“The Juilliard String Quartet, one of American chamber music’s most hallowed institutions, will get its first new cellist in over 40 years,” writes Zachary Woolfe in Wednesday’s (5/13) New York Times. “Joseph W. Polisi, the Juilliard School’s president, announced Tuesday that Joel Krosnick, a quartet member since 1974, would leave the group at the end of the 2015-16 season, its 70th. He will be replaced by Astrid Schween, a Juilliard alumna and a member of the Boston Trio. She will join the violinists Joseph Lin and Ronald Copes and the violist Roger Tapping as the group’s first female member. It is the latest shift for the venerable quartet: Both Mr. Lin and Mr. Tapping were hired in the past five years. The torch will be passed musically next February, when Ms. Schween will join the current lineup for Schubert’s C-Major Quintet (D. 956), during Mr. Krosnick’s final appearance at Alice Tully Hall as the quartet’s cellist. (The group did something similar for its last switch, in 2013, when Mr. Tapping played alongside the violist he was replacing, Samuel Rhodes, in quintets by Mr. Rhodes and Mozart.)”
Posted May 14, 2015
