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Diderot String Quartet | Chamber Concert | Athenaeum Music & Arts Library | La Jolla

Tuesday, April 14, 2026 at 6:45 PM
Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
N/A
$58 Member / $63 Nonmember / $16 Student

Tuesday, April 14

7:30 p.m.

The Diderot String Quartet will make their Athenaeum debut with a journey to 18th century Vienna, featuring masterpieces by Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. One of the premiere ensembles performing on gut strings and historical instruments, this dynamic group (Adriane Post, violin; Johanna Novom, violin; Kyle Miller, viola; Paul Dwyer, cello) breathes new life into old works.

Program:

Joseph Haydn (1732–1809)

- Quartet No. 27 in D Major, op.20, no. 4 (1772)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791)

- Quartet No. 15 in D Minor, K. 421 (1783)

Intermission

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)

- Quartet No. 6 in B-flat Major, op. 18, no. 6 (1800)

The Diderot String Quartet—named after the 18th century French philosopher, and Boccherini enthusiast, Denis Diderot—brings a fresh approach to works of the 18th and 19th centuries. The Wall St Journal called a performance “emotional, riveting, and ultimately cathartic.” The quartet came together in 2012, after having first met at Oberlin Conservatory and The Juilliard School. The four musicians share a background in historical performance and a passion for the string quartet genre; they found the thrill of exploring the quartet repertoire on period instruments to be irresistible.

Recent and upcoming engagements for the Diderot String Quartet include Chamber Music Pittsburgh, Santa Fe Pro Musica, Lincoln Friends of Chamber Music (NE), Chamber Music Corvallis (Oregon), Pegasus Early Music / NYS Baroque, Connecticut Early Music Festival, Friends of Chamber Music Vancouver and Early Music Vancouver, Early Music Society of the Islands (Victoria, British Columbia), Belvedere Series (Virginia), Helicon Foundation (New York City), Music in the Somerset Hills (Bernardsville, New Jersey), Rockefeller University’s Tri-Institutional (Tri-I) Noon Recital Series (NYC), Carmel Bach Festival (California), Electric Earth Concerts (Peterborough, New Hampshire), and The Crypt Sessions and Music Before 1800 in New York City. The quartet has also been featured in performance at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Toledo Museum of Art, and the Morgan Library in New York.

Diderot String Quartet served as Quartet-in-Residence at Washington National Cathedral for five seasons and served as guest faculty for Oberlin’s Baroque Performance Institute. The quartet commissioned and premiered Small Infinities, a new work for gut strings from composer Lembit Beecher, and collaborates frequently with internationally acclaimed artists, including Jesse Blumberg, Dashon Burton, David Breitman, Avi Stein, and Harry Bicket. Diderot has a forthcoming album of string quartets by Haydn (op. 20, nos. 2 and 4).

This concert is generously sponsored by Sally and Einar Gall.

All concerts are preceded by a pre-concert talk at 6:45 p.m. and are followed by a reception with the artists in the Sharon & Joel Labovitz Entry Hall.

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Event Supported By

Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
858-454-5872
info@ljathenaeum.org

Athenaeum Music & Arts Library

1008 Wall St.
La Jolla, California 92037
858-454-5872

The Athenaeum Music & Arts Library, located in the heart of La Jolla, Calif., in San Diego County, is one of only 16 nonprofit membership libraries in the United States. This rare cultural institution, an important one to the greater San Diego area, offers a depth and accessibility of resources and programs found nowhere else in the region. The library, devoted exclusively to music and art, has an outstanding and ever-expanding collection of books, periodicals, reference material, compact discs, videocassettes, DVDs, sheet music and librettos, as well as one of the most significant collections of artists' books in Southern California. The library is open to the public five days a week and members can check out materials for a modest annual fee. The Athenaeum also presents an eclectic, year-round schedule of art exhibitions, concerts (classical, jazz and new music), lectures, studio art classes through its School of the Arts, tours and special events. To quote the San Diego Union-Tribune, "There are few libraries in America as unusual as the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library." Admission: Admission to the library is free. Gallery exhibits are free and open to the general public. Materials may be used in the library or checked out by members. Borrowing privileges are limited to members only. Books may be checked out for four weeks and all CDs, videos and DVDs for two weeks. Materials may be reserved in advance. Guided Tours: Free guided tours take place the third Saturday of every month at 11 a.m.

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