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The Verona's two-year fellowship as Juilliard's Graduate Resident String Quartet comes to an end with the annual Lisa Arnhold Memorial Recital, which brings the ensemble to Alice Tully Hall on May 8. Less than two weeks later its members, violinists Jonathan Ong and Dorothy Ro, violist Abigail Rojansky, and cellist Warren Hagerty, will each graduate with an Artist Diploma.
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The recital opens with Shostakovich's three-movement String Quartet No. 7, his shortest quartet at less than 15 minutes, which is followed by Mozart's teasing, surprise-filled Viola Quintet in C Major, for which the musicians will be joined by faculty member Roger Tapping, the violist of the Juilliard String Quartet.
The concert closes with Beethoven's String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp Minor, which the Verona also played during a March master class taught by Joel Smirnoff (you can see it on medici.tv for the next year and it's also available on Juilliard's YouTube channel). Beethoven's so-called late quartets, numbers 12 through 16, are considered the composer's final major compositions, and while they were not greatly celebrated in his day, they have since earned the veneration of composers and critics. Schubert allegedly said of No. 14, “After this, what is left for us to write?”
It has just been announced that the Argus Quartet, which since its formation in 2013 has had residencies at Caramoor and Yale, will succeed the Verona at Juilliard. The Argus is made up of violinists Jason Issokson and Clara Kim, violist Dana Kelley, and cellist Jo Whang.
