MKA Welcomes One of the World’s Most Distinguished Violinists

Professor Mark Steinberg, of Yale University and The Juilliard School, is recognized as one of the world’s most distinguished violinists and chamber musicians. He serves as the first violinist of the internationally acclaimed Brentano String Quartet and is renowned in musical circles for his evocative arrangements of madrigals for string quartet—works he has helped revive and reintroduce to the global stage.

During graduate school at New York University, MKA’s own Dimitri Hadjipetkov studied under Professor Steinberg. Recently, Professor Steinberg visited MKA’s Upper School, where he led a master class for Advanced Strings students, offering them a rare opportunity to learn directly from a master of the art.

Steinberg brought with him his Stradivarius violin from 1732. The students were in awe as he performed selections of early Italian Renaissance music by the brilliant and provocative composer Carlo Gesualdo, Prince of Venosa. In a special collaboration, Professor Steinberg joined MKA’s string faculty to form a quartet that performed two of Gesualdo’s haunting madrigals. This extraordinary musical event offered students and faculty the chance to experience rarely performed works composed over 500 years ago—an unforgettable encounter with history through music.