September 18, 2001
Contact: Susan Gwynne
(805) 893-2098
e-mail: gwynne-s@sa.ucsb.edu

UCSB Arts & Lectures presents
the celebrated Guarneri String Quartet
at Campbell Hall

Summary Facts:

• Guarneri String Quartet performs at UCSB
• The world’s most enduring and beloved string quartet
• A program of Beethoven, Lutoslawski and Dvorák
• Tuesday, October 30
• 8 pm / UCSB Campbell Hall
• General: $30/$25, UCSB students: $19/$16
• Tickets/information: UCSB Arts & Lectures at 893-3535

Revered for its distinctively rich sound and majestic playing, The Guarneri String Quartet will perform on Tuesday, October 30 at 8 pm in UCSB Campbell Hall. Founded in 1964, the group has played the most prestigious concert halls throughout the world. “The Guarneri has had notable success largely because of its urgent musicality and bold, dramatic projection,” claims The Washington Post. “Its distinctive sound is the product of four insightful musicians, all soloists, conjoined within a framework of shared interpretation.”

The Quartet’s lengthy and varied discography includes the recently released String Quartets: Ravel, Debussy, Fauré. Guarneri has been featured on television and radio specials, including CBS’ Sunday Morning with Charles Kuralt. High Fidelity: The Guarneri String Quartet, a 1988 film documentary about the group directed by Academy Award winner Allan Miller, won kudos both for the quality of the musical performances and its insight into the prickly collaborative creative process. The group has also been the subject of several books, the most recent written by one of its members, Arnold Steinhardt’s Indivisible by Four: A String Quartet in Pursuit of Harmony (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998).

Guarneri is comprised of Arnold Steinhardt, violin; John Dalley, violin; Michael Tree, viola and newest member Peter Willey, cello. Willey replaced founding-member David Soyer this year, remarkably the first personnel change in the history of the group. Their UCSB concert will feature Beethoven’s String Quartet in A Major, Op. 18, No. 5; Lutoslawski’s String Quartet and Dvorák’s String Quartet in C Major, Op. 61.

All four members, revered performers in their own right, currently are on the faculty on the University of Maryland. Violinist Arnold Steinhardt debuted with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at age 14. Violinist John Dalley taught at the Oberlin Conservatory and was a member of the Oberlin String Quartet. Violist Michael Tree was a founding member of both the Marlboro Trio and the Guarneri. as a youth cellist Peter Willey studied under David Soyer, the man he succeeded, and was a member of the Beaux Arts Trio.

Now in its twenty-seventh year, Guarneri still draws rave reviews. After a recent concert, the Los Angeles Times wrote, “That they had the energy and commitment to give performances that not only extend our understanding and love of the music, but demanded as much of themselves as the audience, was a stirring reminder of what it once meant to be a bearer of classical music’s sacred flame.”

The Quartet will hold a Pre-Concert Meet-the-Artists Discussion at 7 pm for ticket holders only. As part of their residency, they will also hold a Master Class with UCSB Students on Wednesday, October 31 from 10 am to 12 noon at Geiringer Hall, UCSB Department of Music. The class is free and open to public observation.

Arts & Lectures has presented the Guarneri String Quartet five times previously: on April 14, 1968; on October 23, 1970; on November 18, 1974; on October 21, 1980 and November 10, 1987.

The Guarneri String Quartet is presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures; the performance is sponsored by KDB Radio and Montecito Magazine. This residency is funded in part by the California Arts Council, a state agency, and the National Endowment of the Arts, a federal agency.

For tickets or more information,
call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535.

Editor: For photos, please call
Susan Gwynne at (805) 893-2098.