CONWAY, Ark. (Oct. 20, 2009) – The world-renowned Guarneri String Quartet will perform at Hendrix College’s Reves Recital Hall at 7:30 p.m. Sunday as part of the group's final tour. A reception will follow the concert in Trieschmann Gallery. Admission is free and open to the public. For more information, call (501) 450-1249.
The Quartet is celebrating the finale to a 45-year career by touring extensively throughout the United States, including their annual Metropolitan Museum of Art concert series, instituted in 1965, as well as collaboration with the Johannes String Quartet. The Quartet has circled the globe countless times since it was formed in 1964, playing in the most prestigious halls in North and South America, Mexico, Europe, Asia and Australia, and "is among the most revered and enduring ensembles of its kind in the world," according to National Public Radio.
Members of the Guarneri String Quartet include Arnold Steinhardt, violin; John Dalley, violin; Michael Tree, viola; and Peter Wiley, cello.
The Quartet has been featured on many television and radio specials, documentaries and educational presentations both in North America and abroad. They have been interviewed by Charles Kuralt on CBS' nationwide television program, Sunday Morning. A full-length film entitled High Fidelity - The Guarneri String Quartet was released nationally, to great critical and public acclaim, in the fall of 1989 (the film was directed and produced by Allan Miller who was also the director/producer of the Academy Award-winning documentary, From Mozart to Mao, which dealt with Isaac Stern's visit to China). The quartet is also the subject of various books including Quartet by Helen Drees Ruttencutter (Lippincott & Crowell, 1980), The Art of Quartet Playing: the Guarneri in Conversation with David Blum (Alfred A. Knopf, 1986) and Arnold Steinhardt's Indivisible by Four: A String Quartet in Pursuit of Harmony (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998).
The Guarneri String Quartet has received numerous accolades, including the first New York Seal of Recognition presented by Mayor Koch in 1982, and Honorary Doctorate degrees by the University of South Florida (1976) and the State University of New York (1983). In 1992, the Guarneri String Quartet became the only quartet to receive the prestigious Award of Merit from the Association of Performing Arts Presenters in New York City.
The performance is sponsored by the Hendrix College Department of Music and the college’s Special Events Board.
Hendrix, founded in 1876, is a selective, residential, undergraduate liberal arts college emphasizing experiential learning in a demanding yet supportive environment. The college is among 165 colleges featured in the 2010 edition of the Princeton Review America’s Best Value Colleges. Hendrix has been affiliated with the United Methodist Church since 1884. For more information, visit www.hendrix.edu.