Oct. 20: Jupiter Quartet Opens Krannert Center Season Series with U.S. Premiere by Arlene Sierra – Plus Pre-Concert Artists' Talk on Oct. 14
Photo of the Jupiter Quartet by Todd Rosenberg available in high resolution at www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/jupiter-string
Jupiter Quartet Performs First Concert of the Season on their Series at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts
Featuring the U.S. Premiere of A Young Mind in Old Bees by Arlene Sierra with Bassoonist Ben Roidl-Ward
Plus the Music of Shulamit Ran and Alban Berg
Discussion with Composers Ran and Sierra to Follow the Performance
Pre-concert Artists’ Talk on Berg’s Lyric Suite on October 14 at 1pm
Artists’ Talk on Alban Berg’s Lyric Suite
Wednesday, October 14, 2026 at 1pm
Free and Open to the Public
Stage 5 at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts
500 S Goodwin Ave. | Urbana, IL
More Information
Performance by Jupiter Quartet
Tuesday, October 20, 2026 at 7:30pm
University of Illinois | Foellinger Great Hall at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts
500 S Goodwin Ave. | Urbana, IL
Tickets and Information
“an ensemble of eloquent intensity, has matured into one of the mainstays of the American chamber-music scene.” – The New Yorker
Urbana, IL – On Tuesday, October 20, 2026 at 7:30pm, the Jupiter String Quartet, whose playing The Washington Post describes as “characterful, illuminating and utterly committed,” will give the first performance on its series of three concerts this season at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. The concert will be preceded by an Artists’ Talk at the Krannert Center Stage 5 on Wednesday, October 14, 2026 at 1pm, where the Jupiter Quartet and Emily Laugesen, Director of Community Engagement at KCPA, will discuss and dissect Alban Berg’s Lyric Suite. The performance on October 20 will include a post-concert discussion with composers Shulamit Ran and Arlene Sierra.
The Jupiter String Quartet performs all over the country, and its members have been artists-in-residence and faculty at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign since 2012. The quartet is a particularly intimate group, consisting of violinists Mélanie Clapiès and Meg Freivogel, violist Liz Freivogel (Meg’s older sister), and cellist Daniel McDonough (Meg’s husband, Liz’s brother-in-law). Founded in 2001, the ensemble is firmly established as an important voice in the world of chamber music, and exudes an energy that is at once friendly, knowledgeable, and adventurous. The quartet chose its name because Jupiter was the most prominent planet in the night sky at the time of its formation and the astrological symbol for Jupiter resembles the number four.
On October 20, the Jupiter brings its well-honed artistic chemistry to the U.S. premiere of A Young Mind in Old Bees, a vibrant new quintet for bassoon and string quartet by Arlene Sierra, featuring University of Illinois faculty artist bassoonist Ben Roidl-Ward. The concert, which will be featured as part of the University of Illinois New Music Festival, will also include two works shaped by clandestine love and remembrance in the face of extreme tragedy – Alban Berg’s Lyric Suite and Shulamit Ran’s Glitter, Shards, Doom, Memory. Following the performance, there will be a discussion and Q&A session with both Ran and Sierra, who will be in residence at UIUC for the week.
Arlene Sierra’s music is frequently informed by nature, drawing inspiration from sources including birdsong, insect calls, and more. She has been praised for her “highly flexible and distinctive style” by The Guardian and has composed for leading ensembles around the world including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, BBC Philharmonic, and Tokyo Philharmonic. Bassoonist Ben Roidl-Ward gave the world premiere performance of her new work for bassoon and string quartet, A Young Mind in Old Bees, earlier this year at the Cardiff University School of Music, where Sierra teaches. The piece is a shimmering, rhythmic, and expressive exploration of the life of bees. The Jupiter Quartet and Roidl-Ward’s performance at Krannert Center will be the U.S. premiere.
Shulamit Ran’s third string quartet, Glitter, Shards, Doom, Memory, is a tribute to the Jewish artist Felix Nussbaum and other victims of the Holocaust. The work’s name is tied to “Glitter and Doom,” the title of an exhibition of German art from 1919-1933, which was on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2006-07. Ran writes in her program note, “[T]his is my way of saying, ‘Do not forget,’ something that I believe can be done through music with special power and poignancy.”
Alban Berg’s unlikely muse and the inspiration of his Lyric Suite, Hanna Fuchs-Robettin, was discovered far past the time of the work’s composition, through a miniature score by Berg, which outlined a secret love narrative. Despite both being married, Berg and Fuchs-Robettin began an affair in 1925, and Berg composed the work over the following year as a musical manifestation of the excitement, trepidation, and suffering of their secret relationship, going so far as to include their initials in musical cryptograms throughout the work.
The Jupiter String Quartet’s next performances at Krannert Center will be on February 18, 2027 when they collaborate with renowned pianist Jeremy Denk, and April 20, 2027.
The Jupiter Quartet has performed in some of the world’s finest halls, including New York City’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, London’s Wigmore Hall, Boston’s Jordan Hall, Mexico City's Palacio de Bellas Artes, Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center and Library of Congress, Austria’s Esterhazy Palace, and Seoul’s Sejong Chamber Hall. Their major music festival appearances include the Aspen Music Festival and School, Bowdoin International Music Festival, Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival, Rockport Music Festival, Caramoor International Music Festival, Music at Menlo, Tucson Winter Chamber Music Festival, the Banff Centre, the Seoul Spring Festival, and many others. In addition to their performing career, they have been artists-in-residence at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign since 2012, where they maintain private studios and direct the chamber music program. Their chamber music honors and awards include the grand prizes in the Banff International String Quartet Competition and the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition; the Young Concert Artists International auditions in New York City; the Cleveland Quartet Award from Chamber Music America; an Avery Fisher Career Grant; and a grant from the Fromm Foundation. From 2007-2010, they were in residence at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Chamber Music Two. The Jupiter has recorded extensively for the Marquis Classics label, Azica Records, and Orchid Classics.
For more information, visit www.jupiterquartet.com.
For Calendar Editors:
Description: The Jupiter Quartet, described by The New Yorker as having “technical finesse and rare expressive maturity,” will give the first performance on its series of three concerts this season at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts on October 20. The award-winning ensemble will give the U.S. premiere of A Young Mind in Old Bees, a new quintet for bassoon and strings by Arlene Sierra, featuring faculty artist Ben Roidl-Ward. The program will also include works shaped by clandestine love and remembrance in the face of extreme tragedy – Alban Berg’s Lyric Suite and Shulamit Ran’s Glitter, Shards, Doom, Memory. A Q&A with Ran and Sierra will follow the performance. There will also be an Artists’ Talk on October 14 with Emily Laugesen, Director of Community Engagement at KCPA, discussing Berg’s Lyric Suite, which is free and open to the public.
Concert details:
Who: Jupiter String Quartet and Emily Laugesen, Director of Community Engagement at KCPA
Presented by Krannert Center for the Performing Arts
What: Artists’ Talk on Alban Berg’s Lyric Suite
When: Wednesday, October 14, 2026 at 1pm
Where: Stage 5 at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, 500 S Goodwin Ave., Urbana, IL
Tickets and information: https://krannertcenter.com/events/artists-talk-jupiter-string-quartet
Who: Jupiter String Quartet and Bassoonist Ben Roidl-Ward
Presented by Krannert Center for the Performing Arts
What: The U.S. Premiere of A Young Mind in Old Bees by Arlene Sierra, Shulamit Ran’s Glitter, Shards, Doom, Memory; and Alban Berg’s Lyric Suite
When: Tuesday, October 20, 2026 at 7:30pm
Where: University of Illinois, Foellinger Great Hall - Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, 500 S Goodwin Ave., Urbana, IL
Tickets and information: https://krannertcenter.com/events/jupiter-string-quartet-ben-roidl-ward-bassoon-new-music-festival-event