Melbourne Recital Centre

JACK Quartet brings two eclectic programs in one night to the Melbourne Recital Centre’s Elisabeth Murdoch Hall.

7pm: JACK Quartet – String Creatures
Ruth Crawford Seeger, String Quartet 1931
Elliott Carter, String Quartet No.1
Liza Lim, String Creatures (Australian Premiere)

9pm: JACK Quartet – Up Late
Juri Seo, Three Imaginary Chansons (World Premiere)
Johnny MacMillan, Songs from the Seventh Floor
Christopher Otto, Miserere, after Nathaniel Giles
Caleb Burhans, Contritus
Austin Wulliman, Dave’s Hocket (World Premiere)
Gabriella Smith, Carrot Revolution

Liza Lim’s String Creatures is co-commissioned by the Lucerne Festival, Miller Theatre at Columbia University, and Melbourne Recital Centre.

Ukaria Cultural Centre

JACK Quartet’s Australian tour continues with a recital at the lush grounds of the Ukaria Cultural Center, featuring music by Liza Lim, Elliott Carter, and Nathanial Giles arranged by JACK Quartet’s Christopher Otto.

Christopher Otto, Miserere, after Nathaniel Giles
Elliott Carter, String Quartet No.1
Liza Lim, String Creatures

Liza Lim’s String Creatures is co-commissioned by the Lucerne Festival, Miller Theatre at Columbia University, and Melbourne Recital Centre.

Utzon Music 2024

For their Sydney Opera House debut, JACK Quartet pairs Johnny MacMillan’s experimental 2022 string quartet Songs from the Seventh Floor – which tips its hat to the music of the Renaissance – with music by Renaissance composers Nicola Vicentino and Nathaniel Giles reimagined by JACK Quartet's own Christopher Otto, on a program alongside a brand new work written for the JACK Quartet by American composer and pianist Amy Williams. The program comes to a close with String Creatures, written for the JACK Quartet by Australian composer Liza Lim, in which she explores the nature of string itself.

Johnny MacMillan, Songs from the Seventh Floor
Nicola Vicentino, Madonna il poco dolce
Christopher Otto, Miserere, after Nathaniel Giles
Amy Williams, Tangled Madrigal
Liza Lim, String Creatures (Australian Premiere)

Liza Lim’s String Creatures is co-commissioned by the Lucerne Festival, Miller Theatre at Columbia University, and Melbourne Recital Centre.

JACK at Mannes School of Music

As the Mannes Ensemble-in-Residence, JACK Quartet will give a recital at the Ernst C. Stiefel Hall at The New School.

Johnny MacMillan, Songs from the Seventh Floor
Christopher Otto, Miserere, after Nathaniel Giles
Elliott Carter, String Quartet no. 1

This concert is free and open to the general public. Registration required.

James E. Clark Chamber Music Residency: JACK Quartet

JACK Quartet will give a recital as a part of their Clark Residency at the Eastman School of Music.

Johnny Macmillan, Songs from the Seventh Floor
Elliott Carter, String Quartet no. 1

This concert will also be livestreamed.

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.

Touching on elements of:
work ethic (humans as puppets),
dystopia,
the beauty of nightmares,
unmistakable loves,
childlikeness (play),
just music,
protest (no more wars),
loss,
nature as commodity (or not),
the beauty of silliness (playful nonsense),
long walks,
and wholeness.

“The five-part piece, which marries surreal short films to a just-as-absurdist live performance, is an ideal vehicle for JACK’s open-minded virtuosity.” - The New York Times

Beautiful Trouble was developed with support from Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, TIME:SPANS, The Barlow Foundation and the Sachs Program for Arts Innovation. Workshops were hosted by Mannes School of Music at The New School.

JACK Quartet in Recital

Jeffrey Mumford, deepening paths of resonant light (World Premiere)*
Christopher Otto, Miserere, after Nathaniel Giles
John Zorn, Necronomicon
Amy Williams, Tangled Madrigal
Iannis Xenakis, Tetras

*Commissioned by the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, George Steel Curator of Music

JACK Quartet at Constellation

Austin Wulliman, The Late Edition (2024) 
Christopher Otto, Miserere, after Nathaniel Giles
John Zorn, Necronomicon
Amy Williams, Tangled Madrigal (2024)
Iannis Xenakis, Tetras

Concert Preview: JACK Quartet returns to Chicago with a program that looks forward and backward - Chicago Reader

Guest Chamber Recital: JACK Quartet

The JACK Quartet will be giving a recital as a part of their Spring residency with the University of Iowa String Quartet Residency Program in collaboration with the Center for New Music.

Featuring new music by graduate student composers:
Sean Harken
Gregory Evans
Kevin Swenson
Alex Lenaers
Qing Xu
Lucy Shirley
Jeff Martin

This concert is free and open to the public.

JACK Quartet at Connecticut College

JACK brings an eclectic program to Connecticut College’s Guest Artist Series.

Christopher Otto, Angelorum Psalat, after Rodericus (14th c.)
Caleb Burhans, Contritus
Nicola Vicentino, Madonna il poco dolce and Musica Prisca Caput (16th c.)
Amy Williams, Tangled Madrigal (2024)
Christopher Otto, Fumeux par fumee, after Solage (14th c.)
Gabriella Smith, Carrot Revolution

Composer Portrait Series: Amy Williams
The music of Amy Williams embodies a vivid soundworld with ever-changing textures that beguile the ear. The astonishing composer, who is equally as accomplished as a pianist, joins JACK Quartet to perform a selection of her works.

Program: All by Amy Williams

Tangled Madrigal for string quartet (2024) World Premiere, Miller Theatre Commission
Bells and Whistles (2022) for piano trio
Richter Textures (2011)
Cineshape 2 (2007) for piano and string quartet

Read: Program Notes by Tim Munro

Read: Q&A with John Pickford Richards about Amy Williams

Album Release: Austin Wulliman: The News From Utopia

The News From Utopia is JACK violinist Austin Wulliman's debut album as composer. The record is a solo project built from many multi-tracked layers of Wulliman, which he composed, recorded and mixed.

The live experience will incorporate electronics built of samples from the album, as well as live performances from JACK Quartet and video by JACK Studio artist Iván Decoud. Additionally, the concert includes the US Premiere of Down Pat for electric guitar and electronics, written for the unique talents of guitarist and composer Alec Goldfarb.

The News is built from a web of musical conspiracy theories that coalesce into imagery and a nonlinear network of narrative. A field of pixels comes into focus, a series of images scroll past your phone screen, a dark veil falls over the noonday sun, a nightscape of the desert melts into the sea roiling with whitecaps and you wake up with your heart racing, eyes wide. Wulliman's latest work, Down Pat, tunes the guitar to the electrical ground, using MIDI interface to control an extended ratio-based tuning system. 50 hz, 60 hz, 440 hz and an increasing concatenation of 11s and 5s and 3s build a network of polyrhythm, harmony, and scalar logics that our plugged-in guitar hero embodies: the king is his castle. The performance also features a video premiere by Argentinian multimedia artist Iván Decoud for the track BLINK.

Program: all by Austin Wulliman

SYSTEM NOTES (2023) – World Premiere for string quartet and electronics
BLINK (2022) – World Premiere for string quartet, electric guitar and electronics
Down Pat (2023) – US Premiere for electric guitar and electronics
-Alec Goldfarb, guitar
The Late Edition (2023) - World Premiere for string quartet
Lost One (2024) — World Premiere for string quartet
The Docks (2022) – World Premiere for string quartet and electronics
The News From Utopia (ii) (2024) – World Premiere for string quartet and electronics

JACK Quartet: Levi Family Distinguished Visiting Artist

JACK Quartet performs a recital of student composer works at the Peabody Institute. The program features new works by the following composers:

Spencer Winell
Rodrigo Pascale
Yan Fang
Noah Goulet
Aaron Zimmer
Bianca Quigley
Claire Hu
Jiye No

This event is free, Tickets are not required.

Beautiful Trouble - World Premiere

Natacha Diels, Beautiful Trouble (2024)

JACK Quartet makes its Penn Live Arts debut in the world premiere of Natacha Diels’ Beautiful Trouble. Based on a five-part video series for choreographed string quartet, this concert-length production merges experimental music, video and theatre to create a sensory experience that considers our ability and desire to consume media. Diels created the work to examine a moment in time through the power of abstract narrative and music, both heard and seen.

Creative Team: JACK Quartet, Performers; Natacha Diels, Composer, Director, Video Designer; Julia Bumke, Lead Producer; Matthew Craig, Technical Director, Sound Designer; Kent Sprague, Lighting Designer; Maile Okamura, Costume Designer

Beautiful Trouble was developed with support from Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, TIME:SPANS, The Barlow Foundation, and the Sachs Program for Arts Innovation.

“The JACK Quartet’s fearless forays into the world of extended string technique has firmly ensconced the New York City-based group on the cutting edge of the new music scene. Beautiful Trouble, a collaboration with composer and Penn professor Natacha Diels, pushes their boundaries even further by venturing into the realm of the visual. Conceived as a six-part video mini-series, the premiere of this multimedia composition interrogating “the oversaturation of our current era” and “social impact of ubiquitous cameras,” will be must-see TV for those interested in the nexus of art, music, and politics.” - WRTI.org

Tyshawn Sorey, For Grachan Moncur III (US premiere)

As part of 92NY’s 150th Season, JACK Quartet and Tyshawn Sorey (percussion) perform the US Premiere of Sorey’s For Grachan Moncur III. Following a world premiere at the Lucerne Festival in summer 2022, the work is in homage to Moncur – the late composer and trombonist who blazed a trail through modern jazz in the 1960s, shares Sorey’s Newark, NJ roots, and had a major influence on Sorey’s musical development.

Online streaming also available for 72 hours following the performance.

JACK Studio Celebration

JACK celebrates four new JACK Studio projects in a free recital on December 15, 2023. This concert is held in partnership with Mannes School of Music at the The New School in New York City, where JACK is the  quartet-in-residence.

The recital will showcase premieres by JACK Studio composers Zara Ali, Seare Farhat, and Rishin Singh. It also features a screening of Lost & Founds, a film by Iván Decoud commissioned and performed by JACK Quartet through the JACK Studio program.

Each of these artists has worked with JACK for a two-year residency, during which they received opportunities to develop new work, hear their music performed by JACK Quartet, and get mentorship from performers in their field.

Click here for the concert program, bios, and program notes.

JACK Quartet plays John Zorn

Cat o' Nine Tails

The Alchemist

The Remedy of Fortune

Necronomicon

Presented in collaboration with the University of Iowa String Quartet Residency Program, Feed Me Weird Things, University of Iowa Center for New Music, and the University of Iowa Old Capital Museum.

Part of Hancher's 51st season

Modern Medieval

Christopher Otto, Angelorum Psalat, after Rodericus

Caleb Burhans, Contritus

Nicola Vicentino, Madonna il poco dolce

Nicola Vicentino, Musica Prisca Caput

Gabriella Smith, Carrot Revolution

Christopher Otto, Fumeux par fumee, after Solage

John Zorn, The Remedy of Fortune

*In person and Livestream

JACK Quartet’s collaboration with Catherine Lamb has become a central artistic relationship, pushing forward the creative work of both the composer and quartet. Lamb’s music represents a facet of the very cutting edge of string instrument writing today. JACK has spent its existence expanding their abilities as chamber musicians and taking part in the conversation about enriching the language of possibilities in string quartet music. That challenge in Lamb’s music comes through the lens of harmony and not through extended techniques or unusual rhythmic demands, but rather a yogic attention to the sustained sound of the strings resonating traditionally. On December 1, experience the indefinable magic of Catherine Lamb's divisio spiralis in The Dome.

Barbara Hannigan + John Zorn

Program: All by John Zorn

Star Catcher (2022)

Split the Lark (2021)

Liber Loagaeth (2021)

Ab Eo, Quod (2021)

Pandora’s Box (2013)

Performers: Barbara Hannigan, voice; Stephen Gosling, piano; JACK Quartet; Stephen Gosling, piano; Jorge Roeder, double bass; Sae Hashimoto, vibraphone; Ches Smith, drums; and Ikue Mori, electronics

JACK Quartet: Zorn

Cat o' Nine Tails

The Alchemist

The Remedy of Fortune

Necronomicon

JACK Quartet Plays Zorn

2:00pm: JACK and Barbara Hannigan with Michael Nicolas (cello) and Yura Lee (viola)

Liber Loagaeth

Sigil Magick

Prolegomena

8:00pm: JACK and Barbara Hannigan with Steve Gosling (piano), Jorge Roeder (bass), Ches Smith (drums), Sae Hashimoto (percussion)

Split the Lark

Pandora’s Box

Ab Eo Quod

Star Catcher

JACK Plays Zorn

JACK performs an all Zorn program with Yura Lee (viola) and Michael Nicolas (cello)

The Remedy of Fortune

Necronomicon

Sigil Magick

Prolegomena

Hannigan Sings Zorn

Program: All by John Zorn

Jumalattaret

Pandora’s Box

Star Catcher

Performers: Barbara Hannigan, singer; Stephen Gosling, piano; JACK Quartet; Jorge Roeder, double bass; Ches Smith, drum kit

John Luther Adams 70th Birthday Celebration

Program: All by John Luther Adams

“Rising” from Untouched

Lines Made by Walking

The Wind in High Places

Tippet Rise and the Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation are delighted to participate in a special collaborative concert at Paula Cooper Gallery (534 West 21st St, New York) on Wednesday, October 18 at 6:00 PM EDT, in celebration of Mark di Suvero's exhibition Painting and Sculpture (through October 21).

Our friends the JACK Quartet will perform John Luther Adams’ Lines Made By Walking (String Quartet No. 5), a Tippet Rise commission which premiered at the art center in 2019. In addition, poet Jenny Xie will read several of her works, interwoven among the three movements of the Adams piece.

This event is free and open to the public.

John Zorn at 70: Music for Strings

Program: All by John Zorn

Sigil Magick: A Curious and Detailed Exposition of Sigils, Signs, and Hieroglyphs Peculiar to the Occult Orders, Hermetic Brotherhoods, and Dark Mystery Schools of the Late Middle Ages for string quintet (2020)

The Gas Heart a mini opera for 2 celli and 2 percussionists (2020)

Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics That Will Be Able to Present Itself as a Science for string sextet (2020)

Note: David Fulmer will be playing violin on this performance, as a substitute for Austin Wulliman.

Zorn @ 70: On the Stage

12-hour immersive festival featuring JACK with Zorn’s key musical collaborators, including Bill Frisell, Julian Lage, John Medeski, Ches Smith, Kenny Wollesen, and Sae Hashimoto.

Note: Geneva Lewis will be playing violin on this performance, as a substitute for Austin Wulliman.

John Zorn at 70

Sigil Magick - JACK Quartet with Michael Nicolas (cello)

Prolegomena to any Future Metaphysics That Will Be Able to Present Itself as a Sciene - JACK Quartet with Yura Lee (viola) and Michael Nicolas (cello)