UMS in the Classroom: St. Lawrence String Quartet

By UMS

Interested in using a UMS performance in your university classroom? For each performance on the season, we provide suggested curricular connections, links to contextual material online, citations for scholarly material, and prompts for classroom discussion. For additional resources and individualized curricular support, please contact Shannon Fitzsimons Moen, UMS Campus Engagement Specialist, at skfitz@umich.edu or (734) 764-3903.

UMS is also committed to making our performances an affordable part of the academic experience. Our Classroom Ticket Program provides $15 tickets to students and faculty for performances that are a course requirement. Please email umsclasstickets@umich.edu to set up a group order.

Connect:

This performance may connect meaningfully with courses in the following schools and disciplines:

• Comparative Literature
• Germanic Languages and Literatures
• History
• History of Art
• Organizational Studies
• Political Science
• Chamber Music
• Composition
• Music Education
• Music Theory
• Musicology
• Strings
• Business

Explore:

• Learn more about the St. Lawrence String Quartet at their official website.
• Discover how Haydn’s Op.20 string quartets changed the course of music history in an interview with St. Lawrence String Quartet’s first violinist Geoff Nuttall.
• Delve into the repertory for these concerts with Floyd Grave and Margaret Grave’s The String Quartets of Joseph Haydn (Oxford University Press, 2006).

Reflect:

• A string quartet rehearses and performs without a conductor — the members collectively decide upon an interpretation of the work. What do you think are the challenges and opportunities of that approach? What other groups can you think of that function similarly?
• What similarities do you hear in Haydn’s six Op. 20 quartets? What differences do you hear?
• Think about the original contexts in which these quartets were performed. How does your listening experience differ from those performances? How do you think it changes the way you respond to and understand the music?