August 30, 2004 Library of Congress Takes the Juilliard Quartet on Tour

After 40 years of distinguished residency at the Library of Congress, the Juilliard String Quartet assumes a new role as the Library's partner in a special series of free performances and educational programs in Southern California during October 2004. Co-sponsors for the project are three notable California musical institutions: Idyllwild Arts Academy, the Arts and Lectures Program at the University of California at Santa Barbara and Walt Disney Concert Hall.

The Juilliard String Quartet, master teachers as well as performers who are renowned for more than 50 years of uncompromising musicianship and a strong commitment to contemporary music, will give free performances at each of the venues.

The Music Division of the Library of Congress is the creative force behind this unusual educational outreach initiative. Presented through the generosity of Jon and Lillian Lovelace, the Juilliard Quartet's tour will offer performances and instruction within an artistic and intellectual context unique to the Library. The Lovelaces are members of the Library’s private sector advisory group, the James Madison Council.

The project includes the on-site exhibition of rare music manuscripts, documents and instruments from the Library's collections along with curatorial lectures and Web site demonstrations that can access the Library's online treasury of more than 8.5 million items in formats that range from music, photographs and sound recordings to films, maps and documents.

Participants at each venue will be able to hear the Library's 17th century Amati violin played in performance and examine original manuscripts by Ludwig van Beethoven and Béla Bartók.

At Idyllwild Arts Academy, a performing arts academy in the San Jacinto Mountains, the quartet will coach high school students in the violin and chamber music programs on Sept. 30.

During a two-day residency at the University of California's Santa Barbara campus on Oct. 3 and 4, the Juilliard will perform back-to-back concerts at the area's historic Montecito House. They will also work informally with students from the university, the Santa Barbara Music Teachers Association and award winners from the Ventura Chamber Music Festival competition and Santa Barbara Music Club and Music Academy Merit programs. All these events are open to the public, space permitting.

The Los Angeles Philharmonic Association will host the Juilliard Quartet at the Disney Concert Hall on Monday, Oct. 4 at 8 p.m., and co-sponsor a master class for high school students at the Colburn School in downtown Los Angeles on Oct. 5.

The Juilliard will perform one free concert this season at the Library’s Coolidge Auditorium at 8 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 17, when they will be joined by pianist Christopher Oldfather. A new Library of Congress commission by the McKim Fund, Stephen Hartke's ADiferencias@ for violin and piano, will receive its world premiere. The remainder of the program will be announced at a later date.

All Library of Congress concerts are presented free of charge but require tickets for admission, which are distributed by Ticketmaster at (301) 808-6900 for a nominal service charge.

Tickets for the Juilliard String Quartet concert on Dec. 17 will be available from Ticketmaster on Nov. 3. For further information, please call the Concert Office at (202) 707-8432 or visit the concert Web site at www.loc.gov/concerts.