Thursday, December 3, 2020 ~ 8:00 pmThe Library of Congress

Virtual Event

JACK QUARTET

& CONRAD TAO, PIANO

The McKim Fund in the Library of Congress

CONCERTS FROM THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 2020-2021

The MCKIM FUND in the Library of Congress was created in 1970 through a bequest of Mrs. W. Duncan McKim, concert violinist, who won international prominence under her maiden name, Leonora Jackson; the fund supports the commissioning and performance of chamber music for violin and piano.

Conversation with the ArtistsJoin us online at https://loc.gov/concerts/jack-quartet.html for a conversation with the artists, videos about Elliott Carter and Ruth Crawford Seeger, and additional resources related to the concert, available starting at 10am on Thursday, December 3.

Facebook ChatWant more? Join other concert goers and Music Division curators after the concert for a chat that may include the artists, depending on availability. You can access this during the premiere and for a

few minutes after by going to

facebook.com/pg/libraryofcongressperformingarts/videos

How to Watch Concerts from the Library of Congress Virtual Events

1) See each individual event page at loc.gov/concerts2) Watch on the Library's YouTube channel: youtube.com/loc

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Videos may not be available on all three platforms, and some videos will only be accessible for a limited period of time.

JACK QUARTET

& CONRAD TAO, PIANO

Christopher Otto & Austin Wulliman, Violin

John Pickford Richards, Viola Jay Campbell, Cello

Videography: Stuart Breczinski (Rodericus & Crawford Seeger)

Videography: David Bird (Carter & Sorey) Audio Engineering: Ryan Streber

The Library of CongressVirtual Event

Thursday, December 3, 2020 — 8:00 pm

The McKim Fund in the Library of Congress

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Program

Rodericus (fl. late 14th century)/Christopher Otto Angelorum psalat (c.1390s)

Elliott Carter (1908-2012)Duo for Violin and Piano (1973-4)

Tyshawn SoreyEverything Changes, Nothing Changes (2018)

Ruth Crawford [Seeger] (1901-1953)String Quartet 1931 (1931)

I. Rubato assai—Più mosso—Tempo primo—Più mosso—Tempo primo—Meno mosso—Più mosso—Meno mosso—Più mosso—Meno mosso

II. Leggiero (tempo giusto)III. Andante—Doppio movimento—Quasi tempo primo—Tempo primoIV. Allegro possibile

Tyshawn SoreyFor Conrad Tao (2020)

Elliott Carter (1881-1945) String Quartet no. 3 (1971)

Duo II: Maestoso (giusto sempre)—Pause—Grazioso—Giusto, meccanico / Duo I: Furioso (quasi rubato sempre)—Leggerissimo— Andante espressivo—Pause

Duo II: Pause—Scorrevole / Duo I: Giocoso—PauseDuo II: Giusto, meccanico—Grazioso /

Duo I: Leggerissimo—Furioso—PauseDuo II: Maestoso—Pause / Duo I: Giocoso—Andante espressivoDuo II: Largo tranquillo—Appassionato—Largo tranquillo /

Duo I: Pause—Leggerissimo—Giocoso—FuriosoDuo II: Scorrevole—Appassionato—Coda /

Duo I: Andante espressivo—Furioso—Coda

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About the Program

Rodericus/Otto, Angelorum psalat

Angelorum Psalat is a strikingly original two-voice ballade from the Chantilly Codex, a collection of music in the style known as Ars Subtilior (“subtler art”). It is the only surviving work of Rodericus, known in the codex as Suciredor. Many works of the Ars Subtilior experiment with rhythmic and notational complexity, and Angelorum Psalat is one of the most extreme examples, using no fewer than twenty different varicolored note shapes. For my arrangement I have relied on the transcription of Nors S. Josephson, in whose interpretation the note shapes signify a radical expansion of rhythmic possibility, specifying a much richer variety of speeds and durations than most Western music before the twentieth century. I have given the first violin and viola the original two voices and added the second violin and cello parts to clarify the underlying grid of these complex rhythms. ~ Christopher Otto

•Elliott Carter, Duo for Violin and Piano

From the Composer:The Duo for Violin and Piano derives its character and expression from the contrast between its two very dissimilar instruments—the bow-stroked violin and the key-struck piano. The mercurial violin music, at times intense and dramatic, at others light and fanciful, constantly changes its pace and tone of expression; the piano plays long stretches of music of consistent character and is much more regular both in rhythm and in style. The piano makes extensive use of the pedal to mask one sonority with another and then gradually to uncover the second—as in the very first measures. In fact, the long opening section for the piano forms a quiet, almost icy background to the varied and dramatic violin, which seems to fight passionately against the piano. After this beginning, the music is joined seamlessly until the end. In the course of the work, the violin focuses on one aspect of its part after another—and often on two or more aspects at a time—playing in a rubato, rhythmically irregular style, while the piano constantly plays regular beats, sometimes fast, sometimes slow.

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Toward the end, while the violin is involved in a very fast, impassioned music, the piano becomes more and more detached, playing a series of regular rhythmic patterns, each successively slower than the previous one. As the piano reaches a point of extreme slowness, the violin is heard increasingly alone, isolating for a few measures at a time the various elements of its part, with the quiet and more lyrical aspects given more prominence than previously. The general form is quite different from that of the music I wrote up to 1950. While this earlier music was based on themes and their development, here the musical ideas are not themes or melodies but rather groupings of sound materials out of which textures, linear patterns, and figurations are invented. Each type of music has its own identifying sound and expression, usually combining instrumental color with some “behavioral” pattern that relies on speed, rhythm, and musical intervals. There is no repetition, but a constant invention of new things—some closely related to each other, others, remotely. There is a stratification of sound so that much of the time the listener can hear two different kinds of music, not always of equal prominence occurring simultaneously. This kind of form and texture could be said to reflect the experience we often have of seeing something in different frames of reference at the same time. ~ Elliott Carter

Composer Jeffrey Mumford, a former student of Elliott Carter, participated in a conversation with the JACK Quartet and Anne McLean. He offers some additional thoughts on the Carter and Crawford works included on this program, and these are interspersed below.

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Duality and multiplicity are hallmarks of Elliott Carter's work, from his Piano Sonata written in 1945 through his late works. Specifically as this relates to the Duo for Violin and Piano (1973-4) commissioned by the McKim Fund in the Library of Congress, Carter sets up multi-relational scenarios contrasting the prevailingly fragmented nature of the violin writing with the often flowing and variously unfolding piano music, resulting in simultaneously divergent journeys. When I first encountered this work as recorded by Paul Zukovsky and Gilbert Kalish, I was immediately struck (as I am with all of Carter’s music, irrespective of period or harmonic language) by its directness and passion. The violin (not unlike the beginning of Beethoven's "Kreutzer" Sonata) is featured prominently in an almost soloistic manner, presenting profoundly expressive and searching solo material, no doubt a tribute to

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Zukovsky's virtuosity, similar in this way to the opening of Beethoven's work showing the esteem he felt for the playing of its original dedicatee, George Bridgetower. In Carter's work, the constantly unfolding violin music is initially partnered by sparse chords in the piano, giving the violin free reign to explore a wide range of expressive possibilities. Not to be overshadowed by the violin's fragmented expansiveness, the piano eventually offers explosions and cascades of notes in counterpoint to the ongoing journey of the violin. There are moments of coalescence only to again spin off into divergent paths. As Carter often stated, he likes to set up dramatic scenarios for the instruments for which he writes, and the Duo certainly displays a wide array of them. As Carter also noted, "there is a stratification of sound" such that the listener prevailingly experiences the sensation of hearing two different kinds of music simultaneously. This is particularly the case toward the end, wherein the violin continues to play in what Carter describes as "a rhythmically irregular style," often extremely impassioned, while the piano emphasizes regular beats. As the violin speeds up, the piano becomes more detached and slows down, allowing the violin to be heard alone, becoming quieter and more reflective as the work comes to its close. ~ Jeffrey Mumford

•Tyshawn Sorey, Everything Changes, Nothing Changes

Tyshawn Sorey is a composer and multi-instrumentalist, already legendary for his unspeakable instrumental command, deep embodiment and memorization of the most involved scores, and a singular combination of formalistic structure and improvisation in his compositional work. Commissioned by the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, his first string quartet explores a shifting harmonic field controlled by the knife’s-edge precision of Sorey’s chess-master mind. In Everything Changes, Nothing Changes, shifting orchestrations and harmonic revelations unfold into a new state of musical thought and mental space for the audience to inhabit.

Note by Lara Pellegrinelli:Commissioned for the JACK Quartet and premiered at the Banff Festival last summer, Everything Changes, Nothing Changes was inspired largely by sudoku puzzles and the time spent with visual artists during Sorey’s retreat at Robert Rauschenberg’s former studio in Captiva, Florida. The

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piece derives its formal structure from a grid consisting of 14 sections that contain 16 permuted rhythmic units over time, though the tempo is so slow that they will likely be imperceptible to the listener. Amid seemingly endless shifting harmonies, one of the constants is how the quartet functions as a unit without featuring single voices throughout the work’s entirety. “When two or three voices are playing a given sonority (an event), the ear tends to go horizontally towards the arrival of a new voice that enters. In other words, when one or two voices arrive within any event, the sonority then intensifies so that the resulting harmony is perceived more quickly than the way in which the voices move within that event.”

•Ruth Crawford [Seeger],1 String Quartet 1931

There's modern, and then there's ultra-modern. Ruth Crawford belonged to that daring school of American "ultra-modernists" that included composers like Henry Cowell and Carl Ruggles, producing an inventive body of work in a short space of time.2 She is now recognized as a major contributor in both composition and folk music; most of her "concert music" predated her marriage to Charles Seeger in 1932, when her professional focus shifted to the folk realm. The complexities of her relationship to composition have been increasingly explored as Crawford's reputation has grown, for instance in Judith Tick's 1997 biography of the composer.

While Crawford has not always been a mainstream figure, her ability was recognized by musicians in a position to support her efforts, especially with respect to the String Quartet 1931. Of all her compositions, it was the string quartet that did the most to solidify Crawford's reputation and ultimately increase awareness of her music. It is significant that the Andante movement comprised the first side of the first record produced in Henry Cowell's New Music Society Recording Series. In a letter to Charles Ives in 1933, Cowell expressed that the Andante was "...perhaps the best thing for quartet ever written in this country. This is my unqualified

1 Ruth Crawford was not yet married to Charles Seeger when she composed the String Quartet 1931; in the literature she is referred to as both Ruth Crawford and Ruth Crawford Seeger. For ease of reference, I will refer to her by her maiden name of Crawford in these notes.2 It is a useful reminder, when considering these ultra-modern composers from the 1920s and '30s, that a condition of stylistic plurality is not unique to the current world of contemporary music. It remains one of the strengths of new music that there is so much variety, but it also presents challenges with respect to shared experiences and awareness of compositional activity across the map.

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opinion..."3 Cowell published the quartet in a revised form in 1941, and it was later recorded by the Amati Quartet in 1960 and the Composers Quartet in 1973—these recordings and attendant live performances helped to revive interest in Crawford's music.4

Crawford started to compose the quartet while traveling abroad on a Guggenheim fellowship to Berlin.5 While it was premiered in 1933, the form in which we know the piece was the result of revisions from 1938. The Andante movement that Cowell recorded, for instance, was not the same as the one we now know—the significant moment where the texture breaks from the established norm was not there originally, and Crawford would continue to adjust this spot even after the work was published.6 It may be that Crawford returned to the String Quartet 1931 in 1938 because of her intention to compose a second string quartet, with the aim of reconciling simplicity and "dissonant counterpoint." She made some headway with the work but found that it was quite a difficult piece; Crawford proposed that she would "...call them Etudes for String Quartet–then there won't be so much fuss about their being difficult... Will I ever write really simple music?"7

Crawford's String Quartet 1931 is set in a compact four movements.8 The first movement starts with the juxtaposition of a lyrical violin line against an aggressively rising cello idea. There are several primary themes in this short movement, and Crawford's manipulation of the material in this movement and others is quasi-serial in approach. There is a fascinating draft of the first movement in which Crawford labeled the appearances and transformations of the four principal ideas.9 While one can trace the manipulations that Crawford identifies (transpositions, inversions, retrogrades or "crabs"), the use of such devices is not always very strict, as there are interval substitutions that Crawford uses as needed in her free counterpoint. The interplay of the musical lines is energetically unbound while at the same time there is a clear directionality to the ideas. 3 As quoted in Tick, Judith, Ruth Crawford Seeger: A Composer's Search for American Music (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 186. Ives funded the recording despite initial reservations.4 Tick, Judith, "Writing the Music of Ruth Crawford into Mainstream Music History," in Ruth Crawford Seeger's Worlds, ed. Ray Allen and Ellie M. Hisama (New York: University of Rochester Press, 2007), 12-16.5 Tick, Ruth Crawford Seeger, 155-57.6 Ibid., 215-16.7 De Graaf, Melissa J., "The Reception of an Ultramodernist," in Ruth Crawford Seeger's Worlds, ed. Ray Allen and Ellie M. Hisama (New York: University of Rochester Press, 2007), 102-103. I find that this is a sentiment shared by many composers—complexity tends to arise despite efforts to minimize it, making criticism of this aspect by performers and audience doubly frustrating8 The Library of Congress holds a number of materials related to the String Quartet 1931, including the 1938 draft, its first published edition, and earlier draft material.9 Tick, Ruth Crawford Seeger, 213-214.

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It is often a sustained tone or slower-moving melodic idea that serves as the grounding-line for the ear, especially as the frenetic activity of the movement diminishes to allow the clarity of a single line to emerge, lastly in the viola and second violin.

The second movement scherzo begins immediately, with a loud tutti chord launching from the cello's sustained A-flat. In this movement one may have the sense of a single line chasing after itself. Largely scalar motion is used in each voice, creating a composite perpetuo mobile effect. Crawford playfully incorporates pizzicato lines as the movement progresses, ultimately unraveling the entwined strands into a single descending scale.

One could describe a dramatic path across the movements that led from a multiplicity of themes articulated by individual instruments in the first, to a united exploration of a primary idea inflected by each instrument in the second, to an emergent "melodic line" in the third movement, of which Cowell spoke so highly. In this Andante, Crawford created something akin to a dynamic/pulse equivalent of Schoenberg's Klangfarbenmelodie.10 Crawford wrote an analysis of the third and fourth movements of her quartet at the request of Edgard Varèse,11 and there she describes her plan as a "...heterophony of dynamics—a sort of counterpoint of crescendi and diminuendi... No high point in the crescendo in any one instrument coincides with the high point in any other instrument... The melodic line grows out of this continuous increase and decrease..."12 In this way the listener is presented with a remarkable way to interact with the material—the melody is followable but is always situated in its own harmonic context. That is, at the moment of a pitch's emergence as a melodic entity it becomes a sustained part of the harmony. Crawford's development of the material in this way is highlighted by the startling exception to the rule, where the music breaks from the pulse model for two dramatic measures. The sudden descent of the pulse material that follows this counteracts the largely upward pull of the material to that point—swiftly returning to the interval class that opened the movement: the viola's low C-sharp, instead of being inflected by the D a half-step above as in the beginning, is now paired with the cello's low C (a half-step and an octave below).

The final movement opens with the first violin alone on a low A-flat, followed by a pair of notes (G-A) that echo the scherzo's opening melodic content. The other three instruments follow with a unison (at the octave) 10 While of course the individual instruments and strings in concert with various techniques can create a wide variety of tone color in a string quartet, the overall sound is more homogenous than in a wind quintet, for example. Crawford created an analog of sorts for shaping melody through tone color, here achieved through the emergence of specific emphases via dynamic pulsation.11 Tick, 215.12 Ruth Crawford as quoted in Tick, Ruth Crawford Seeger, 357-358.

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stream of twenty notes. This is in fact the setup for a clever gambit that Crawford exposes in structural terms: the first violin's material is additive (first one note, then two, then three, and so on), while the remainder of the quartet goes through a subtractive process in the presentation of its pitch stream (20, 19, 18, etc.). At the center of this short movement, the first violin sustains the final note of a 21-pitch series, atop the single sustained pitch held in the other voices. The process is then reversed, so that the movement ends with a single accented pitch played by the first violin. This is interesting enough, but much more is going on here. A similar process is played out in the distance between entrances (that is, the rests follow a certain pattern of subtraction and addition in terms of length, differentiated from the progression that governs the number of attacks). The pitches that comprise the stream of the second voice are based on a series of ten notes that go through a process of rotation; after the series of ten pitches passes, the series restarts but at the next position in line:13

Example 1

Ruth Crawford, String Quartet 1931, IV: extracted from series in violin II, viola and cello parts

What this causes in effect is a familiar melodic profile to be heard with varying intervals at the suture points. Coupled with octave transpositions, the music is both familiar and surprising. In a sense, the closing movement of Crawford's string quartet is like an ultra-modern update to the finale of Chopin's op. 35 piano sonata. In Crawford's analysis concerning these 13 Ibid., 359.

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series she writes that "...There is a loose thread in the persian [sic] rug: in measure 24 the 10th tone of the 2nd occurrence of the transposed 10-tone row is omitted (f-sharp), making only 9 tones in that occurrence. Correspondingly, in measure 93, one tone is absent."14 Perhaps instead of viewing it as a loose thread that could unravel the whole creation, it might be considered an intentional "imperfection" that draws attention to the craftsmanship of the work. The multiple professional and familial lives of Ruth Crawford proved difficult at times for her family and her self to understand. Crawford's daughter Peggy Seeger once stated: "I don't understand how the woman that I knew as a mother created something like the 1931 string quartet. It is like someone crying; it is like someone beating on the walls... and I don't want to think about this as regarding my mother because my mother always seemed to me to have it all together, to have gotten a life that pleased her."15 This is an interesting statement, as the dissonance between this response to the emotional power of Crawford's work and the quartet's carefully organized nature demonstrates the success of a composer in command of her material. The more troubling remark is at the end, as Peggy Seeger’s statement suggests the quartet was evidence that perhaps something in Crawford's life had not pleased her. It may be that from Crawford's vantage, however, it was precisely the composition of things like her string quartet that provided an outlet that she later found lacking in her life. It seems that Crawford did want to compose further in her manner of the 1920s and '30s, and her frustration on this point was evident as she neared the end of her cancer-shortened life. In conversation with Sidney Cowell shortly before her death, Crawford said that "I had been thinking about writing some music that had nothing to do with folk song. I have thought about some things and Ruth Crawford is still there."16 The composer never left—and while we regret the loss of what she might have composed had she lived longer, it is a pleasure to be able to experience this substantial contribution to the literature.

David Plylar Senior Music Specialist Library of Congress, Music Division

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14 Ibid.15 As quoted in Tick, Ruth Crawford Seeger, 355.16 Ibid., 349.

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A bonus note from Jeffrey Mumford:The nothing less than ground-breaking String Quartet of 1931 (at just over nine minutes in length) by Ruth Crawford Seeger inspired countless composers who followed and has a particular resonance in the quartets of Elliott Carter, in its foreshadowing of the multiple layers of musical activity in which he revels. Nothing like this was written this early in the century, in its unapologetic use of dissonant counterpoint.From the very opening one hears a very agitated and passionate cello line set against the soaring violins, seemingly occupying an entirely different space. This continues until a degree of fragmentation ensues featuring the viola. In the second movement (played attacca - without pause) there is a return to the spirit of the first movement in the layered relationships of the four instruments. The third movement is a gorgeous meditation on sonority which becomes increasingly more intense until toward the end there is an explosion of cascading material as if the air was being let out of a balloon. The fourth and final movement is a structural marvel in its palindromic form. The first violin plays an ever increasing and number of pitches, giving one the sense of improvisation against the steady iterations of the three other instruments. As the first violin reaches its climax the number of iterations in the other instruments decreases in number. At this point, the process is reversed, where the violin's material begins more explosively, only to play an ever decreasing number of pitches against the increasing number of iterations in the other instruments leaving the violin to stand alone as the work ends. ~ Jeffrey Mumford

•Tyshawn Sorey, For Conrad Tao

In my life, the inspiration to learn has been the source and result of many of my most cherished friendships. As I've come to know Tyshawn Sorey and Conrad Tao over the last few years, they've taught me to listen in new ways and hear new things. As an expression of that network of musical friendships, this short work asks for a kind of flexible attention, developing intervallic relationships, pushing the violinist technically, and expressing a wide variety of expressive modes in two short minutes. I invite you to listen well to what Tyshawn is saying. ~ Austin Wulliman

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•Elliott Carter, String Quartet no. 3

From the Composer:My string quartet No. 3, commissioned by The Julliard School for the Julliard String Quartet, divides the instruments into pairs: a Duo for Violin and Cello that plays in rubato style and one for Violin and Viola in more regular rhythm.

The Violin-Cello Duo presents four different musical characters: an angry, intense Furioso, a fanciful Leggerissimo, a pizzicato giocoso and a lyrical Andante espressivo, in short sections one after the other in various orders, sometimes with pauses between. The Violin-Viola Duo, meanwhile, presents the six contrasting characters listed in the program. During the Quartet each character of each Duo is presented alone and also in combination with each character of the other Duo to give a sense of ever-varying perspectives of feelings, expression, rivalry and cooperation. ~ Elliott Carter

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Composed for the Juilliard Quartet, the Library's resident ensemble of long standing from 1962 to 2008, the Third Quartet was written just two years earlier than the Duo in 1971. It is by far Carter's most complex and structurally intricate quartet, presenting as it does a multiplicity of musical material, cast into two duos which relate to one another in myriad ways. Each duo has its own set of expressive characters, sometimes sharing characteristics with one another but presenting it in differing contexts. Duo I (divided into four sections) is characterized by what Carter describes as its "expressively intense impulsive style" played rubato, as opposed to Duo II (divided into six sections) which plays in strict time—a relationship not unlike the scenario wherein (in a much less complex form) the more elastic cello material plays against the clock-like ticking of the piano in his earlier (1948) "Cello Sonata." It begins right off the bat letting the listener know that there will be a variety of conversations occurring simultaneously, but that the participants won't always be attentive to what the others are saying. My sense of this piece is quite akin to being invited into a painting whose frame only serves to capture the ongoing activity within it at the moment. It was as if the music was going on all the time and I happened to walk into the room during the varying developmental courses mid-stream.

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The result is a delightfully effervescent and prismatic spirit. ~ Jeffrey Mumford

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About the ArtistsHailed by The New York Times as “our leading new-music foursome,” the JACK Quartet is one of the most acclaimed and respected groups performing today. JACK has maintained an unwavering commitment to its mission of performing and commissioning new works, giving voice to underheard composers, and cultivating an ever-greater sense of openness toward contemporary classical music. In 2018, it was selected as Musical America’s 2018 “Ensemble of the Year,” named to WQXR’s “19 for 19” Artists to Watch, and awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant.

Through intimate relationships with today’s most creative voices, JACK embraces close collaboration with the composers it performs, leading to a radical embodiment of the technical, musical, and emotional aspects of their work. The quartet has worked with artists such as Julia Wolfe, George Lewis, Chaya Czernowin, Helmut Lachenmann, Caroline Shaw, and Simon Steen-Andersen, with upcoming and recent premieres including works by Tyshawn Sorey, Sabrina Schroeder, John Luther Adams, Clara Iannotta, Philip Glass, Catherine Lamb, Lester St. Louis, and John Zorn. JACK also recently announced JACK Studio, an all-access initiative to commission six artists each year, who will receive money, workshop time, mentorship, and resources to develop new works to be performed and recorded by the quartet.

JACK has been covered by all major news outlets, with the Boston Globe calling the ensemble "superheroes of the new music world," the Washington Post heralding it as "the go-to quartet for contemporary music, tying impeccable musicianship to intellectual ferocity and a take-no-prisoners sense of commitment," and NPR stating “no one today has the command of [contemporary] music like the young JACK quartet.”

JACK has performed to critical acclaim at Carnegie Hall (USA), Lincoln Center (USA), Berlin Philharmonie (Germany), Wigmore Hall (United Kingdom), Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ (Netherlands), The Louvre (France), Kölner Philharmonie (Germany), the Lucerne Festival (Switzerland), La Biennale di Venezia (Italy), Suntory Hall (Japan), Bali Arts Festival (Indonesia), Festival Internacional Cervatino (Mexico), and Teatro Colón (Argentina). Awards include Lincoln

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Center's Martin E. Segal Award, New Music USA's Trailblazer Award, and the CMA/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming.

According to Musical America, “many of their recordings are must-haves, for anyone interested in new music.” Among dozens of releases, the most recent Cold Blue Music album of John Luther Adams’ Everything That Rises was praised as “a wise and eloquent performance” by the San Francisco Chronicle, the concept album Imaginist with the Le Boeuf Brothers was nominated for a GRAMMY award in 2018, and the complete Xenakis: String Quartets was named one of TimeOut New York’s Top Recordings of the Year. Other albums include music by Helmut Lachenmann, Amy Williams, Elliott Sharp, Hannah Lash, Horaţiu Rǎdulescu, and more.

Committed to education, JACK is the Quartet-in-Residence at the Mannes School of Music, which will host JACK’s new Frontiers Festival, a multi-faceted festival of contemporary music for string quartet. The quartet also teaches each summer at New Music on the Point, a contemporary chamber music festival in Vermont for young performers and composers, and at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. JACK has long-standing relationships with the University of Iowa String Quartet Residency Program, where the members teach and collaborate with students each fall and spring, as well as with the Lucerne Festival Academy, of which the four members are all alumni. Additionally, the quartet makes regular visits to schools, including Columbia University, Harvard University, New York University, Princeton University, and Stanford University.

Comprising violinists Christopher Otto and Austin Wulliman, violist John Pickford Richards, and cellist Jay Campbell, JACK operates as a nonprofit organization dedicated to the performance, commissioning, and appreciation of new string quartet music.

•Conrad Tao has appeared worldwide as a pianist and composer, and has been dubbed a musician of “probing intellect and open-hearted vision” by The New York Times, which also cited him “one of five classical music faces to watch” in the 2018-19 season. Tao is a recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, and was named a Gilmore Young Artist—an honor awarded every two years highlighting the most promising American pianists of the new generation. At the 2019 New York Dance and Performance Awards (“Bessies”), Tao was the recipient of the award for Outstanding Sound Design / Music Composition, for his work on More Forever, his collaboration with Caleb Teicher.

Tao’s debut disc Voyages was declared a “spiky debut” by The New Yorker’s

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Alex Ross. Of the album, NPR wrote: “Tao proves himself to be a musician of deep intellectual and emotional means – as the thoughtful programming on this album...proclaims.” His next album, Pictures, with works by David Lang, Toru Takemitsu, Elliott Carter, Mussorgsky, and Tao himself, was hailed by The New York Times as “a fascinating album [by] a thoughtful artist and dynamic performer...played with enormous imagination, color and command.” His latest album, American Rage, was released to acclaim in Fall 2019 and features works by Julia Wolfe, Frederic Rzewski and Aaron Copland. Conrad’s creative process behind the album was highlighted as part of a November 2019 profile in The New York Times.

Tao was born in Urbana, Illinois, in 1994. He has studied piano with Emilio del Rosario in Chicago and Yoheved Kaplinsky in New York, and composition with Christopher Theofanidis.

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Upcoming EventsVisit loc.gov/concerts for more information

*Events marked with an asterisk are part of our

(Re)Hearing Beethoven Festival

See loc.gov/concerts/beethoven.html for the full lineup, including performances, lectures and conversations.

*Friday, December 4, 2020 at 8:00 pm [Concert]"The President's Own" United States Marine Band

Music by Beethoven: Symphonies 3 and 7Virtual Event

(https://loc.gov/concerts/presidents-own-marine-band.html)Additional video content available starting at 10am on 12/4/20

*Saturday, December 5, 2020 at 8:00 pm [Concert]Borromeo String Quartet

Music by Beethoven: Symphony no. 8, op. 130 & 133Virtual Event (https://loc.gov/concerts/borromeo-nicholas-cords.html)

Additional video content available starting at 10am on 12/4/20

Wednesday, December 9, 2020 at 8:00 pm [Concert]vision string quartet

Music by Robert Schumann and the vision string quartetVirtual Event (https://loc.gov/concerts/vision-string-quartet.html)

Additional video content available starting at 10am on 12/9/20

*Thursday, December 10, 2020 at 8:00 pm [Concert]ZOFO

Music by Beethoven: Symphonies 4 and 6Virtual Event (https://loc.gov/concerts/zofo.html)

Additional video content available starting at 10am on 12/10/20BONUS: This concert will be available as an augmented reality

experience for a limited period of time!

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*Friday, December 11, 2020 at 8:00 pm [Concert]Verona String Quartet and Adam Golka

Music by Beethoven: Hammerklavier Sonata in Two VersionsVirtual Event (https://loc.gov/concerts/beethovens-hammerklavier.html)

Additional video content available starting at 10am on 12/11/20

*Saturday, December 12, 2020 at 8:00 pm [Concert]Ran Dank & Soyeon Kate Lee

Music by Liszt and Beethoven: Symphony no. 9Virtual Event (https://loc.gov/concerts/dank-lee.html)

Additional video content available starting at 10am on 12/11/20

*Thursday, December 17, 2020 at 8:00 pm [Concert]Christopher Taylor

Music by Beethoven: Symphonies 1, 2 and 5Virtual Event (https://loc.gov/concerts/christopher-taylor.html)Additional video content available starting at 10am on 12/17/20

Friday, December 18, 2020 at 8:00 pm [Concert]Stradivari Anniversary Concert

Details to be announcedVirtual Event (https://loc.gov/concerts/antonio-stradivari.html)Additional video content available starting at 10am on 12/18/20

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KEEP CHECKING LOC.GOV/CONCERTS FOR UPDATED INFORMATION ABOUT UPCOMING PROGRAMMING,

INCLUDING WINTER/SPRING 2021!

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Concerts from the Library of CongressThe Coolidge Auditorium, constructed in 1925 through a generous gift from Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, has been the venue for countless world-class performers and performances. Gertrude Clarke Whittall presented to the Library a gift of five Stradivari instruments which were first heard here during a concert on January 10, 1936. These parallel but separate donations serve as the pillars that now support a full season of concerts made possible by gift trusts and foundations that followed those established by Mrs. Coolidge and Mrs. Whittall.

Concert StaffCHIEF, MUSIC DIVISION

ASSISTANT CHIEF

SENIOR PRODUCERS FOR CONCERTS AND

SPECIAL PROJECTS

SENIOR MUSIC SPECIALIST

MUSIC SPECIALISTS

ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER

SENIOR RECORDING ENGINEER

ASSISTANT ENGINEER

PRODUCTION MANAGER

CURATOR OF MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

PROGRAM DESIGN

PROGRAM PRODUCTION

Susan H. Vita

Jan Lauridsen

Michele L. GlymphAnne McLean

David H. Plylar

Kazem AbdullahClaudia Morales

Donna P. Williams

Michael E. Turpin

Sandie (Jay) Kinloch

Solomon E. HaileSelassie

Carol Lynn Ward-Bamford

David H. Plylar

Michael Munshaw

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Support Concerts from the Library of CongressSupport for Concerts from the Library of Congress comes from private gift and trust funds and from individual donations which make it possible to offer free concerts as a gift to the community. For information about making a tax-deductible contribution please call (202-707-5503), e-mail ( jlau@loc.gov), or write to Jan Lauridsen, Assistant Chief, Music Division, Library of Congress, Washington, DC 20540-4710. Contributions of $250 or more will be acknowledged in the programs. All gifts will be acknowledged online. Donors can also make an e-gift online to Friends of Music at www.loc.gov/philanthropy. We acknowledge the following contributors to the 2020-2021 season. Without their support these free concerts would not be possible.

GIFT AND TRUST FUNDS

Julian E. and Freda Hauptman Berla FundElizabeth Sprague Coolidge FoundationWilliam and Adeline Croft Memorial FundDa Capo FundIra and Leonore Gershwin FundIsenbergh Clarinet FundIrving and Verna Fine FundMae and Irving Jurow FundCarolyn Royall Just FundKindler Foundation Trust FundDina Koston and Robert Shapiro Fund for

New MusicBoris and Sonya Kroyt Memorial FundWanda Landowska/Denise Restout Memorial FundKatie and Walter Louchheim FundRobert Mann FundThe Sally Hart and Bennett Tarlton

McCallum FundMcKim FundNorman P. Scala Memorial FundKarl B. Schmid Memorial FundJudith Lieber Tokel & George Sonneborn

FundAnne Adlum Hull and William Remsen

Strickland FundRose and Monroe Vincent FundGertrude Clarke Whittall FoundationVarious Donors Fund

BEQUESTSElmer CerinBarbara GanttSorab K. Modi

DONOR CONTRIBUTIONS

Producer ($10,000 and above)The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc.DutchCultureUSA Frederic J. and Lucia HillThe Netherland-America FoundationAllan J. ReiterRevada Foundation of the Logan FamilyAdele M. Thomas Charitable Foundation,

Inc.Mallory and Diana Walker

Underwriter ($2,500 and above)Geraldine OstroveJoyce E. PalmerWilliam R. and Judy B. SloanGeorge Sonneborn and Rosina C. IpingThe George and Ruth Tretter Charitable Gift

Fund, Carl Tretter, Trustee

Benefactor ($1000 and above)AnonymousWilliam D. AlexanderBill Bandas and Leslie G. FordLeonard and Gabriela BebchickPeter and Ann BelenkyRichard W. Burris and Shirley DownsRonald M. Costell and Marsha E. Swiss

In memory of Dr. Giulio Cantoni and Mrs. Paula Saffiotti

Cathey Eisner Falvo and Jessica Aimee Falvo in honor of Carole Falvo

Milton J. Grossman,In memory of Dana Krueger Grossman

Wilda M. HeissJudith Henderson

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Benefactor (continued)Virginia Lee, In memory of Dr. and Mrs. Chai

Chang ChoiEgon and Irene MarxWinton E. Matthews, Jr.Dr. Judith C. and Dr. Eldor O. PedersonRichard Price and Yung ChangArthur F. PurcellHarriet RogersMace J. Rosenstein and Louise de la FuenteChristopher Sipes

Patron ($500 and above)Barry AbelNaomi M. AdaniyaDaniel J. Alpert and Ann H. FrankeDevora and Samuel ArbelSandra J. Blake, In memory of Ronald DiehlMarc H. and Vivian S. BrodskyDoris N. CelarierMargaret Choa William A. CohenHerbert L. and Joan M. CooperDiane E. DixsonElizabeth Eby and Bengal RichterWillem van Eeghen and Mercedes de

ArteagaLawrence FeinbergBecky Jo Fredriksson and Rosa D. WienerFred S. Fry, Jr. and Elaine SurianoGeraldine H. and Melvin C. GarbowHoward Gofreed, In memory of Ruth TretterThe Richard & Nancy Gould Family FundMarc and Kay LevinsonGeorge and Kristen LundMary Lynne MartinRick Maurer and Kathy BartonDonogh McDonaldJan and Frank Moses Undine A. and Carl E. Nash Judith NeibriefJohn P. O'DonnellJan Pomerantz and Everett WilcoxRichard Price and Yung ChangAmy and Paul RispinBruce and Lori Laitman RosenblumMike and Mical Schneider In memory of Victor H. CohnDavid Seidman and Ruth GreensteinRebecca and Sidney Shaw, In memory of Dr. Leonard G. ShawBeverly J. and Phillip B. SkloverAnna SlomovicMaria Soto, In memory of Sara ArminanaDana and Linda Sundberg

Patron (continued)Lorna C. Totman, In memory of Daniel GallikJames C. and Carol R. TsangHarvey Van BurenAmy Weinstein and Phil Esocoff, In memory of Freda Hauptman BerlaSidney Wolfe and Suzanne GoldbergGail Yano and Edward A. Celarier

Sponsor ($250 and above)Anonymous (2)Edward A. CelarierCarol Ann DyerElizabeth Eby and Bengal RichterDamien Gaul Michal E. GrossJames S. and Zona F. Hostetler In memory of Randy HostetlerKim and Elizabeth KowalewskiHelen and David Mao George P. MuellerRobert H. ReynoldsJuliet Sablosky, In memory of Irving L. SabloskyAlan and Ann VollmanShari WerbPatricia A. Winston