Music for all Seasons - 20 April 2009

MUSIC FOR ALL SEASONS "CONVERSATIONS" SERIES FEATURES

THE JUILLIARD STRING QUARTET

WITH NEW MEMBER NICK EANET,

IN CONVERSATION WITH NANCY SHEAR

MONDAY, APRIL 20, 2009, 6:30 to 9 P.M. AT STEINWAY HALL

The Juilliard String Quartet, one of the most prominent and revered ensembles of all time, will appear before the public in its newest incarnation -- with new member Nick Eanet as first violinist -- in an interview with Nancy Shear, as part of Music For All Seasons' popular and acclaimed "Conversations" series. The event will be held on Monday, April 20, from 6:30 to 9 p.m., at Steinway Hall, 109 West 57^th Street (between Sixth and Seventh Avenues), the magnificent and historic flagship showroom of Steinway & Sons. The members of the Quartet will discuss the inner workings of the ensemble, from achieving instrumental balance to negotiating repertory and issues of interpretation, to the delights and trials of traveling and other rarely-discussed aspects of membership in this renowned ensemble.

The evening's program includes a question-and-answer session and a Meet-the-Artist reception with drinks and substantial hors d'oeuvres for all members of the audience.

Tickets to the Juilliard String Quartet event are $75 ($30 tax deductible). Seating is limited. For information and reservations, please call MFAS at 908-322-6300, or toll-free at 1-866-524-(MFAS).

Music For All Seasons' popular and acclaimed "Conversations" series is an innovative program that has an enthusiastic and devoted following. Guests who have appeared include Andrˆ© Previn, Lorin Maazel, Andrˆ© Watts, Steven Isserlis, Dawn Upshaw, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Richard Stoltzman, Peter Schickele, Barbara Cook and Marni Nixon. Each of the "Conversations" is held in an attractive, unusual venue in New York City. Current and past locations include Steinway Hall, CFM Gallery, Bond #9, Bˆ�sendorfer New York, the New York Society for Ethical Culture, and BMI.

MUSIC FOR ALL SEASONS

Music For All Seasons, now celebrating its 17th season, is active in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and California. By bringing live musical performances to a wide range of institutions including children's hospitals, retirement facilities, shelters for victims of domestic violence, juvenile detention centers, nursing homes, medical centers, halfway houses and hospices, MFAS aids the physical, mental and spiritual healing processes. MFAS brings together a wide variety of people and styles of music, provides opportunities for young professional artists to serve special audiences, and creates volunteer opportunities that serve local communities.

The conversations, led by distinguished writer and broadcaster Nancy Shear, provide rare insights into the careers and lives of the guests and offer a behind-the-scenes look into the music world. The interviews benefit Music For All Seasons, which has received support from the NEA, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, and donations and grants from corporations, foundations and individuals.

Additional Information

JUILLIARD STRING QUARTET

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, Bartˆ„k and Elliott Carter, it has long been recognized as the quintessential American string quartet.

The current season sees the Juilliard String Quartet in performances throughout the U.S., with dates including its annual returns to Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, performing world premieres by Richard Wernick and Melinda Wagner; in concert at the Kennedy Center Baylor University, Cornell, and Oberlin Conservatory of Music; and at the Mikazaki International Music Festival in Japan. The JSQ also performs in New York City, Phoenix, Cincinnati, New Jersey and elsewhere. Appearances abroad include a tour of Australia and a European tour with dates in Istanbul, Vienna, Haarlem, Madrid, Helsinki and at the Konzerthaus Berlin.

In 2007/08, the Juilliard String Quartet offered special programming in recognition of Elliott Carter's 100th birthday ’Äì a composer with whom they have had a long and remarkable collaboration ’Äì with special celebrations of his work at the Ravinia Festival and the Juilliard School, where it performed the world premiere of his new Clarinet Quintet with Charles Neidich. 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. The Quartet toured 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. A tour of Europe featured performances at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, a performance at the Citˆ© de la musique in Paris with an accompanying two-day residency at the Conservatoire National Supˆ©rieur 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.

In January 2008 Chamber Music America honored the Juilliard String Quartet with its highest honor, the Richard J. Bogomolny National Service award, in recognition of the Quartet's artistry, dedication and exemplary influence in chamber music.

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 Bartˆ„k cycles (The Juilliard Quartet played the American premiere of the Bartˆ„k cycle at Tanglewood in 1948) in major cities throughout the U.S. and Japan. 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.

Other recent highlights include a pair of concerts presented by the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Disney Hall; the world premiere of Ezequiel Viˆ±ao'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."

At Carnegie Hall, the Quartet appeared in Maurizio Pollini's "Perspectives" series with pianist Martha Argerich, and in the Hall's 100^th 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 10^th 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 ’Äì comedic and musical ’Äì 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, Shanghai 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."

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. 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. 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 Bartˆ„k 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.

NANCY SHEAR

Nancy Shear is well-known as writer, lecturer, producer, broadcaster and director of a performing arts production and public relations company. She has lectured for the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra and Caramoor Festival; has hosted broadcasts of the New York Philharmonic, New Jersey Symphony, Frick Collection series and Naumburg Foundation; had her own interview programs on WNYC; and has been a commentator for the American Public Radio Network. Her articles have appeared in major publications such as Musical America, Ovation, the New York Times, Lincoln Center Stagebill and Symphony Magazine. She wrote entries for the 1992 Encyclopedia of New York (co-published by Yale University Press and the New-York Historical Society), and has written a book on the cultural phenomenon of The Three Tenors. Ms. Shear has taught at New York University's School of Continuing Education, NYU's Vernon Center for Foreign Affairs and The New School, and frequently lectures at educational institutions such as The Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music and Mannes College of Music on the business and art of music, and music in an historical context. She has hosted special events including benefits at the Rainbow Room and, with Andrˆ© Previn, co-hosted a gala at the Caramoor Music Festival. Her rich background includes almost two decades as orchestra librarian, for The Philadelphia Orchestra, Curtis Institute, and privately for Leopold Stokowski and other major figures of the current and recent past generations. Ms. Shear has also lectured on the life and work of Eleanor Roosevelt and on various travel subjects.