The Program

Haydn:  Quartet in D Major, Op. 76, No. 5
Ravel:  Quartet in F Major
Schubert: Quintet in C Major, D. 956

The Artists

Formed in 1974, when its original members were students at the Juilliard School, the American String Quartet was launched by winning both the Coleman Competition and the Naumburg Award in the same year.  In over three decades of touring since, the American has performed in all 50 states and appeared in virtually every important concert hall throughout the world.  Their presentations of the complete quartets of Beethoven, Schubert, Schoenberg, Bartók, and Mozart have won widespread critical acclaim. The 1998 MusicMasters Complete Mozart String Quartets, performed on a matched quartet set of instruments by Stradivarius, are widely considered to have set the standard for this repertoire.  Resident quartet at the Aspen Music Festival since 1974 and the Manhattan School of Music in New York since 1984, the American has also served as resident quartet at the Taos School of Music, the Peabody Conservatory and the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.  For more information on the American Quartet visit www.americanstringquartet.com.

Andrés Díaz was born in Santiago, Chile in 1964 and began studying the cello at the age of five.  Since winning the First Prize in the 1986 Naumburg International Cello Competition, he has exhilarated both critics and audiences with his intense and charismatic performances. He has earned exceptional reviews for his "strongly personal interpretive vision" (The New York Times) and his "bold and imaginative" playing (The Boston Globe) and was awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant in 1998.  A sought-after recitalist, he is also active with the Diaz String Trio, featuring violinist Andrés Cardenes and violist Roberto Díaz.  He plays a 1698 Matteo Goffriller Cello and a bow made by his father, Manuel Diaz.  For more information on Andrés Díaz visit www.andresdiaz.com.