April 19, 2024 | 3:30PM
Fulton Recital Hall, Goodspeed Hall, 4th floor
A Conversation on the Role of Residencies in the Life and Career of a String Quartet
Pacifica Quartet
2023-2024 Don Michael Randel Ensemble-in-Residence
Don Michael Randel
Professor Emeritus of Music and former president of the University of Chicago
In 2013, the University of Chicago created a new program, supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, that would provide a permanent home for world-class musicians at the University of Chicago. Named for University of Chicago President Emeritus Don Randel, the residency program enables deep engagement between exceptional visiting musical ensembles and UChicago faculty, students and staff, as well as the surrounding Hyde Park community.
Randel, a noted musicologist, served as president of the University of Chicago from 2000-2006, when he took over as president of the Mellon Foundation. Upon his retirement in 2013, the foundation awarded the grant for the Ensemble-in-Residence in recognition to Randel's sustained and inspired advocacy of the value of music in a liberal arts education, as well as his transformational leadership for the arts and humanities throughout his career in academia and philanthropy.
The GRAMMY Award-winning Pacifica Quartet, which had long been a resident ensemble of the Department of Music and UChicago Presents, became the first Don Michael Randel Ensemble-in-Residence. With a career spanning nearly three decades, the Pacifica Quartet has achieved international recognition as one of the finest chamber ensembles performing today and has established itself as the embodiment of the senior American quartet sound. Having served as quartet-in-residence at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music for the past decade, the Quartet also leads the Center for Advanced Quartet Studies at the Aspen Music Festival and School and was previously the quartet-in-residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Following Pacifica’s residency, seven other ensembles have been appointed as the Don Michael Randle Ensemble-in-Residence. These residencies have included a number of on- and off-campus engagements, including public performances, class visits, student composer workshops, panel discussions, collaborations with local artists and organizations, and coachings and workshops with students at the UChicago Laboratory School