Centennial
The CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY 2011-2012
Preserving a legacy, forging the future
The legendary Pro Arte Quartet is celebrating its 100th anniversary during the
2011-2012 season with a series of world-premieres at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, its home since 1940. The composers commissioned for this momentous occasion are Walter Mays, Paul Schoenfield, William Bolcom, and John Harbison. Each world-premiere performance will be surrounded by numerous special events, including composer residencies and guest lectures by the prominent cultural critics of our day. We invite you to explore the many offerings of the Centennial Celebration listed among these pages. All events are free and open to the public, except dinners, which are offered at cost.
Why celebrate?
The Pro Arte Quartet’s history is one of unique survival and transformations. It began in 1911-12 as the idea of some teenage prodigies at the Brussels Conservatory in Belgium. That idea survived the disruption of World War I, and inspired the development of what became one of the world’s leading quartets. The crisis of World War II was catastrophic for music and musicians, but the Pro Arte, almost alone among its peer groups, survived that upheaval.
It survived, however, through transformation. Stranded in the USA by the war’s outbreak, the quartet became established in Madison at the University of Wisconsin. Though shredded in membership, its surviving Belgians melded with newcomers to become something else unique: the first professional string quartet to be identified with and supported by an American university, a model emulated to this day by ensembles across the country.
The quartet has become a vital part of the UW’s School of Music performing and teaching programs. It has become a beloved and vital part of the musical life of Madison. And, as a part of the University’s enterprising programs of outreach, it has become a cultural dimension of the entire state of Wisconsin.
Through the years of the Quatuor Pro Arte, the Belgian members made a strong commitment not only to the existing repertoire of chamber music, but also to the new contributions of composers who were their contemporaries–adding up to a who’s-who of twentieth-century masters. The quartet’s Madison reconfigurations have continued that tradition, creating links with recent composers and supporting their work. So it is that a special dimension of the Pro Arte Quartet Centennial Celebration is a set of commissions of new compositions that will be premiered and recorded by the group, as an appropriate tribute to the past and confirmation of the future.
Join us on the remarkable adventure that begins this season.
Please consider a gift to the Pro Arte Centennial Commissions.
Your contribution will help fund the new works and the quartet's centennial celebration.
Click here and designate: "Other - Pro Arte Centennial" for secure on-line donations.
http://www.uwfoundation.wisc.edu/giving?seq=11981
All gifts are fully tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.
