Converse Students Selected to Study with World Renowned Juilliard String Quartet

A Converse-based student string quartet has been selected to participate in a master class with the world renowned Juilliard String Quartet. Keeley Causby ’05, Jean Loder ’07, Ashley Hoover Piatt ’06 and Hollis Roberts ’06-known collectively as the Pine Street String Quartet-were selected to participate through a juried competition for the right to study with the Juilliard String Quartet at Queens University of Charlotte (NC) on April 17. The master class is part of a day-long celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Friends of Music at Queens University.

Of the nine ensembles who applied for the master class, only four were invited to participate. “Our judges had very high standards for the applicants,” said Sharon King, President of the Friends program at Queens. “They were looking for quartets that showed good balance and a good mix among players.”

The Juilliard String Quartet is the Quartet-in-Residence for the Library of Congress and had performed throughout the world. In the five decades of its association with The Juilliard School, the quartet has trained some of the world’s foremost ensembles, including the American, Emerson, LaSalle, Shanghai, St. Lawrence, Tokyo and Whitman String Quartets. “This is a tremendous opportunity for us as musicians, and we intend to make the most of it,” said Roberts.