Talking with Molly Carr of the Juilliard String Quartet

In the 76-year history of the Juilliard String Quartet, there have only been four viola players – it’s a prestigious gig, and only classical musicians of the highest caliber are considered when a chair opens up.

Molly Carr was tapped to join the group in 2022, after the tragic death of violist Roger Tapping. Carr, a faculty member at the Juilliard School, and at the Manhattan School of Music, had also established herself as a preternaturally gifted musician, and was in demand for concert performances – and in recitals with her longtime duo partner, pianist Anna Petrova.

“I was living a very full life before the quartet called,” Carr admits. “And no one expected Roger to pass – especially how quickly he passed. And so to be in this position … I certainly didn’t think I was going to be here even a year ago.”

Michelle Ross

She and her viola will be onstage Tuesday in the Palladium Theater’s Hough Hall, as part of the Juilliard String Quartet. Carr will play alongside Astrid Schween, cello; Ronald Copes, violin; and Michelle Ross, violin (subbing for Areta Zhulla, who’s on maternity leave).

“Roger,” Carr adds, “was very dear – not just to me but basically to the whole music world. And so if I think too much about ‘filling his shoes,’ it’s a very emotional space.”

Being a member of one of the country’s most revered chamber groups carries with it an awesome responsibility, Carr knows. “You realize what a legacy is on your shoulders. It’s something I’ve talked a lot with the quartet about, that I’m not Roger, and so I do bring different ideas, and a different background, and different ways of thinking about things.

“And I think that’s the really beautiful thing about this Juilliard quartet – even from the very first time that I read with them in the audition process, the other three were very encouraging to ‘be me.’”

The Juilliard String Quartet, she discovered, “always cherishes individuality. Even in the way that you make sound, and the way that you prepare, and the way that you perform, and the way that you share your ideas.”

Tuesday’s program: Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 16 in F major, Op. 135 (1826); Ravel’s String Quartet in F major (1903); and Dvořák’s String Quartet No. 14 in A-flat major, Op. 105 (1895).

“A lot of the quartets we’re playing now, the others of course played many times with a different person,” Carr points out. “I have my own history with that same music, and so coming in with totally different ideas … with some of it, I just have to fit like a glove into something that, as quartet, they already know what they want.

“But when I was trying to ‘just fit in,’ they could tell I was doing it and they said ‘No, no, no, no, we want to hear what you actually hear. We’re so excited to have new ideas to be inspired by.’ It’s been a really enjoyable and fascinating and intellectually stimulating process.”

Likewise, working with violinist Ross – who’s one of Carr’s oldest friends – is keeping things fresh, albeit on a temporary basis. “It’s just so awesome to be sharing the stage with her,” says Carr, “and also that thing of ‘It’s a new person; how do they hear it?’”

At the same time, the Carr-Petrova Duo is still actively performing, and Carr continues to teach full-time.

That’s a full plate. But joining the Juilliard String Quartet, she says, was a “dream job.” When she was 12, right around the time she traded in the violin for the viola, she’d told her parents: One day I’m going to play in a famous quartet.

“Usually new members have a year to prepare for their new job,” Carr reflects. “I had like a month. It’s been a challenge to try and navigate ‘old life’ and ‘new life,’ as they overlap and the old life transitions. But honestly, any moments I think ‘I’m tired,’ I ask myself ‘Is this something you want to be doing?’

“And the answer is just so clearly ‘Heck yeah!’”

There’s something else that takes up her precious time – but as with the Juilliard group, Molly Carr wouldn’t have it any other way.

After suffering a severe gash to her left hand in 2013, she was miserable, frightened and looking for a positive direction in life.

“In that time, I took a Nursing Aid course with the American Red Cross. And ended up befriending a late stage Alzheimer’s patient named Ruth. Who I got to care for, hands-on.

“At the end of my residency and caring for her, I promised her that if I could play my instrument again, if my injury healed, then I would bring my friends and mentors and colleagues from around the world to come play at her bedside. And so I did.”

Her nonprofit, Project: Music Heals Us, is closing in on its 10^th year. “In nine seasons,” Carr says proudly, “we have brought music, music workshops and composition workshops into facilities such as prisons, hospitals, ICU units, refugee camps, homeless shelters … basically anywhere and everywhere that doesn’t have access to the arts.”

Tickets for Tuesday’s performance are here.

Molly Carr. Photo: Abigel Kralik.