About JACK Studio

JACK Studio was founded in 2019 to support commissions, recording projects, and workshops with emerging artists from across the globe.

JACK rehearses with Amy Brandon and Njabulo Phungula, whose pieces premiered through JACK Studio in 2023. (Photos: Cherylynn Tsushima).

JACK has long observed the transformative impact that schools and festivals can have for composers, strengthening their portfolios and advancing them to new artistic, educational, and professional opportunities. However, the social, cultural, and economic realities of institutional access disproportionately and unfairly exclude many people.

We address this inequity by inviting artists to apply for JACK Studio, offering them paid opportunities to develop new work, hear their music performed by JACK, consult with mentors in the field, and receive recorded documentation.

JACK receives more than 500 applications each season, and selects up to 15 composers or artists for two distinct opportunities: 

Two-Year Residencies

This two-year residency invites composers to work with JACK Quartet over a longer period of time, fostering deeper experimentation and collaboration between the recipients and JACK. While some resident artists may choose to include a premiere of work for string quartet within their residency, a final performance is not a requirement.

Reading Sessions

Recipients have existing works for string quartet read by JACK. The quartet will offer feedback and make professional audio and video documentation, to be used by the composers for academic and professional applications as well as non-commercial promotion.

More than 40 composers have worked with JACK through Studio thus far, hailing from Argentina, Belarus, Canada, Germany, Malaysia, Mexico, Myanmar, South Africa, Syria, and the United States. Their projects have been performed by JACK at venues including TIME:SPANS, Central Park, the Lucerne Festival, MoMA PS1, and Mannes School of Music, in addition to being recorded for professional releases.

Commissioned artists have been paired with musical mentors including Marcos Balter, Clara Iannotta, George Lewis, Catherine Lamb, Georg Friedrich Haas, Donnacha Dennehy, Claire Chase, and Nadia Sirota.

JACK films a video with JACK Studio artist Daniel Bruno in Central Park, November 2022.