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

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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.

AND is me, Nataniel Edelman (piano) and Daniel Iván Bruno (trombone and electronics) and in celebration of our new release on the brand new Sello Pasmoso we will play a set of improvised music LIVE on Muito Radio

Join us on the internet waves or in person. Tickets at the door.

As part of our role as Mannes School of Music Quartet-in-Residence JACK Quartet performs a special evening of music at the renowned Auditorium on 12th Street at The New School, including my work “Dave’s Hocket”.

JACK Quartet's Modern Medieval program explores the connections of musicality and thought between European composers of the past and the voices of music today, featuring works by JACK members, as well as Vicente Atria (JACK Studio Commission), Taylor Brook, Johnny MacMillan, and Juri Seo (JACK Studio Commission).

Admission is free / space is limited.

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]
I. Descent of the Serpent
II. Swan Song
III. Confronted Cocks and Running Dogs
Taylor Brook: Ars Nova [2017]


FREE show on Princeton University Campus featuring the world premiere Connor Elias Way’s 25-minute work ‘The Sun Must Bear No Name,’ performed, recorded and mixed for multi-tracked violins by me. Connor’s piece uses dense networks of canons to form clouds of shapeshifting harmony, like striated lines of hot blown glass. On the same program, PSK presents its first Mixtape concert for the academic year, in which various artists and ensembles perform new works by Princeton University faculty member Jason Treuting, and graduate student composers Hannah Ishizaki and Nathan Schram.

New works by

• Hannah Ishizaki

• Nathan Schram

• Jason Treuting

• Connor Elias Way

Performed by

• Nathan Meltzer

• Beth Meyers

• Nathan Schram

• Wynona Wang

• Austin Wulliman

JACK performs Timothy McCormack’s singular statement on string writing, your body is a volume. This concert-length work builds its sound world from radically detuned strings played with exquisitely controlled bow speed to generate a purring rumb that blossoms to envelope the listener in its rattling roar.

INFO

My trope on Guillaume de Machaut’s Hoquetus David, mashed up with Arvo Pärt’s Fratres and retuned in extended just intonation rides again on August 9 at Lincoln Center. Dave’s Hocket imagines the music of Machaut refracted through the stained glass of a humble cathedral, fractalizing the rhythms into 7s, 3s, 4s, and 3s inside 3s. Modern nostalgia and irony mixed with utopian thinking abound.

The rest of the program is some of my favorite stuff JACK is playing right now: Gabriella Smith,

INFO it’s free but reserve your spot

My piece for JACK’s Modern Medieval program, Dave’s Hocket, will be presented alongside music by Gabriella Smith, Chris Otto, Ruth Crawford Seeger and Caroline Shaw by Carnegie Hall at Madison Square Park.

July 17, 2024: 6 PM

INFO

Takt Trio brings new pieces by Hilda Paredes and Marcos Balter to Miller Theater for their NYC premieres in a FREE show on May 20 at 6 PM.

Free drinks and seating on stage for an up-close work at some virtuosic music for violin, horn and piano.

GYÖRGY LIGETI Trio for Violin, Horn, and Piano (1982)

HILDA PAREDES Koan (2023) NEW YORK PREMIERE

MARCOS BALTER new work for Takt Trio (2024) NEW YORK PREMIERE

More info on Miller Theater Website

Carrot Revolution: Works by Ruth Crawford Seeger, Morton Feldman, Gabriella Smith, and others

Austin Wulliman, Hoquetus David on Guillaume de Machaut
Gabriella Smith, Carrot Revolution for String Quartet
Ruth Crawford Seeger, String Quartet 1931
Morton Feldman, Structures for String Quartet
Cenk Ergün, Sonare for String Quartet

Tickets and info

Modern Medieval
JACK Quartet gives three performances at Wigmore Hall in one day - 11:30am, 3:00pm, 7:30pm

Includes my new work “Dave’s Hocket” inspired by Guillaume de Machaut.

Concert 1 Program:
Nathaniel Giles (arr. Christopher Otto), Misere
Amy Williams, Tangled Madrigal (2024)
Elliott Carter, String Quartet No. 1

Concert 2 Program:
Juri Seo, Three Imaginary Chansons (World Premiere)
Johnny Macmillan, Songs From the Seventh Floor
Nicola Vicentino, Madonna il poco dolce
Vicente Atria, New Work (World Premiere)

Concert 3 Program:
Austin Wulliman, Dave’s Hocket
Gabriella Smith, Carrot Revolution
Ruth Crawford Seeger, String Quartet 1931
Morton Feldman, Structures
Cenk Ergün, Sonare
Liza Lim, String Creatures (UK Premiere)

Tickets and Info

Renowned flutist Claire Chase and JACK Quartet premiere a new, Stanford Live commissioned piece by composer Terry Riley. Full of otherworldly chorales and interstellar grooves this piece channels energy from another plane!

Terry Riley, Holy Liftoff (Premiere)

Co-commissioned by Stanford Live and generously supported by the Stanford Live Commissions and Programming Fund.

TICKETS and INFO

Trios at the Newman Center in Denver with Conor Hanick, piano and David Byrd-Marrow, horn

Hilda Paredes: Koan (Colorado Premiere)

György Ligeti: Trio for Violin, Horn and Piano, Hommage à Brahms

Johannes Brahms: Trio in E-flat Major for Horn, Violin, and Piano, Op. 40

TICKETS and INFO

JACK Quartet brings an eclectic program to the Melbourne Recital Centre’s Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, featuring the Australian Premiere of Liza Lim’s String Creatures, alongside music by Elliott Carter and Ruth Seeger Crawford.

Concert 1:

Ruth Crawford Seeger, String Quartet 1931
Elliott Carter, String Quartet No.1
Liza Lim, String Creatures (Australian Premiere)

Concert 2:

Vicente Hansen Atria - New Work for string quartet 

Johnny Macmillan - Songs from the Seventh Floor 

Christopher Otto: Miserere, after Nathaniel Giles 

Caleb Burhans - Contritus 

Austin Wulliman - Dave’s Hocket

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.

Tickets and info

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, Nathanial Giles arranged by JACK Quartet’ Christopher Otto.

Nathaniel Giles, Misere (Arr. Christopher Otto)
Elliott Carter, String Quartet No.1
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.

Tickets and info