When violinist Amy Schroeder and cellist Andrew Yee began thinking about a name for the quartet they founded at the Juilliard School of Music, they started with “a” in the musical dictionary. They did not search far before deciding on Attacca, which refers to the direction at the end of a movement to show that the next is to follow immediately without any pause. Moving forward rapidly is exactly what the ensemble has been doing since 2003, serving as the Juilliard Graduate Resident String Quartet and winning one award after another in rapid succession.
The ensemble, composed of Schroeder, Yee, violinist Keiko Tokunaga and violist Luke Fleming, was the first prize winner of the Seventh Osaka International Chamber Music Competition in 2011 was the recipient of the Listeners’ Choice Award the same year in the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition. This week, they make their Library of Congress debut during the John Adams Residency performing the composer’s string quartet, “Fellow Traveler,” and selections from “John’s Book of Alleged Dances.” In addition, they will display their diversity playing Janacek’s String Quartet No. 2 and Beethoven’s String Quartet in F major.
