Upcoming Events
Met Live Arts
Modern/Medieval at The Met Cloisters
As the The Met’s 2025-26 Quartet in Residence, JACK Quartet kicks off its exciting season just in time for the holidays with a program of new and old works inspired by the most daring musical experiments of the Middle Ages. The program includes works by JACK Quartet violinists Christopher Otto and Austin Wulliman, plus many more New York City trailblazers, set against the Romanesque architecture of The Met Cloisters.
The performance will take place in the Romanesque Hall at 6:30pm. MetLiveArts tickets include Museum admission on the day of the event, during Museum hours only.
University at Buffalo - Department of Music
Feldman@100
Feldman@100 marks the composer’s centennial with two days of performances, talks, and reflections on his work. JACK Quartet performs with pianists Amy Williams and Eric Huebner in a concert on January 12 sharing works by Feldman and Iannis Xenakis, followed by a recital of new works by UB PhD Composers.
January 12 at 5:00pm at Lippes Concert Hall
Morton Feldman, Piano and String Quartet (1985)
JACK Quartet and Amy Williams, piano
Iannis Xenakis, Akea
JACK Quartet and Eric Huebner, piano
January 13 at 1:00pm at Lippes Concert Hall
New works by UB PhD Composers
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
JACK Quartet + Ellen Fullman
This evening concert will feature Ellen Fullman performing on her iconic Long String Instrument accompanied by JACK Quartet. As the closing program for the exhibition Robert Rauschenberg: Cardbirds, Fullman will debut a VMFA-commissioned composition celebrating Rauschenberg’s practice as a groundbreaking artist who experimented with movement and material. The commission and exhibition, on the advent of the artist’s centennial celebration, are sponsored by a grant from the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation.
Washington and Lee University
Modern/Medieval
Washington and Lee University Presents The Concert Guild and Lenfest Series: Modern/Medieval
The neglected, though not forgotten rites of the Medieval musical arts illuminate the musical manuscript anew as JACK Quartet explores the connections of musicality and thought between European composers of the past and the voices of American music today. The mysterious Rodericus and satirical Solage are viewed anew through the lens of JACK’s own Christopher Otto in colorful re-imaginations. Meanwhile, more recent works connect us to our musical forebears, using ancient harmonies, imitations, games, and secret messages as the jumping off point for unexpected journeys through magical, amorous, and dangerous tales.
Program:
Taylor Brook, Organum [2017]
Christopher Otto, Angelorum Psalat, after Rodericus [2011 / c. 1390]
Nicola Vicentino, Musica prisca caput // Madonna, il poco dolce [c. 1555]
Vicente Atria, Round-about [2024]
Austin Wulliman, Dave’s Hocket [2024]
Christopher Otto, Miserere, after Nathaniel Giles [2023 / 1594]
Taylor Brook, Phrygea [2017]
Johnny MacMillan, Songs from the Seventh Floor [2021]
Christopher Otto, Fumeux fume par fumee, after Solage [2018 / c. 1390]
Juri Seo, Three Imaginary Chansons [2024]
Taylor Brook, Ars Nova [2017]
Wigmore Hall
Wigmore Hall 125th Anniversary Season
JACK Quartet returns to Wigmore Hall for their annual three-concert day with performances at 11:30 AM, 3:00 PM, and 7:30 PM.
Concert #1: 11:30 AM
Catherine Lamb , String Quartet No. 1 (Two Blooms)
Two blooms grows from a sustained unison that shimmers as its texture changes. American composer Catherine Lamb’s meditative single-movement work, written in 2009 and later recorded by JACK Quartet, blurs the boundaries between harmony, melody and rhythm to create a transcendent unity of shimmering sound.
Concert #2: 3:00 PM
Hans Abrahamsen, String Quartet No.
Wolfgang Rihm, Im Innersten
‘High in the sky singing‘ and ‘Dark, Heavy and Earthy’ are among the descriptions applied to the four movements of Quartet No. 4 by Hans Abrahamsen, Oliver Knussen’s Professor of Composition at London’s Royal Academy of Music. JACK Quartet places the Danish composer’s vibrant score in company with Wolfgang Rihm’s impassioned ‘Im Innersten’, composed 50 years ago yet utterly compelling in its contemporary relevance.
Concert #3: 7:30 PM
Helmut Lachenmann, Grido
Helmut Lachenmann, Mes Adieux
Helmut Lachenmann, Gran Torso
Helmut Lachenmann, Reigen seliger Geister
JACK Quartet’s recording of Helmut Lachenmann’s three string quartets, released in 2014, was lauded for its technical precision, dynamic intensity and seductive beauty. The group’s feeling for his distinctive music, with its radical approach to sound and its production, has deepened in the years since. JACK concludes its latest Wigmore Hall outing with a tribute to the German composer just a few months after his 90th birthday.
The New York Times: Helmut Lachenmann’s Music is Like Nothing Else
University of Iowa: Guest Chamber Recital
University of Iowa String Quartet Residency Program
JACK Quartet continues their long-standing relationship with the University of Iowa String Quartet Residency Program. In their two-part 2025-26 residency, JACK Quartet will workshop drafts by student composers, and teach chamber music. In this recital, JACK will perform a recital of works written expressly for them by UI student composers.
This concert is free and open to the public.
Cal Performances at UC Berkeley
Cal Performances Ensemble Debut
Making their Cal Performances at UC Berkeley ensemble debut, JACK Quartet performs a world premiere by Gabriella Smith alongside the west coast premieres of recent works by Austin Wulliman and Keir GoGwilt. The program is completed with works by modern European luminaries Hans Abrahamsen and Wolfgang Rihm.
Program:
Austin Wulliman, The Late Edition (West Coast Premiere)
Keir GoGwilt, Treatise on Limited Freedoms: Future Mode 1 (West Coast Premiere)
Hans Abrahamsen, String Quartet no. 4
Gabriella Smith, Aegolius (World Premiere)
Wolfgang Rihm, String Quartet No. 3 "Im Innersten"
92NY
JACK Quartet at 92NY
We are thrilled to return to 92NY in New York City with a concert showcasing works developed through JACK Studio. The concert will feature a world premiere by Tristan Perich for string quartet and electronics alongside new works by Studio Artists-in-Residence, Keir GoGwilt, Jules Reidy, and Aillie Ormston, who have been developing their work with JACK over the course of their two-year residencies.
Program:
Tristan Perich, Oblique (World Premiere)
Keir GoGwilt, Treatise on Limited Freedoms: Future Mode 1 (NYC Premiere)
Jules Reidy, Shadow Symmetric (World Premiere)
Aillie Ormston, New Work (World Premiere)
Online streaming also available for 72 hours following the performance.
Tristan Perich’s Oblique was commissioned by JACK Quartet with the support of the the New York State Council on the Arts Individual Commission Grant with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature; and the 92nd Street Y.
Big Ears
JACK Quartet at Big Ears 2026
JACK Quartet returns to Big Ears Festival with two different programs sharing music by cherished collaborators John Zorn and John Luther Adams.
Barbara Hannigan Sings Zorn II
Featuring Jack Quartet, Steve Gosling, Jorge Roeder, Ches Smith, Sae Hashimoto, Ikue Mori
Saturday, March 28, 2026 at 10:00pm
Venue: Bijou Theatre
JACK Quartet Plays John Luther Adams
Sunday, March 29, 2026 at 7:30pm
Venue: St. John's Cathedral
Body and Sound Festival
Haas in the Dark
JACK Quartet performs Georg Friedrich Haas’ In iij Noct in absolute darkness. The playing space becomes distended, each of the members of the quartet being as far away as possible from each other, and surrounding the audience. The duration of the work is also rendered mobile, in constant evolution. The audience finds itself left to the discretion of the musicians, deprived of sight and who communicate only through what they play, plunged in the immersive power of darkness.
Co-produced with Liquid Music. Co-presented by REDCAT.
There will be a post-show Q&A with JACK Quartet, moderated by REDCAT Deputy Director and Chief Curator, Performing Arts, Katy Dammers.
Program:
Georg Friedrich Haas, In iij Noct. (2001)
The Frick Collection
JACK Quartet + Shai Wosner
JACK Quartet performs with pianist Shai Wosner at The Frick Collection’s Stephen A. Schwarzman Auditorium. The program includes JACK violinist Christopher Otto’s Miserere, after Nathaniel Giles, the artist’s contemporary rhythmic elaboration of a 16th century work by the English Renaissance composer. Wosner performs one solo piano piece, George Benjamin’s Relativity Rag, while JACK features or combines with Wosner on Henry Purcell’s Fantasy upon one note (piano quintet), Ruth Crawford Seeger’s String Quartet 1931, Wolfgang Rihm’s Interscriptum (piano quintet), Amy Williams’ Cineshapes #2, and Thomas Ades’ Piano Quintet.
Program:
Henry Purcell, Fantasy upon one note
Ruth Crawford Seeger, String Quartet 1931
Wolfgang Rihm, Interscriptum
Christopher Otto, Miserere, after Nathaniel Giles
Amy WIlliams, Cineshapes #2
George Benjamin, Relativity Rag
Thomas Ades, Piano Quintet
La Stagione di Siena
Accedemia Musicale Chigiana
JACK Quartet performs in Siena, Italy at Teatro dei Rozzi as part of the 103rd Edition of La Stagione di Siena.
Program:
Philip Glass, String Quartet No. 5
John Zorn, Remedy of Fortune
Catherine Lamb, String Quartet n.1 (two blooms)
Festival d'Automne à Paris
Haas in the Dark
For JACK Quartet’s final performance as the “Portrait Musicians” at the Festival d'Automne à Paris, the quartet performs Georg Friedrich Haas’ In iij Noct in absolute darkness. The playing space becomes distended, each of the members of the quartet being as far away as possible from each other, and surrounding the audience. The duration of the work is also rendered mobile, in constant evolution. The audience finds itself left to the discretion of the musicians, deprived of sight and who communicate only through what they play, plunged in the immersive power of darkness.
Program:
Georg Friedrich Haas, In iij Noct. (2001)
Presented in collaboration by Théâtre de la Ville-Paris and the Festival d’Automne à Paris.
La Fondation d'entreprise Société Générale is the main sponsor of the Portrait JACK Quartet.
NOSPR Concert Hall
National Polish Radio SO Presents JACK Quartet / Radiant Darkness
National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra Presents JACK Quartet at NOSPR Concert Hall in a performance of Georg Friedrich Haas, String Quartet No 3, ‘In iij. Noct’ - performed in complete darkness for the both the quartet and the audience.
“Why not take that journey, if only for fifty minutes? That is the span of the most renowned among eleven string quartets by the remarkable Austrian composer. While performing this work, the musicians see neither the score nor one another. Their world is made up solely of raw, microtonal gestures – the only means by which they can communicate with each other and with the audience to build a dialogue, a concert, an entire universe...” -Michał Mendyk
Program:
Georg Friedrich Haas, In iij Noct. (2001)
Miller Theatre
Composer Portrait Series: Anthony Cheung
Experience the captivating music of Anthony Cheung, whose work reveals an interest in the ambiguity of sound sources and shifting transformations of tuning and timbre. An all-star lineup—flutist Claire Chase, Yarn/Wire, and the JACK Quartet—join the composer for a dynamic program of recent works.
Program: All by Anthony Cheung
Improvised Intro for piano (2025)
Twice Removed (2024)
Tactile Values (2023)
The Real Book of Fake Tunes (2015)
Buffalo Chamber Music Society
JACK Quartet + Amy Williams
JACK Quartet and frequent collaborator, composer/pianist Amy Williams team up for a recital at the Buffalo Chamber Music Society. Williams' music for JACK explores a kaleidoscope of instrumental possibilities, virtuosic gestures, a multiverse of time flows and surprisingly emotional narratives.
Program:
Christopher Otto: Angelorum Psalat, after Rodericus (14th c.)
Amy Williams: Cineshapes 2 (2007)
Christopher Otto: Miserere, after Nathaniel Giles (16th c.)
Amy Williams: Bells and Whistles (2023)
Amy Williams: Tangled Madrigal (2024)
The New School
Mannes Chamber Music Festival
As the Mannes School of Music Quartet-in-Residence, JACK Quartet performs at Steifel Hall as part of the 2025 Mannes Chamber Music Festival.
Program:
Catherine Lamb, String Quartet n.1 (two blooms)
Free reservation required in advance for this event.
open music Graz
Helmut Lachenmann: Complete String Quartets
Continuing the 90th birthday celebration of visionary composer Helmut Lachenmann, JACK Quartet performs his complete string quartets at open music Graz, a concert series of contemporary music.
Program: All by Helmut Lachenmann
String Quartet No. 1 Gran Torso (1971/78/88)
String Quartet No. 2 Reigen seliger Geister (1989)
String Quartet No. 3 Grido (2001)
The New York Times: Helmut Lachenmann’s Music is Like Nothing Else
Festival d'Automne à Paris
Beautiful Trouble at Théâtre Silvia Monfort
Rocketing ecstatically between sadness and joyfulness, Natacha Diels’s Beautiful Trouble is an evening-length ‘opera’ (as dramatic spectacle) for JACK Quartet that explores a slim window of human existence. Moments gathered like precious stones coalesce to create both sense and nonsense, forming a logic all the piece’s own. Organizing the stones just so reveals clarity in chaos, if only for a moment. “Beautiful Trouble is a tour de force of reckless imagination and confident craft, and a testament, however offbeat, to the JACK Quartet’s unshakeable courage and coherence.” — Steve Smith, Musical America
Program:
Natacha Diels, Beautiful Trouble (2024)
Episode 1, On Monday
Episode 2, Nightmare for JACK (a ballet)
Episode 3, Sometimes it's the Last Time
Episode 4, An Incredible Easy Method That Works For All (Auto-Pilot)
Episode 5, Beautiful Trouble
Composition, Direction and Video | Natacha Diels
Costumes | Maile Okamura
Technical and Sound Director | Matthew Craig
Lights | Kent Sprague
A co-presentation by Théâtre Silvia Monfort and Festival d'Automne à Paris.
La Fondation d'entreprise Société Générale is the main sponsor of the Portrait JACK Quartet.
NOW! Festival
NOW! Festival 2025 - Essen
JACK Quartet performs the complete string quartets of Clara Iannotta at the Essen Philharmonic Hall for the NOW! Festival. The four string quartets by the Italian composer Clara Iannotta combine brilliantly captivating soundscapes with mysterious, grounded stories, fitting this year's NOW! theme, "elements." JACK will also perform Lachenmann’s String Quartet No. 2 Round Dance of Blessed Spirits.
Program:
Helmut Lachenmann: String Quartet No. 2 Reigen seliger Geister
Clara Iannotta: dead wasps in the jam-jar (iii) for prepared string quartet and sine waves
Clara Iannotta: You crawl over seas of granite for amplified string quartet
Clara Iannotta: A Failed Entertainment for string quartet
Clara Iannotta: Earthing - dead wasps (Obituary) for prepared string quartet and electronics
Miller Theatre
Composer Portrait Series: Helmut Lachenmann
Marking the 90th birthday celebration of Helmut Lachenmann—the iconic visionary who has profoundly shaped the landscape of modern classical music—the JACK Quartet performs his complete string quartets. Don't miss this unforgettable performance of one of contemporary music’s most influential voices.
Program: All by Helmut Lachenmann
String Quartet No. 1 Gran Torso (1971/78/88)
String Quartet No. 2 Reigen seliger Geister (1989)
String Quartet No. 3 Grido (2001)
The New York Times: Helmut Lachenmann’s Music is Like Nothing Else
Musica Strasbourg Festival
JACK Quartet + John Luther Adams
JACK Quartet brings a program of music by frequent collaborator, John Luther Adams, to Musica Strasbourg Festival.
Program: All by John Luther Adams
Wind in High Places (2010)
Lines Made by Walking (2019) European Premiere
Musica Strasbourg Festival
European Premiere of Beautiful Trouble
Rocketing ecstatically between sadness and joyfulness, Natacha Diels’s Beautiful Trouble is an evening-length ‘opera’ (as dramatic spectacle) for JACK Quartet that explores a slim window of human existence. Moments gathered like precious stones coalesce to create both sense and nonsense, forming a logic all the piece’s own. Organizing the stones just so reveals clarity in chaos, if only for a moment. “Beautiful Trouble is a tour de force of reckless imagination and confident craft, and a testament, however offbeat, to the JACK Quartet’s unshakeable courage and coherence.” — Steve Smith, Musical America
Program: All by Natacha Diels
Episode 1, On Monday
Episode 2, Nightmare for JACK (a ballet)
Episode 3, Sometimes it's the Last Time
Episode 4, An Incredible Easy Method That Works For All (Auto-Pilot)
Episode 5, Beautiful Trouble
Composition, Direction and Video | Natacha Diels
Costumes | Maile Okamura
Technical and Sound Director | Matthew Craig
Lights | Kent Sprague
Festival d'Automne à Paris
JACK Quartet + Ellen Fullman
As the “Portrait Musicians” at the Festival d'Automne à Paris JACK Quartet’s first performance at the Festival pairs them with legend of instrument building, Ellen Fullman, offering a deeply personal performance on a sculptural scale. Fullman’s work is a monumental achievement, requiring days of installation and hyper-attenuation of each string's intonation, creating a uniquely vibrating sonic image in space as the quartet plays among the Long String Instrument's overtones.
Program:
Ellen Fullman, Energy Archive 2 (World Premiere)
Ellen Fullman, Energy Archive 2, for long string instrument and the JACK Quartet (2025), commissioned by the Festival d’Automne à Paris.
Pinault Collection and the Festival d’Automne à Paris present this concert as a co-production.
La Fondation d'entreprise Société Générale is the main sponsor of the Portrait JACK Quartet.
Pierre Boulez Saal
Pierre Boulez Saal
JACK Quartet returns to Pierre Boulez Saal for an intensely intimate look at the world of extended string sounds with a World Premiere by Danish composer Mads Emil Dreyer, two string quartets by close collaborator Helmut Lachenmann, and Clara Iannotta’s dead wasps in the jam-jar (iii) for prepared string quartet and sine waves.
Program:
Mads Emil Dreyer: Doldrums, inertia (World Premiere)
Helmut Lachenmann: String Quartet No. 3 "Grido"
Clara Iannotta: dead wasps in the jam-jar (iii)
Helmut Lachenmann: String Quartet No. 1 "Gran Torso"
This concert is part of Berlin's Month of Contemporary Music.
TIME:SPANS
TIME:SPANS Festival
For JACK’s second performance at TIME:SPANS, the quartet premieres the full cycle of Rand Steiger’s work written for them over the last five years. The concert-length triptych of works for string quartet and electronics express a deeply emotional reaction to the state of United States politics beginning with a reaction to the 2016 Presidential election. The three sections, Undone, Inward, and Rage/Resolve draw on a vast array of musical, technical, and emotional effects.
Program:
Rand Steiger, Introspective Trilogy, 2016-2025 (World Premiere)
1. Undone (2016)
2. Inward (2017)
3. Rage/Resolve (2025)
TIME:SPANS
TIME:SPANS Festival
JACK Quartet returns to the annual TIME:SPANS Festival with the world premiere of Nursalim Yadi Anugerah’s Aphid and a Palm on the Top of Orange Cliff, for string quartet and computer-controlled kadedek. As a JACK Studio Artist-in-Residence, Anugerah began his two-year creative residency with JACK Quartet in Fall 2022. A composer and multi-instrumentalist, Anugerah’s works focus on sonic experimentation through cultural practice, knowledge, and cosmology of indigenous people and their activism on acoustic ecology related to entanglements of social-cultural and environmental issues in Kalimantan (Borneo).
Program:
Nursalim Yadi Anugerah, Aphid and a Palm on the Top of Orange Cliff (World Premiere)
Commissioned by JACK Quartet through JACK Studio
Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival
Modern Medieval with the JACK Quartet
In this uniquely eclectic program, the JACK Quartet plays their own realizations of Renaissance and Medieval works as well as a recent work by longtime collaborator Caleb Burhans and Renaissance-flavored pieces the JACK commissioned from Juri Seo and Keir GoGwilt through their acclaimed JACK Studio, which supports a wide range of emerging artists.
Program:
Christopher Otto (after Rodericus): Angelorum Psalat
Juri Seo: Three Imaginary Chansons
Christopher Otto (after Saloge): Fumeux par fumée
Keir GoGwilt: Treatise on Limited Freedoms: Future Mode 1
Christopher Otto (after Nathaniel Giles): Miserere
Caleb Burhans: Contritus
Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival
New Music with the JACK Quartet
In their highly anticipated Festival debut, the JACK Quartet plays two exciting 21st-century works (including one they recently commissioned and premiered in New York City), and premieres Festival-commissioned string quartets by Tyson Gholston Davis and Ania Vu, the two up-and-coming talents participating in the Festival’s 12th annual Young Composers String Quartet Project.
Program:
Anthony Cheung: Twice Removed
Ania Vu: New Work for String Quartet (Festival Commission, World Premiere)
Tyson Gholston Davis: New Work for String Quartet (Festival Commission, World Premiere)
Helmut Lachenmann: String Quartet No. 3, Grido
Anthony Cheung’s Twice Removed was commissioned by JACK Quartet with the support of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation, 92nd Street Y, and Wigmore Hall.
Ojai Music Festival
2025 Ojai Music Festival
On the final day of the 2025 Ojai Music Festival lead by Music Director Clair Chase, JACK Quartet shares the stage with fellow festival artists in two programs at the Libbey Bowl.
Morning Concert – Rituals
10:00am at the Libbey Bowl
Program:
Tania León: Ritual – Alex Peh, piano
Christopher Otto: Angelorum Psalat (after Rodericus) – JACK Quartet
Christopher Otto: Fumeux fume par fumée (after Solage) – JACK Quartet
Austin Wulliman: Dave's Hocket – JACK Quartet
Susie Ibarra: Sky Islands – Susie Ibarra & Levy Lorenzo (percussion), JACK Quartet, Alex Peh (piano), Claire Chase (flutes)
Closing Concert – Pulsefields
5:30pm at the Libbey Bowl
Program:
Leilehua Lanzilotti: ko’u’inoa – JACK Quartet + Leilehua, Kathryn, Katinka, Seth
Pauline Oliveros: The Witness – duos featuring: Steven Schick & Susie Ibarra, Alex Peh & Cory Smythe, Wu Wei & Claire Chase, Joshua Rubin & M.A. Tiesenga, Ben Marx & Tristam Williams
Terry Riley: Pulsefield – Tutti Festival Artists
Ojai Music Festival
2025 Ojai Music Festival
At the 2025 Ojai Music Festival lead by Music Director Clair Chase, JACK Quartet shares the stage with fellow festival artists in two programs at the Libbey Bowl.
Morning Concert - Chambers
10:00am at the Libbey Bowl
Program:
Marcos Balter: Chambers – JACK Quartet
Anna Thorvaldsdottir: UBIQUE – Claire Chase, Cory Smythe, Katinka Kleijn, Seth Parker Woods
Evening Concert - Meditations, Spells, Thinking Forests
8:00pm at the Libbey Bowl
Program:
JS Bach (arr.): Vor deinen Thron tret’ ich hiermit (BWV 668) – Wu Wei & JACK Quartet
Sofia Gubaidulina: Meditation on the Bach Chorale (1993) – JACK Quartet, Kathryn Schulmeister (bass), Alex Peh (harpsichord)
Tania León: Hechizos (1995) – Steven Schick, festival artists
Liza Lim: How Forests Think (2016) – Wu Wei (sheng), Steven Schick, festival artists
Ojai Music Festival
2025 Ojai Music Festival
At the 2025 Ojai Music Festival lead by Music Director Clair Chase, JACK Quartet shares two programs offering new music by established and emerging composers.
Ojai Dawns
8:00am at Zalk Theater, Beasant Hill School
Program:
Leilehua Lanzilotti: ahupua’a - JACK Quartet
Eduardo Aguilar: HYPER - JACK Quartet
Tania León: Abanico - Austin Wulliman and Levy Lorenzo
Vicente Atria: Roundabout - JACK Quartet
The Holy Liftoff
8:00pm at the Libbey Bowl
Claire Chase and JACK Quartet join together for The Holy Liftoff, the most recent work by pioneering American composer Terry Riley. Written as a series of musical sketches and brilliantly colored drawings, an exuberant and energized work represents a culmination for Riley, who says “I feel like this piece sums up a lot of things I’ve worked for.”
Program:
Leilehua Lanzilotti: ko’u’inoa – Leilehua Lanzilotti, viola
Sofia Gubaidulina: Mirage: The Dancing Sun – Eight cellos, conducted by Steven Schick
Julius Eastman: The Holy Presence of Joan of Arc – Ten cellos, conducted by Steven Schick
Terry Riley: The Holy Liftoff – Claire Chase (flute) and JACK Quartet
Sitka Music Festival
Sitka Premiere of John Luther Adams’s Never and Always Becoming
Experience the Sitka premiere of John Luther Adams’ newest composition, Never and Always Becoming, performed by JACK Quartet.
John Luther Adams, a composer deeply inspired by the landscapes of Alaska, lived in the state from 1978 to 2014 and was a member of the percussion section of the Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra.
With the resonant acoustics of Odess Theater, this program promises to be a transformative experience—pushing the boundaries of the string quartet repertoire and immersing audiences in the meditative, evolving soundscapes of Adams, Cage, and Glass.
Program:
John Luther Adams, Never and Always Becoming (String Quartet No. 9) – Sitka Premiere
John Cage, Music in Four Parts
Philip Glass, String Quartet No. 5
Strings at the Shrine
JACK Quartet + John Luther Adams in Alaska
Witness the world premiere of John Luther Adams' newest composition, Never and Always Becoming.
There will be two back to back concerts. JACK Quartet opens the first concert with John Cage's String Quartet in Four Parts and the second with Philip Glass' String Quartet No. 5, before showcasing John Luther Adams' world premiere, Never and Always Becoming at both performances.
5:30pm Program:
John Cage, String Quartet in Four Parts
John Luther Adams, Never and Always Becoming
7:30pm Program:
Philip Glass, String Quartet No. 5
John Luther Adams, Never and Always Becoming
Miller Theatre
Pop Up Concert at Miller Theatre - FREE
Escape Rites Album Release
The intrepid JACK Quartet returns to the Miller stage to highlight one of their own: Austin Wulliman—an in-demand violinist, highly regarded educator, and accomplished composer. This concert celebrates the upcoming release of his second album of original music, Escape Rites. Known for melding sounds both familiar and experimental, Wulliman weaves stories into his music with a deep passion for capturing emotional resonance
Pre-order Escape Rites here.
Austin Wulliman, Escape Rites (2024) New York premiere
Austin Wulliman, The Late Edition (2024)
Austin Wulliman, Lost One (2024)
No RSVP required. Sit onstage and enjoy a free drink during this hour-long Pop-Up Concert, and mingle with the musicians and fellow concertgoers after the show.
The Drawing Center
John Zorn: Hermetic Cartography at The Drawing Center
Offering profound insight into John Zorn’s creative mind, Hermetic Cartography reveals a new dimension of his artistic practice by showcasing works on paper that span seven decades of his visionary engagement with mark-making, improvisation, and the esoteric.
The exhibition, open February 7–May 11, 2025, includes a diverse array of Zorn’s visual artworks, graphic scores, dense philosophical notations, abstract poetry and artist books, and not only highlights Zorn’s radical approach to marks on paper but also his unique Theatre of Musical Optics and other experimental projects. By exploring these visual elements, the exhibition provides a new perspective on how Zorn's abstract works intersect with and inform his musical compositions.
John Zorn: Hermetic Cartography is accompanied by a series of musical performances curated by Zorn that will be performed in the exhibition. JACK Quartet will be joined by violist Yura Lee and cellist Michael Nicolas for an all-Zorn program on Saturday, May 3 at 7:30pm, free and open to the public.
Program:
Sigil Magick
Prolegomena
Americas Society
Round-about at Americas Society
JACK brings a bevy of creative voices together in NYC at the Americas Society in this recital featuring close friends and many pieces written for JACK. Vicente Atria's Round-about bubbles off the page with microtonal counterpoint and rhythmic drive, Marcos Balter's Chambers whispers secrets from rooms yet unseen, and Eduardo Aguilar's HYPER puts the minute gestural world of the quartet under a microscope, blowing it up into a drama full of fireworks. Leilehua Lanzelotti's ahupua‘a gets its very first NYC performance in a new version and the quartet also presents the results of their audio-visual collaboration with Daniel Bruno, the quizzical and surprisingly affective Lost & Founds.
Program:
Marcos Balter, Chambers
Eduardo Aguilar, HYPER
Leilehua Lanzilotti, ahupua‘a
Daniel Bruno, Lost & Founds
Vicente Atria, Round-about
Musikkollegium Winterthur Residency
JACK Quartet Residency at Musikkollegium Winterthur
During four performances, JACK Quartet dives deep in to the string quartet repertory - bringing works to Musikkollegium Winterthur from the 20th and 21st centuries.
March 26 & 27, 7:30pm
JACK Quartet joins the Musikkollegium Winterthur Orchestra in a tribute to Pierre Boulez marking 100 years since his birth, performing Wolgang Rihm’s Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra.
Program:
Pierre Boulez, Mémoriale
Wolfgang Rihm, Dithyrambe Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra
Bernd Alois Zimmermann, Rhenish Kirmestänze for 13 Wind Instruments
Arnold Schönberg, Verklärte Nacht op. 4, version for string orchestra
March 28, 6:30pm
In a free concert, JACK Quartet offers a program present contemporary compositions with sources of inspiration from medieval music theory.
Program:
Taylor Brook, Organum
Nicola Vicentino, Madonna, il poco dolce
Taylor Brook, Ars Nova
Juri Seo, Three Imaginary Chansons
Taylor Brook, Phrygea
Helmut Lachenmann, String Quartet No. 3 “Grido”
March 29, 7:30pm
JACK performs Pierre Boulez’ string quartet Livre pour quatuor alongside works by Eve-Maria Houben, Anton Webern, John Cage, and new music by Austin Wulliman and Anthony Cheung.
Program:
Pierre Boulez, Livre pour quatuor
Eva-Maria Houben, Nothing more
Anton Webern, Six Bagatelles for String Quartet, op. 9
John Cage, String Quartet in Four Parts
Austin Wulliman, Escape Rites
Anthony Cheung, Twice Removed
Anthony Cheung’s Twice Removed was commissioned by JACK Quartet with the support of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation, 92nd Street Y, and Wigmore Hall.
Wigmore Hall
JACK Quartet at Wigmore Hall
JACK Quartet returns to London’s Wigmore Hall - giving three performances in one day - 11:30am, 3:00pm, 7:30pm
Concert 1 Program:
Philip Glass, String Quartet No. 5
Heinz Holliger, String Quartet No. 2
Concert 2 Program:
Elliott Carter, String Quartet No. 5
Eduardo Aguilar, HYPER
Helmut Lachenmann, String Quartet No. 3 'Grido'
Concert 3 Program:
Pierre Boulez, Livre pour quatuor: 1b
Eva-Maria Houben, Nothing More
Pierre Boulez, Livre pour quatuor: 3c
Anton Webern, 6 Bagatellen Op. 9
John Cage, String Quartet in 4 Parts
Pierre Boulez, Livre pour quatuor: 1a
Austin Wulliman, Escape Rites (UK Premiere)
Anthony Cheung, Twice Removed (UK Premiere)
Pierre Boulez, Livre pour quatuor: 2
Anthony Cheung’s Twice Removed was commissioned by JACK Quartet with the support of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation, The 92nd Street Y, and Wigmore Hall.
Pierre Boulez Saal
Boulez 100
Pierre Boulez’s Livre pour quatuor is rich with musical complexity and radical thinking, a vast statement from a provactive young composer. At the same time, the score—left unfinished—also has a fragmentary quality. JACK performs individual movements from Boulez’s only string quartet, creating fragmentary conversation between them and their predecesor Anton Webern's Six Bagatelles and the recent, aphoristic Nothing More by Eva-Maria Houben. Anthony Cheung's richly expressive Twice Removed provides a further take on multi-layered artistic expressions, while Austin Wulliman's Escape Rites draws its inspiration from Boulez' friendship with John Cage, who wrote his String Quartet in Four Parts while corresponding with Boulez, who was writing his Livre.
Program:
Pierre Boulez, Livre pour quatuor (Excerpts)
Eva-Maria Houben, Nothing More for String Quartet
Anton Webern, Six Bagatelles for String Quartet Op. 9
John Cage, String Quartet in Four Parts
Austin Wulliman, Escape Rites
Anthony Cheung, Twice Removed
Anthony Cheung’s Twice Removed was commissioned by JACK Quartet with the support of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation, 92nd Street Y, and Wigmore Hall.