Quatuor Diotima at UChicago

Featuring composers such as Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, and César Franck, this celebration of French and French-influenced music is a fitting conclusion to the ensemble’s tenure as the Don Michael Randel Ensemble-in-Residence. 

• October 26, 2022 | 7:30PM | Music from Paris I

Boulez: Livre pour Quatuor 
Pesson: Quatuor à cordes no. 3 Farrago 
Debussy: Quatuor à cordes en sol mineur, Op. 10 

• October 27, 2022 | 7:30PM | Music from Paris II

Stravinsky: Three Pieces for String Quartet 
Szymanowski: String Quartet No. 2, Op. 56 
Bartók: String Quartet No. 1 

• October 28, 2022 | 7:30PM | Music from Paris III

Dutilleux: Ainsi la nuit 
Ravel: String Quartet 
Franck: Piano Quintet in F minor 

Supported by the Jazz & New Music program of FACE Foundation and the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States. Presented in partnership with the France Chicago Center at the University of Chicago.

The Quatuor Diotima is one of the most in-demand chamber ensembles in the world today; it was formed in 1996 by graduates of the Paris national conservatory (Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris).
The Quatuor Diotima has worked in close collaboration with several of the greatest composers of the late twentieth century, notably Pierre Boulez (who revised his Livre pour Quatuor for them) and Helmut Lachenmann. The quartet regularly commissions new works from the most brilliant composers of our time, including Toshio Hosokawa, Miroslav Srnka, Alberto Posadas, Mauro Lanza, Gérard Pesson, Rebecca Saunders, and Tristan Murail.

Reflected in the mirror of today’s music, the quartet projects a new light onto the masterpieces of the 19th and 20th centuries, especially Beethoven, Schubert, and the Second Viennese School (Schoenberg, Berg and Webern), as well as Janáček, Debussy, Ravel, and Bartók.

Since 2008, The Quatuor Diotima has had a privileged relationship with the Région Centre-Val de Loire, which hosts the quartet in residence. This relationship is also an important laboratory for artistic and pedagogical projects. The Quatuor Diotima has developed a series of quartet concerts in Orléans that brings together a new generation of quartets with established ensembles. At l’Abbaye de Noirlac, the quartet hosts and teaches masterclasses that bring together young composers and quartets from around the world.

The Quatuor Diotima appears regularly in the world’s finest halls and concert series. They perform this season in renowned chamber music series as well as those devoted to world premieres and contemporary music (e.g. the centennial of Donaueschinger Musiktage, Amsterdam Muziekgebouw, Konserthuset Stockholm, Marseille, Saint-Jean-de-Luz, Bozar Brüssel, String Quartet Biennale Philharmonie de Paris, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Brucknerfest Linz, Liederhalle Stuttgart).

The University of Chicago Presents concert series endeavors to present music on an intimate scale at the highest level, creating for audiences of all ages experiences that transform, entertain, educate, and enlighten, inspiring a powerful sense of shared humanity. Advancing the values of its home at the University, UCP engages all—the student, the Nobel Laureate, the uninitiated, the dedicated musician, and everyone in-between—to nurture curiosity through great music-making.

For nearly 90 years, the University of Chicago Department of Music has been a leader in the study and creation of music, both historical and contemporary. With leading scholars in their fields, the department offers graduate degrees in composition, ethnomusicology, and music history and theory, as well as an undergraduate Bachelor of Arts degree in music.