Samuel Rhodes



Samuel Rhodes is celebrating his 41st year as a member of both the Juilliard String Quartet and the faculty of The Juilliard School where he is chairman of the viola department. He has been a participant in the Marlboro Festival since 1960 and is a faculty member of the Tanglewood Music Center. His solo appearances have included several recitals at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., and an unaccompanied recital at The Juilliard School highlighted by world premieres of works by Milton Babbitt and Arthur Weisberg. In June 2001, Mr. Rhodes was invited to play a recital in celebration of the 10th anniversary of the festival Viola Space in Tokyo, Japan. He gave the world premiere of Figment IV for solo viola by Elliott Carter in January 2008 in Paris. In 1998, Mr. Rhodes had the honor of being invited to join the late Isaac Stern as a coach at his Chamber Music Workshops in Jerusalem, Israel; Miyazaki, Japan and Carnegie Hall, New York.

A native New Yorker, Samuel Rhodes studied the viola with Sydney Beck and Walter Trampler.

Samuel Rhodes Audio recordings
Hindemith Sonata Op. 25 No. 1

He received a bachelor of arts degree from Queens College, New York, and a master of fine arts degree from Princeton University where he studied composition with Roger Sessions and Earl Kim. As a composer, Mr. Rhodes wrote a string quintet for two violins, two violas and cello, which has been performed by the Blair, Composer's, Galimir, Pro Arte and Sequoia quartets. The Pro Arte Quartet recently recorded the work with the composer as guest artist.

As a member of the Juilliard String Quartet, Mr. Rhodes toured extensively (throughout Europe, North and South America, the Near East, Asia, Australia and New Zealand) and recorded a comprehensive catalogue of the string quartet literature on the CBS Masterworks, Sony Classical, Wergo, and CRI labels. He was the joint recipient of three Grammy Awards for the Debussy and Ravel Quartets, the Complete Schoenberg Quartets, and the Complete Beethoven Quartets. He has appeared as a guest artist with numerous ensembles, including the Beaux Arts and Mannes trios and with the Cleveland, Guarneri, Galimir, Brentano, and Mendelssohn string quartets.