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The JACK Quartet will present an exciting concert featuring two string quartets by German composer Helmut Lachenmann: Gran Torso (1972) and Grido (2001). Throughout his career Lachenmann has developed highly unusual extended techniques for string instruments that are largely idiosyncratic to his own works. These include pitched rattling sounds requiring meticulous bow pressure and placement, ephemeral bowed wood sounds (produced on the bridge, side of the body, tailpiece, or even a wooden mute,) and glissandi produced with the tension screw of the bow, just to name a few. Furthermore, he employs these techniques not as novelties or gimmicks, but as part of cohesive structures that contribute to the form and development of his compositions. Whereas Gran Torso is comprised almost entirely of these unconventional methods of tone production, Grido establishes these sounds as part of a continuum that includes more traditional sounds, and even tonality. This is not music that exists to be noisy or ugly, but quite the contrary; it is music that conveys a sublime beauty unhindered by traditional definitions of what music is or should be. Praised for its "powerhouse playing" by the Chicago Sun-Times, the JACK Quartet maintains a steady appetite for today's most demanding string quartet repertoire. Comprising violinists Christopher Otto and Ari Streisfeld, violist John Pickford Richards, and cellist Kevin McFarland, the quartet has given high-energy performances in Europe and North America including appearances at Carnegie Hall, La Biennale di Venezia, the Lucerne Festival, and the Festival Internacional de M�sica Contempor�nea de Michoac�n. The members of the quartet met while attending the Eastman School of Music, where in addition to learning standard and contemporary repertoire they pursued period, non-western, and popular performance styles. The quartet has studied with the Arditti Quartet at the Pro-Bio Foundation Summer School for Contemporary Quartet Music, the Kronos Quartet at the Weill Music Institute at Carnegie Hall, and members of the Ensemble Intercontemporain at the Lucerne Festival Academy. The commissioning and performance of new works for string quartet is integral to the JACK Quartet's mission, leading them to work closely with composers Helmut Lachenmann, Wolfgang Rihm, Matthias Pintscher, Aaron Cassidy, Aaron Travers, Roberto Rusconi, Cristian Amigo, Robert Wannamaker, Randall Woolf, Kirsten Broberg, Alexandra du Bois, and Samuel Adler. The quartet has worked with composition students at Northwestern University, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and in Italy for the Intrasonus Project. 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. |
Visit the JACK QUARTET PLAY LACHENMANN STRING QUARTETS 1 & 3 web-site | |
| Email JACK QUARTET PLAY LACHENMANN STRING QUARTETS 1 & 3 | |
Other artists from Earth Jennifer Peterson Kate Schrock Aviva Jaye | |
Uncommon Ground Past Show Dates | |
| 2008-03-10 (173 days) | SHURE sponsored Open Mic - Hosted by Kat Fitzgerald |
| JACK QUARTET PLAY LACHENMANN STRING QUARTETS 1 & 3 | |