Morning Concert – Rituals
10:00am at the Libbey Bowl

Featuring a performance of my medieval mashup of Guillaume de Machaut and Arvo Pärt, Dave’s Hocket alongside great music for JACK by Christopher Otto and JACK’s first performance of Susie Ibarra’s Pulitzer-Prize-winning Sky Islands.

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)

INFO

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

INFO

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

INFO

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

INFO

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

INFO

Ojai Dawns
8:00am at Zalk Theater, Beasant Hill School

Performing Tania León’s virtuosic and resonant Abanico for violin and electronics at the Ojai Festival on a program featuring two JACK Quartet commissions in spellbinding work by Vicente Atria and Eduardo Aguilar.

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

On May 6 at 6 PM, JACK Quartet gives a FREE show at Columbia University’s Miller Theatre in celebration of the release of my second record of original music, Escape Rites. The record opens with the driving minimalism of The Late Edition which blossoms into the cool reflecting pool of Lost One. The title track follows, which is a deeper journey into my musical anxieties and inspirations. Built on a 25-tone scale, and seeking to reveal an expression of the overtone series with rhythmic layers matched the the harmonic partials, the piece explores missed connections and failed relationships, obsolete machinery and idealistic fervor. JACK will perform these three works, as well as my re-imagining of John Cage’s early prepared piano work Totem Ancestor which is the final track of the record.

Event image is the album cover created by my beloved Alex Sopp.

Venue INFO and Pre-Order Link

"Round-about"

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

TICKETS and INFO

March 29, 7:30pm
JACK highlights the intimate history of a friendship between Pierre Boulez and John Cage 100 years following Boulez’ birth. His string quartet Livre pour quatuor was finished just as he began an intimate correspondence with John Cage, whose own String Quartet in Four Parts was written at this time.

My own piece, Escape Rites, responds to some of their concerns at this time, creating sound aggregates from a 25-tone scale, which is serialized to create micro and macro level details of the work, as well as each note of the scale being rhythmically “locked” in its place in an over or undertone series of polyrhythms and tied to a characteristic extended technique.

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

TICKETS

Pre-order Escape Rites here

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”

TICKETS

JACK Quartet at Wigmore Hall

JACK Quartet returns to London’s Wigmore Hall for gives three performances in one day - 11:30am, 3:00pm, 7:30pm. Includes the UK premiere of my work Escape Rites.

TICKETS and INFO

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

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.

TICKETS and INFO

Pre-order Escape Rites here

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.

JACK plays some classics on the Cutting Edge Concerts series held in Symphony Space on NYC’s Upper West Side. A rich selection of 20th century classics!

Cutting Edge Concerts at Symphony Space

Program:
Pierre Boulez, Livre 1, 2, 3c
Anton Webern, Six Bagatelles, op 9
Philip Glass, String Quartet no. 5
John Cage, String Quartet in Four Parts
Heinz Holliger, String Quartet No. 2

TICKETS and INFO

Music on the Edge
Beyond: Microtonal Music Festival 2025

Bellefield Hall Auditorium: University of Pittsburgh

Austin Wulliman: Escape Rites (World Premiere)
Mathew Rosenblum: Double keyboard quintet (World Premiere) with pianist Conor Hannick

JACK gives the world premiere of my new string quartet Escape Rites, the piece of work which dominated my last year. The piece explores a 25-note microtonal scale, with each note related to polyrhythms locked to overtone or undertone relationships and tied to extended techniques, inspired by the correspondence of John Cage and Pierre Boulez when they were completing their own quartets in the late 1940’s. The scale, its related rhythms, and associated timbres are both serialized and treated as material for traditional harmonic/contrapuntal elaboration.

“Activity involving in a single process the many, turning them, even though some seem to be opposites, towards oneness, contributes to a good way of life.” - John Cage

TICKETS and INFO

Music on the Edge
Beyond: Microtonal Music Festival 2025

WQED Studio A, 4802 Fifth Avenue

Austin Wulliman, The Late Edition (video by Scott Turri)
Ellen Fullman, Energy Archive (World Premiere)

Performing at 432 hz with the Long String Instrument created by Ellen Fullman, JACK harmonizes and vibrates against the lengthy cords of Fullman’s unique sculptural instrument.

Opening for this world premiere, years in the making, is my short journey inside an imaginary drum with a microphone right on top of it: The Late Edition.

“Pressed between bodies heaving to the pulse. The room inside the drum: each of us within its envelope. Sent elsewhere. Stamped to distant locales but together in this resonating box. My wrists were broken. My mind screwed on tight.”

A unique opportunity to hear this piece tuned to A=432hz with new video by Pittsburgh artist Scott Turri.

TICKETS and INFO

Music on the Edge
Beyond: Microtonal Music Festival 2025

JACK brings a wide array of microtonal wizardry though our closest collaborations in this spectacular festival celebrating the diverse world of music beyond the 12 keys of the piano. The quartet presents the world premiere of Austin Wulliman's Escape Rites, utilizing serial techniques and polyrhythmic cycling on a just-intonation-based 25-tone scale as well as a new quintet by festival organizer Mathew Rosenblum alongside pianist Conor Hannick. The quartet will also perform works by their own violinist Christopher Otto and present the world premiere of their long-term collaboration with Ellen Fullman: Energy Archive. Also on the festival, quartet members will collaborate with the vocal ensemble Ekmeles, perform the work of Marcos Balter, and play Amy Williams' Tangled Madrigal based on the work of Italian Renaissance microtonalist Nicola Vicentino.

February 21, 4pm
Talk presented by JACK Quartet: "Microtonal Theory and Performance"
Bellefield Hall Room 205

February 21, 8pm
JACK Quartet and Ekmeles Vocal Ensemble with Scott Pauley, lute
Bellefield Hall Auditorium

Amy Williams, Tangled Madrigal
Chris Otto, rags'ma

TICKETS and INFO

Lugano Art and Culture

JACK Quartet returns to Lugano with a program featuring works with layers of inspiration and expressive meaning. The quartet will give the European premiere of Anthony Cheung’s Twice Removed, which draws its form and content from the concept of ekphrasis, that is: one form of art interpreting another ("a painting of a poem"), taking the concept one step further by interpreting already existing works using this concept. The quartet also performs Eva-Maria Houben's Nothing More, which is draws its micro-movement titles from Berg's Lyric Suite, Heinz Holliger's String Quartet No. 2, which is dedicated Elliott Carter, whose String Quartet No. 5 is also featured on the program. Layers of time and inspiration are held together by John Cage's cyclical String Quartet in Four Parts, in the composer's words a simple "line in rhythmic space".

Program:
Eva-Maria Houben, Nothing More
Anthony Cheung, Twice Removed
Elliott Carter, String Quartet No. 5
John Cage, String Quartet in Four Parts
Heinz Holliger, String Quartet No. 2

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.

Taylor Brook, Organum
Nicola Vicentino, Madonna, il poco dolce; Prisca musica caput
Amy Williams, Tangled Madrigal
Taylor Brook, Ars Nova
Christopher Otto, Angelorum Psalat, after Rodericus
Ruth Crawford Seeger, String Quartet 1931 
Taylor Brook, Phrygea
Philip Glass, String Quartet No. 5

Presented in association with the University of Toronto New Music Festival

Album Release Concert: John Zorn

IGNOTIUM PER IGNOTIUS (the unknown by way of the more unknown)

JACK has had a long and fruitful relationship with Zorn that goes back to 2007, and it continues to this day. Passionate and dedicated supporters of his work, they have been involved in close to 100 performances of his compositions in major venues all over the world. Zorn’s last two quartets were composed with JACK in mind.

This exciting evening features two of Zorn’s greatest masterworks—Memento Mori (with Ikue Mori as a guest soloist) and the challenging Necronomicon, Zorn’s triumphant return to the string quartet medium after a 10 year hiatus.

Memento Mori is one of Zorn’s most personal creations—a unique, hermetic work filled with hidden messages, deep lyricism, microtones, noise, and fleeting references to Alban Berg’s Lyric Suite. Composed in 1992 and dedicated to Ikue Mori, the piece takes you on a surreal journey unlike any other. For this special performance, dedicatee Ikue Mori will improvise her signature live electronics along to JACK Quartet’s dynamic interpretation of this vexing and emotional work.

Necronomicon is in five movements, and draws upon hermeticism, alchemy, magick, mysticism, and more.

This evening is a CD release concert—JACK Quartet proudly announces the long awaited release of their 2 CD set of the complete string quartets of John Zorn—available at this concert from Tzadik recordings! LINK or stream

Program:
MEMENTO MORI  (1992) 
with Ikue Mori electronics

NECRONOMICON (2003)
I Conjurations
II The Magus
III Thought-Forms
IV Incunabula
V Asmodeus

JACK and Shai Wosner explore a prismatic program filled with novel explorations of the deeper past of European music, featuring fantastically virtuosic piano quintets and arrangements of ancient music.

Henry Purcell — Fantasy Upon One Note (arr. for piano quintet)
Ruth Crawford Seeger — String Quartet (1931)
Wolfgang Rihm — Interscriptum
Christopher Otto — Miserere, after Nathaniel Giles
Amy Williams — Cineshape 2
George Benjamin — Relativity Rag
Thomas Adés — Piano Quintet 

Juri Seo: Three Imaginary Chansons
Rand Steiger: Tropes
Rand Steiger: Rage / Resolve (World Premiere)

Conrad Prebys Music Center

9410 Russell Ln, La Jolla, CA 92093

JACK Quartet at the Mariposa Series

The neglected, though not forgotten rites of the Medieval musical arts illuminate the musical manuscript anew as JACK 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 masterful arranger Christopher Otto. Meanwhile, pieces by JACK’s friends 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]

JACK performs “Lines Made By Walking”, written for them by close collaborator John Luther Adams, and Elliott Carter’s final, intriguing String Quartet No. 5 at Hancher Auditorium in Iowa City.

John Luther Adams: Lines Made by Walking

Elliott Carter: String Quartet No. 5 (1995)

String Quartet No. 3 “In iij Noct“ performed in complete darkness. An flexible-form exploration of overtone harmonies, textural situations and historical referents performed from the four corners of the hall, the quartet surrounding the audience.

L’Auditori Barcelona

Carrer de Lepant, 150, L'Eixample, 08013 Barcelona, Spain

JACK Celebrates our 20th anniversary in style with a concert of works written for us including the world premiere of a new quartet by Anthony Cheung. INFO ALSO STREAMING LIVE

PROGRAM

Eduardo Aguilar, HYPER

Seare Farhat, Aporias

Juri Seo, Three Imaginary Chansons

Anthony Cheung, New Work (World Premiere)

Online streaming also available for 72 hours following the performance.

Very excited to open for Alex Sopp, Charlotte Mundy and Natacha Diels’ new trio WENDY at Cute Lab on Sunday, Nov. 3 at 8 PM.

I’m playing works for violin and tape by myself, Connor Elias Way and Yaz Lancaster.

Cute Lab

61 9TH ST, BROOKLYN, NY 11215 (look for the red door)

You can also search for "IncrediPole" to find the building more easily on GMaps.

I’m excited to play with The Knights again at Carnegie Hall on Oct 24 playing this wonderfully varied program.

Program

KEITH JARRETT Suite from Book of Ways (arr. Michael P. Atkinson, World Premiere)

BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 4

MICHAEL SCHACHTER New Work (World Premiere, co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall)

GERSHWIN Rhapsody in Blue (arr. Michael P. Atkinson)

Performers

The Knights
Colin Jacobsen, Artistic Director and Violin
Eric Jacobsen, Artistic Director and Conductor
Aaron Diehl, Piano

The Tree of Heaven: New Music for Harpsichord and Strings by Alec Goldfarb & Joshua Alvarez Mastel

St. Paul's Chapel, 1160 Amsterdam Ave., New York, NY 10027

AVAILABLE to stream LIVE on YouTube, link below.

The Tree of Heaven and sky goes dark are two new works for microtonal double-manual harpsichord and strings that explore Renaissance theories of cosmology and their musical implications. Drawing on Nicola Vicentino’s 16th-century musical tuning system, Mastel and Goldfarb explore harmonic realms that stretch the boundaries of Vicentino's theory. Through this expanded system the works echo and transform the celestial harmony envisioned during the Renaissance, bridging historical and contemporary music.

PROGRAM

sky goes dark — Joshua Alvarez Mastel

The Tree of Heaven — Alec Goldfarb

PERFORMERS

Alec Goldfarb, guitar

Joshua Alvarez Mastel, harpsichord

Austin Wulliman, violin

Daniel Hass, cello

Julian Bennett Holmes, organ

Joshua Alvarez Mastel writes instrumental and electronic music which has been performed internationally by Yarn/Wire, ekmeles, ensemble mosaik, and Schallfeld Ensemble. In addition to composing concert music, he makes sound pieces using field recordings, motorized hardware, and digital sound, often for live performance. 

Alec Goldfarb is a Downbeat Magazine award-winning guitarist, composer, and Hindustani classical musician based in Brooklyn whose music is “full of ingenious juxtapositions and twists” (The Wire). He served as inaugural composer in residence for Jonah Bokaer Choreography in 2018, premiering new works at the Joyce and across the East Coast. Other performances include Roulette Intermedium, Skanu Mezs, Darmstadt Ferienkurse, the Yellow Barn, the Kimmel Center, Frequency Festival, the Clark, Asia Society NYC, the Jazz Gallery, and more. He played on the Deutscher Jazz Preis Award winning album "Orlando Furioso" in 2023 as well as the Deutscher Jazz Preis Award nominated "Phantom Islands" in 2024.

Live at St. Paul’s Chapel — or, watch on YouTube.

In celebration of composer/saxophonist Travis Laplante’s new release “The Golden Lock” JACK Quartet gives a performance of his String Quartet No. 1, written for us in 2023. The evening includes performances by Travis with various amazing collaborators and will be a concert filled with intense musical expression. Come join us for a great vibe at Roulette on Oct 3!

INFO streaming live and in archive at this link.