quartet.

In the 2007-08 season, the Juilliard String Quartet offers special programming in recognition of Elliott Carter’s 100th birthday – a composer with whom they’ve had a long and remarkable collaboration.  As ardent advocates of Carter’s complex and visionary string quartets, the Juilliard’s landmark recording of Quartets Nos. 1 - 4 was released by Sony in 1991.  This season they perform his String Quartet No. 2 and partake in celebrations of his work at the Ravinia Festival.  They also tour to California, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Washington DC.  Abroad, the Juilliard Quartet embarks on another extensive tour across Europe with stops in the Netherlands and Paris, and returns to Japan for the Miyazaki Festival.

The 2006-07 season marked the Juilliard Quartet's 60th anniversary, with a year long celebration distinguished by the Quartet's performance of seven complete Bartók cycles (The Juilliard Quartet played the American premiere of the Bartók cycle at Tanglewood in 1948) in major cities throughout the U.S. and Japan. In honor of both the Juilliards' 60th birthday and the Shostakovich centennial, Sony BMG Masterworks released a 2 CD set of the Juilliard Quartet's recordings of Shostakovich quartets Nos. 3, 14, 15 and the Piano Quintet with Yefim Bronfman.  The Juilliard Quartet also celebrated Mozart's 250th birthday, performing quartets K. 421, K. 428 and K. 465, newly informed by first-edition manuscripts recently donated to The Juilliard School.  The Quartet toured throughout the U.S. and appeared abroad in London’s Wigmore Hall, in Turkey, the Netherlands, Germany Russia, Finland, and at the Palau de la Musica in Barcelona, Spain. 

Recent highlights include a pair of concerts presented by the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Disney Hall, the world premiere of Ezequiel Viñao's Quartet II, "The Loss and the Silence," commissioned for them by The Juilliard School in honor of its 2006 centennial, and international performances of their own arrangement of Bach’s “Art of the Fugue”.  In spring 2006, they were featured artists in the Live From Lincoln Center telecast of The Juilliard School's centennial gala program. 

In 2003 the Quartet marked the celebrations of its 40thanniversary as Quartet-in-Residence at the Library of Congress with a twelve-concert complete Beethoven cycle interspersed with works by American composers whose work the Quartet has championed throughout its existence.  The JSQ has performed complete Beethoven cycle in seven-concert series at Alice Tully Hall in New York, at Casals Hall in Tokyo, at Michigan State University and most recently at the International Beethoven Festival in Bonn and at the Tonhalle in Düsseldorf.

At Carnegie Hall, the Quartet appeared in Maurizio Pollini’s “Perspectives” series with pianist Martha Argerich, and in the Hall’s 100th anniversary gala.  Annual guests at Tanglewood’s Seiji Ozawa Hall, the Juilliards played in the Hall’s opening concert and are the lead-off artists in the recent recording celebrating its 10th anniversary.  They are frequent guests at the Miyazaki Festival in Japan, and at festivals in Europe including the Lucerne Festival and the Schubertiade in Feldkirch.  In a departure from the classical norm, the Juilliard Quartet has twice been the featured ensemble – comedic and musical – on Garrison Keillor’s “Prairie Home Companion”.  

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 a momentous occasion at Tanglewood in 1997, the Juilliard String Quartet's founder and first violinist Robert Mann retired from the group after fifty years. Earlier that season, Musical America named the Quartet "Musicians of the Year," making it the first chamber music ensemble ever to appear on the cover of the publication's annual International Directory of the Performing Arts.

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 Bartók quartets in the United States, and it was through the group's performances that the quartets of Arnold Schöenberg 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.

The ensemble has been associated with Sony Classical, in its various incarnations, since 1949. In celebration of the Quartet's 50th anniversary, Sony released seven CDs containing previously unreleased material as well as notable performances from the Quartet's award-winning discography. With more than 100 releases to its credit, the ensemble is one of the most widely recorded string quartets of our time; and its recordings of the complete Beethoven quartets, the complete Schoenberg quartets, and the Debussy and Ravel string quartets have all received Grammy Awards. Inducted into the Hall of Fame of the National Academy for Recording Arts and Sciences in 1986 for its recording of the complete Bartók string quartets, the Juilliard Quartet was awarded the Deutsche Schallplattenkritik Prize in 1993 for Lifetime Achievement in the recording industry. In 1994, its recording of quartets by Ravel, Debussy, and Dutilleux was chosen by the Times of London as one of the 100 best classical CDs ever recorded.

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.

In 1997 violinist Ronald Copes joined the ensemble as second violinist and was appointed to the violin faculty at The Juilliard School. Formerly a member of the Dunsmuir Piano Quartet, the Los Angeles Piano Quartet and the Audubon String Quartet, he served on the faculties of the University of California at Santa Barbara and Michigan State Universities. During the summers, he performs and teaches as the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival in Blue Hill, Maine and has been a participant at the Bermuda, Cheltenham, Colorado, Marlboro and Olympic music festivals. He has also appeared in solo recitals across the United States and in Europe. Born in Arkansas, Mr. Copes studied at the Oberlin Conservatory with David Cerone, and at the University of Michigan withPaul Makanowitzky.

Violist Samuel Rhodes, also a New York native, appears in recitals and as orchestral soloist in addition to his activities as a composer and teacher. Celebrating his 36th season as violist of the Juilliard String Quartet and faculty member and chair of viola at The Juilliard School, he is also associated with the Marlboro Festival and Tanglewood. Mr. Rhodes' solo appearances have included recitals at the Library of Congress, Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall, The Juilliard School, and Columbia University's Miller Theater. He earned his bachelor of arts degree from Queens College and an MFA from Princeton University where he studied composition with Roger Sessions and Earl Kim. Other teachers include Sydney Beck and Walter Trampler.

Born in Connecticut to a family of enthusiastic amateur musicians, Joel Krosnick has been cellist of the Juilliard String Quartet since 1974. With pianist Gilbert Kalish, his sonata partner of over 20 years, he performs annual recitals at the Merkin and Weill Halls in New York, and has recorded much of the sonata repertoire including the complete Beethoven Sonatas and Variations and works by Poulenc, Prokofiev, Carter, Debussy, Janácek, Shapey, Cowell, and Hindemith. Mr. Krosnick's principal teachers were William D'Amato, Luigi Silva, Jens Nygaard and Claus Adam, whom he succeeded in the Juilliard Quartet. While at Columbia University, he began his lifelong commitment to contemporary music and has performed and premiered many new works including Donald Martino's Cello Concerto, Richard Wernick's Cello Concerto No. 2, and several works by Ralph Shapey. Appointed to the faculty of The Juilliard School in 1974, Mr. Krosnick has been Chair of the Cello Department since 1994. He has been associated with the Aspen and Marlboro music festivals, the Tanglewood Music Center, Yellow Barn, and Kneisel Hall in Maine.