JACK Quartet
The JACK Quartet is breaking new ground with "viscerally exciting performances" (New York Times) of "explosive virtuosity" (Boston Globe). Alex Ross (New Yorker) proclaimed their performance of Iannis Xenakis' complete string quartets as being "exceptional" and "beautifully harsh," and Mark Swed (Los Angeles Times) called their sold-out performances of Georg Friedrich Haas' String Quartet No. 3 In iij. Noct. "mind-blowingly good." JACK's recording of Xenakis' complete string quartets appeared on "Best Of" lists from the Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, New Yorker, NPR, and Time Out New York as "one of 2009's most impressive recordings." The quartet has recently performed to critical acclaim at the Library of Congress, Miller Theatre, Morgan Library, and Kimmel Center with upcoming performances at the Darmstadt Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik (Germany), Garth Newel Music Center, Donaueschinger Musiktage (Germany), Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ (Netherlands), Festival Internacional Cervantino (Mexico), Ultraschall Festival für neue Musik (Germany), Wigmore Hall (UK), and the Arcana Festival (Austria).
Comprising violinists Christopher Otto and Ari Streisfeld, violist John Pickford Richards, and cellist Kevin McFarland, the JACK Quartet is focused on the commissioning and performance of new works, leading them to work closely with composers Helmut Lachenmann, György Kurtág, Matthias Pintscher, Toshio Hosokawa, Wolfgang Rihm, Elliott Sharp, Beat Furrer, Caleb Burhans, and Aaron Cassidy. Upcoming premieres include works by Jimmy López, Evan Gardner, Peter Ablinger, Alan Hilario, and Gregory Spears. The quartet also has a keen interest in unusual reworkings of music written before familiar repertoire, including works by Guillaume de Machaut, Girolamo Frescobaldi, and Josquin des Prez.
JACK has led workshops with young composers at Columbia University, New York University, the University of Huddersfield, Northwestern University, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the University of Victoria, the University of Iowa, and the University of Washington. In addition to working with composers and performers, the JACK Quartet seeks to broaden and diversify the potential audience for new music through educational presentations designed for a variety of ages, backgrounds, and levels of musical experience.
The members of the quartet met while attending the Eastman School of Music, and they have since studied with the Arditti Quartet, Kronos Quartet, Muir String Quartet, and members of the Ensemble Intercontemporain.