The American Quartet

Join performers from the Festival Orchestra of Lincoln Center for an evening of classical music at the David Rubenstein Atrium in honor of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. A string quartet led by Concertmaster Ruggero Allifranchini (violin) and featuring Laura Frautschi (violin), Shmuel Katz (viola), and Ilya Finkelshteyn (cello), performs Still Singing, the second string quartet from Jazz at Lincoln Center's own Wynton Marsalis. This signature work captures Marsalis's joyful embrace of American music traditions, from jazz to blues, and classical to funk. The quartet also plays Dvořák’s String Quartet No. 12 in F major, better known as the American quartet. As an immigrant artist living in New York in 1893, Dvořák famously predicted that a “great and noble school” of uniquely American music would spring from the nation’s “negro melodies.” In keeping with his prognostication, Dvořák’s American quartet evokes the panoply of sounds that enlivened American music at the turn of the 20th century, with notable influence from Black spirituals and other contemporary folk music of the time. The American quartet remains one of today's most popular pieces of chamber music.