American String Quartet, Chamber Music at the Clark

All Chamber Music at the Clark tickets will be sold by the UCLA Central Ticket Office. Tickets may be purchased online, via telephone, or in person. 

Ticket prices: General $60; Senior (age 55+) $50; UCLA student (valid student ID required for each ticket) $15. Tickets are non-refundable.

Tickets for this concert will go on sale Tuesday, February 2, 2027 at Noon.

Seating at the Clark Library is limited, and tickets are likely to sell out within a few minutes.

Online: https://ucla.evenue.net/events/CTO
Telephone: (310) 825-2101
In person: Central Ticket Office windows located on the UCLA campus at 325 Westwood Plaza (ground level, across from Pauley Pavilion).

If any tickets for this concert remain unsold, they will be available for purchase at the Clark Library on the day of the event. Any available day-of tickets will be sold on a first-come, first-served basis by a Central Ticket Office representative beginning at 1:00 p.m. Payment will be accepted via credit card only. For inquiries, please call or email the Central Ticket Office at (310) 825-2101 or cto@tickets.ucla.edu, Monday–Friday 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Program

Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)
String Quartet in D Major, op. 76, no. 5

Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
String Quartet in G Minor, op. 10

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
String Quartet No. 9, op. 59, no. 3

American String Quartet

Peter Winograd, violin
Laurie Carney, violin
Matthias Buchholz, viola
Wolfram Koessel, cello

Internationally recognized as one of the world’s finest quartets, the American String Quartet has spent decades honing the luxurious sound for which it is famous. The Quartet celebrated its 45th anniversary in 2019, and, in its years of touring, has performed in all fifty states and has appeared in the most important concert halls worldwide. The group’s presentations of the complete quartets of Beethoven, Schubert, Schoenberg, Bartók, and Mozart have won widespread critical acclaim, and their MusicMasters Mozart: The Complete String Quartets, performed on a matched quartet set of instruments by Stradivarius, are widely considered to have set the standard for this repertoire.

Recent seasons featured performances of the Quartet’s major project together with the National Book Award-winning author Phil Klay and the poet Tom Sleigh, which offers a groundbreaking program combining music and readings that examines the effects of war. The Quartet also collaborated with the renowned author Salman Rushdie in a work for narrator and quartet by the film composer Paul Cantelon built around Rushdie’s novel The Enchantress of Florence. These tremendously imaginative collaborations cement the American String Quartet’s reputation as one of the most adventurous and fearless string quartets performing today, as comfortable with the groundbreaking as with the traditional.

The Quartet’s diverse activities have also included numerous international radio and television broadcasts, including a recent recording for the BBC; tours of Asia; and performances with the New York City Ballet, the Montreal Symphony, and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Recent highlights include performances of an all-sextet program with Roberto and Andrès Díaz, many tours of South America, and performances of the complete Beethoven cycle of string quartets at the Cervantes Festival in Mexico and the Tel Aviv Museum in Israel.

The American String Quartet’s additional extensive discography can be heard on the Albany, CRI, MusicMasters, Musical Heritage Society, Nonesuch, and RCA labels. Most recently the group released Schubert’s Echo, which pairs Schubert’s monumental last quartet with works bearing its influence by Second Viennese masters Alban Berg and Anton Webern. This repertoire posits that the creative line from the First to the Second Viennese Schools is continuous—and evident when these works are heard in the context of each other.

As champions of new music, the American String Quartet has given numerous premieres, including George Tsontakis’s Quartet No. 7.5 (“Maverick) Richard Danielpour’s Quartet No. 4, and Curt Cacioppo’s a distant voice calling. The premiere of Robert Sirota’s American Pilgrimage was performed around the U.S. in the cities the work celebrates. The Quartet premiered Tobias Picker’s String Quartet No. 2 in New York City in celebration of the 90th anniversary of the Manhattan School of Music.

Formed when its original members were students at The Juilliard School, the American String Quartet’s career began with the group winning both the Coleman Competition and the Naumburg Award in the same year.  Resident quartet at the Aspen Music Festival since 1974 and at the Manhattan School of Music in New York since 1984, the American String Quartet has also served as resident quartet at the Taos School of Music, the Peabody Conservatory, and the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.

We are especially pleased to have the American String Quartet perform this year, as the Quartet will be retiring after their 2026-27 season. Founded in 1974, upon retirement this long-standing, preeminent quartet will have been performing for an amazing fifty-three years!

The American String Quartet first performed in the Chamber Music at the Clark series in its second season, on January 14, 1996, and have performed a total of ten times at the Clark. The American String Quartet is an audience favorite, so we are truly thrilled to be able to welcome them back for an eleventh (though sadly last) time. We look forward to having you join us in thanking them for their wonderful performances over the years, celebrating their long career, and wishing them all the best in their retirement!

Chamber Music at the Clark is made possible by The Ahmanson Foundation, under the auspices of Lee Walcott; Henry J. Bruman Endowment for Chamber Music; The Colburn Foundation; Ms. Brenda F. Anderson; Martha Bardach/Bardach Robson Family Charitable Foundation; Catherine Glynn Benkaim, Ph.D. and Ms. Barbara Timmer; Rogers Brubaker, Ph.D; Johanna R. Drucker, Ph.D.; The Mari and Ed Edelman Charitable Fund for Music and Public Service; Dr. Daniel J. Fink and Dr. Ruth F. Cousineau; Susan S. Harris, Ph.D. and Mr. Mark J. Harris; Judith L. Hellinger; Dr. David E. Lopez; Dr. Martin H. Mach and Dr. Susan P. Mach; Mr. Bernie Mendes and Ms. Elaine Mendes; Mrs. Janet K. Minami; Mr. Jeffrey L. Nagin and Mrs. Bette I. Nagin; Jeanne Robson, Ph.D. ; Dr. Thomas Rosenthal and Ms. Susan M. Rosenthal; Dr. Patricia Bates Simun and Mr. Richard V. Simun Memorial Fund; Professor Bronwen Wilson; and Mr. Robert A. Young and Mrs. Roberta J. Husted Young.

Please see here for more information about our chamber music programs.

Photo credit: Courtesy of American String Quartet.