The Juilliard String Quartet to premiere Elliott Carter's new clarinet quintet with Charles Neidich in the Peter Jay Sharp Theater at Juilliard, Tuesday, April 29, 8 PM

Open rehearsal will be combined with a discuss and two complete performances of the piece; the event, celebrating the American composer's 100 birthday, is free and open to the public

The famed Juilliard String Quartet – Joel Smirnoff and Ronald Copes, violins; Samuel Rhodes, viola; and Joel Krosnick, cello – will perform the world premiere of Elliott Carter’s new Quintet for Clarinet and Strings with Charles Neidich, clarinetist, Tuesday, April 29, 2008, 8 p.m., at The Juilliard School’s Peter Jay Sharp Theater. The work is dedicated to the Juilliard Quartet and Mr. Neidich. This event, part of Juilliard’s 2007-08 Daniel Saidenberg Faculty Recital Series, celebrates Carter’s centenary. Mr. Carter will be present at the event.

The evening will follow the unusual format of an open rehearsal, panel discussion moderated by Juilliard Dean Ara Guzelimian, and two performances of the complete work, separated by an intermission. The Quartet feels that repeated listening is beneficial in understanding a new work, particularly in the case of a complex piece such as this new quintet. This will, in effect, be a “guided tour” through the new work, and the process of composing and performing it. Members of the Quartet commented that “this is the same process that the Schuppanzigh Quartet would have gone through with Beethoven.”

Tickets are free, available beginning April 15 at the Juilliard Box Office, located at 60 Lincoln Center Plaza. Box Office hours are Monday through Friday from 11 AM - 6 PM. The Juilliard Box Office is accessible by elevator, escalator, or stairs located on W. 65th Street near Amsterdam Avenue. For further information, call the Juilliard Box Office at (212) 769-7406 or visit the Web site at www.juilliard.edu.

The members of the Quartet expressed their joy in performing the music of a living composer, and the necessity of being flexible in one’s interpretation. “We must have just the right sound,” Joel Krosnick explained. “What the composer says changes the way you think, even when the printed notes are clear. One cannot be ‘stuck’ with what is on the page.”

The Juilliard String Quartet has been devoted to the music of Elliott Carter for half a century, beginning with performances of his String Quartet No. 2 in 1958. The Quartet recorded the first four of Carter’s quartets under his direction.

Elliott Carter said of the JSQ’s performances of his quartets, “These quartets received the Pulitzer Prize on two occasions, all due to the efforts of the Juilliard Quartet and their beautiful performances of my music.” 

About the new work, Mr. Carter commented, “The Clarinet Quintet was written with the wonderful performers and the warm friendship of the Juilliard Quartet and the outstanding clarinetist Charles Neidich in mind. In it, the clarinet follows its own musical character in contrast to that of the quartet. There are five interlocking movements with no pauses. Having written a Clarinet Concerto and five string quartets, work on this was particularly attractive. The piece was finished October 7, 2007 in New York City.”

The Juilliard Quartet stated “The magnificence of Mr. Carter's visions, as expressed in his great chamber works, is combined with his modest demeanor and an intense desire to help us in every possible way.  He is a towering figure in the music of this time, and a very gentle and sincere man.”

Charles Neidich discussed the origin of the new work. “It was at a dinner last spring when Elliott Carter told me that he would be interested in writing a quintet for string quartet and clarinet for me. For a long time, I was hoping for a work from Carter that clarinetists could add to the great quintets of Mozart and Beethoven. The piece was eventually commissioned by The Juilliard School.

“With the project officially sanctioned, we had only to wait for Carter to compose the work, which he did with his usual passion and fervent speed. Within a few months, I found a copy of the manuscript in my mailbox. As with everything that Carter writes, it is very different from any other quintet in the clarinet repertoire, and, like much of Carter, it is a union of opposites. It begins with the clarinet moving at a furious pace and the strings virtually still, and ends with the strings playing very virtuosic music while the clarinet plays an incredibly long, beautiful slow line. I am looking forward to this premiere as one of the most exciting and meaningful performances of my life.”

ABOUT ELLIOTT CARTER AND HIS MUSIC
Elliott Carter was called by Aaron Copland “one of America’s most distinguished creative artists in any field.” Carter was initially encouraged to become a composer by Charles Ives, and went on to study at Harvard with Walter Piston and in Paris with Nadia Boulanger. With his explorations into tempo relationships and texture, Carter's consistently innovative and dynamic output of works is unmistakably American. Sometimes, in works such as the String Quartet No. 1, it is reminiscent of the vastness of the American landscapes; at other times, for example in the Concerto for Orchestra, his complex counterpoint conjures up the dense and hectic environment of the big cities. His intricate works often mirror human interactions and relationships. Recent years have seen an outpouring of major orchestral scores such as Micomicón and Soundings, along with numerous chamber works. Carter’s late style is marked by transparency and clarity of texture, with a new directness of formal design. His music has been championed by leading conductors including Boulez, Barenboim, Knussen, Nagano, Dohnányi, Levine, Gielen, Holliger, Robertson, and Bamert, and his many awards include official recognition from the governments of France, Germany, Italy, and the U.S.

Twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize, first composer to receive the United States National Medal of Arts, one of the few composers ever awarded Germany's Ernst Von Siemens Music Prize, and in 1988 made “Commandeur dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres” by the Government of France, Carter is internationally recognized as one of the leading American voices of the classical music tradition. He recently received the Prince Pierre Foundation Music Award, bestowed by the Principality of Monaco, and was one of a handful of living composers elected to the Classical Music Hall of Fame. December 11, 2008 will mark Carter’s 100th birthday.

ABOUT THE JUILLIARD STRING QUARTET
The Juilliard String Quartet is internationally renowned and admired for performances characterized by clarity of structure, beauty of sound, purity of line, and 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 have 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 special celebrations of his work at the Ravinia Festival and at the Juilliard School. The Quartet tours throughout the US, with notable appearances at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C.; at the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society; the La Jolla Music Society; Chamber Music Society of Detroit; in Florida, Massachusetts, Ohio, Michigan, and elsewhere. 

In January 2008 Chamber Music America honored the Juilliard String Quartet with it’s highest honor, the Richard J. Bogomolny National Service award, in recognition of the Quartet’s artistry, dedication and exemplary influence in chamber music. Later that month, The Juilliard Quartet embarked on an extensive European tour, including two performances at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, a performance at the Cité de la musique in Paris with an accompanying two-day residency at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique, and a return to Spain, where they performed, for the second time, on the Royal Family’s matched set of inlaid Stradavari at the Palacio Real in Madrid.  This summer the Quartet looks forward to their annual residency at the Tanglewood 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 Juilliard's 60th birthday and the Shostakovich centennial, Sony BMG Masterworks released a two-CD set of the 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 parts 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 Bach's Art of the Fugue. In Spring 2006, they were featured artists in the “Live From Lincoln Center” telecast of Juilliard's centennial gala program.

In 2003, the Quartet marked the celebrations of its 40th anniversary 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 a 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. 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.

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 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.

For more information about the Juilliard String Quartet, please visit www.colbertartists.com and www.juilliardstringquartet.org.

ABOUT CHARLES NEIDICH
Charles Neidich has gained worldwide recognition as one of the most mesmerizing virtuosos on his instrument. With a tone of hypnotic beauty and a dazzling technique, Mr. Neidich has received unanimous accolades from critics and fellow musicians both in the U.S. and abroad. But it is his musical intelligence and catholic tastes that transcend his virtuosity.

Highlights of Charles Neidich’s 2007-2008 season include performances at the Festival Consonaces of Olivier Messiaen’s Quatour pour la fin du temps and a new work of his own titled Icarus, a week in November coaching and performing with a newly formed orchestra in Valencia, Spain, the Llanera Philharmonic and (on a lighter note) a New Year’s Eve gala concert in Potsdam, Germany playing Saint-Saëns Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso and Sarasate’s Zigeunerweisen in his arrangements for clarinet and orchestra. On October 22, he performed the world premiere of Ralph Shapey’s Quintet for clarinet and string quartet and the American premiere of the Brahms Quintet Op. 115 on an Ottensteiner clarinet, the instrument which inspired Brahms to write the work with the Juilliard Quartet as part of the Saidenberg concert series at The Juilliard School. On October 26 and 27, he performed the Copland Concerto with the Alabama Symphony in his reconstruction of Copland’s original version of the work. In March and August 2008 he will continue his series of masterclasses in Tama and Kita-Karuizawa, Japan and he will also continue the recording project he began last June in Moscow titled “The Art of Transcription” with works of Mendelssohn and Fauré. Charles Neidich conducts the Queens College Chamber Orchestra in historically informed interpretations. He also performs regularly as a member of the New York Woodwind Quintet.

Mr. Neidich’s 2006-07 season included engagements with the Memphis Symphony and the Sanibel Music Festival (Florida) where he collaborated with the Amernet String Quartet.

In wide demand as a soloist, Mr. Neidich has collaborated with some of the world’s leading orchestras and ensembles, including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of London, Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Halle Staatsorchester of Germany, Orpheus, the St. Louis Symphony, Jacksonville Symphony, Pasadena Symphony, San Diego Symphony, New City Chamber Orchestra of San Francisco, Athens Chamber Music Festival, Tafelmusik, the Juilliard, Guarneri, American, and Mendelssohn string quartets, and the Peabody Trio. He has made his mark not only as an instrumentalist and conductor, but also as an innovative programmer and student of period instrument performance practice.

With a growing discography to his credit, Mr. Neidich can be heard on the Chandos, Sony Classical, Sony Vivarte, Deutsche Grammophon, Musicmasters, Pantheon, and Bridge labels. In 1985, Mr. Neidich became the first clarinetist to win the Walter W. Naumburg Competition, which brought him to prominence as a soloist. He then taught at the Eastman School of Music and during that tenure joined the New York Woodwind Quintet, an ensemble with which he still performs. His European honors include a top prize at the 1982 Munich International Competition sponsored by the German television network ARD, and the Geneva and Paris International Competitions. Mr. Neidich has achieved recognition as a teacher in addition to his activities as a performer, and currently is a member of the artist faculties of The Juilliard School, the Manhattan School of Music, the Mannes College of Music, and Queens College. During the 1994-95 academic year he was a Visiting Professor at the Sibelius Academy in Finland where he taught, performed and conducted. Mr. Neidich is a long-time member of the renowned chamber ensemble Orpheus.