Great composers have always looked to other great composers for guidance and inspiration. This program features music whose composition was influenced by other masters. American Caroline Shaw, the youngest-ever recipient of the Pulitzer Prize in Music, was inspired to write her 2011 string quartet Entr’acte after hearing a performance of Haydn’s quartet, Op. 77, No. 2. Her captivating, cinematic writing has earned her widespread acclaim as one of the most important young voices in today’s music world. Antonin Dvořák had recently lost his mother when he decided to rework the slow movement from an earlier string quartet into the hypnotic Nocturne in B Major in 1883. Nine years later, Josef Suk, Dvořák ‘s student and future son-in-law, was challenged by his teacher to “lighten up” his melancholy music. Suk responded with the sunny and romantic Serenade for Strings, by far his most popular and enduring work.