JACK Quartet Announces 2023-2024 Season

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
Contact: Katy Salomon | Primo Artists | VP, Public Relations 
katy@primoartists.com | 212.837.8466

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The JACK Quartet Announces 2023-2024 Season

Marking the Ensemble’s 19th Year as Champions of Modern Quartet Music

Celebrating John Zorn’s 70th Birthday with Album of His Complete 
String Quartets on Tzadik Records, Major Global Tour Dates, and the 
Premiere of a New Zorn Work in NYC with Barbara Hannigan

Embarking on a Three-City Australian Tour, Performances at Prague Sounds 
Festival and Boulez Saal in Berlin, Concerts at Miller Theatre in New York 

The World Premiere of Natacha Diels’ Beautiful Trouble in Philadelphia 

A Three-Concert Marathon at Wigmore Hall featuring the European 
Premieres of Works by Vicente Atria, Juri Seo, and Amy Williams

5th Edition of Commissioning Initiative, JACK Studio



“our leading new-music foursome” – The New York Times

“among the finest new-music groups on Earth” – San Francisco Classical Voice

www.jackquartet.com

New York, NY (August 10, 2023) – Praised for their “once in a lifetime” (Musical America) performances, GRAMMY-nominated JACK Quartet is an experimental string quartet synchronized in its mission to create an international community through transformative, mind-broadening experiences and close listening. Comprising violinists Christopher Otto and Austin Wulliman, violist John Pickford Richards, and cellist Jay Campbell, JACK was founded in 2005 and operates as a nonprofit organization dedicated to the performance, commissioning, and appreciation of 20th and 21st century string quartet music, delving deeply into challenging new compositions and musical practices outside the classical mainstream.

JACK is poised for a busy and exciting 19th season in 2023-2024, marked by featured appearances in the ongoing celebrations of John Zorn’s 70th birthday, an album release of his complete string quartets on Tzadik Records, major global tour dates, and the premiere of a new Zorn work with regular collaborator Barbara Hannigan. Other season highlights include a performance at Prague Sounds Festival and a three-concert day at London’s Wigmore Hall featuring the European premieres of works by Vicente Atria, Juri Seo, and Amy Williams. In 2024, JACK premieres Natacha Diels’ Beautiful Trouble at Penn Live Arts in Philadelphia, embarks on an Australian tour, and celebrates the 5th edition of its commissioning and composer development initiative, JACK Studio.

JACK Quartet’s season begins on August 13 and 14, 2023 with two performances at the TIME:SPANS Festival at New York City’s Mary Flagler Cary Hall at The Dimenna Center for Classical Music. On Sunday, August 13, 2023, JACK performs German composer Helmut Lachenmann’s (b. 1935) Quartet No. 2 Reigen Seliger Geister (1989) and Quartet No. 3 Grido (2000-01). The next evening, August 14, 2023, JACK gives the world premiere of Cenk Ergün’s Yekpare (2023), commissioned by JACK thanks to the New York State Council for the Arts Individual Artists Composer Commission Grant and workshopped with Cenk over the last two years, alongside JACK Studio artist Seare Farhat’s Ka Spoojmai Shwa Poh Hala Ke (2022) and Clara Iannotta’s you crawl over seas of granite (2019/20), written for JACK Quartet.

Described as “some of Mr. Zorn’s most able and enthusiastic interpreters'' (The New York Times), JACK celebrates the great composer’s 70th birthday with musical tributes at venues including the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, CA on September 3, 2023; Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis, MN on September 9, 2023; and a special performance at Columbia University’s Miller Theatre in New York City on September 21, 2023. JACK’s program features three of John Zorn’s pieces: Sigil Magick, Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics That Will Be Able to Present Itself as a Science, and his mini-opera Gas Heart.

In Europe, JACK champions Zorn works such as Cat o’ Nine Nails, The Alchemist, The Remedy of Fortune, and Necronomicon at Cité de la Musique in Paris on November 1, 2023; three performances at the SoundsOfMusic Festival in The Netherlands from November 2-4, 2023; and the Prague Sounds Festival on November 6, 2023. They return to the United States and to Columbia University’s Miller Theatre on November 16, 2023, performing with frequent collaborator, soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan, to share John Zorn’s vocal works, including Star Catcher, Liber Loageth, Pandora’s Box, and more.

Through intimate, long standing relationships with many of today’s most creative voices, the quartet has a prolific commissioning and recording catalog and has been nominated for three GRAMMY Awards. As part of John Zorn’s 70th birthday celebrations, JACK has been entrusted to record his Complete String Quartets, a feat supported by the quartet’s deep relationship with the composer over many years of collaboration. Slated for release in December 2023 on Zorn’s own record label, Tzadik, JACK’s performance of the composer’s eight string quartets is a monumental achievement.

JACK violinist Austin Wulliman releases his own self-composed solo album, The News From Utopia, on September 27, 2023 via Bright Shiny Things, supported by a performance from the entire JACK Quartet at Roulette in Brooklyn. Learn more.

JACK returns to San Francisco for another important seventieth birthday celebration on October 26, 2023, this time to honor Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Luther Adams. Their concert at San Francisco Performances will feature Adams’ lauded string quartets The Wind in High Places and Lines Made by Walking. John Luther Adams emerged from decades of full-time environmental activism with a rich artistic voice and a belief that music can do more to change the world than politics. Adams' vision of a musical expression searching for its future home through a grounded presence in our natural world has inspired JACK Quartet to create nine quartets with him, including the ensemble’s GRAMMY-nominated album, Lines Made By Walking. Letting the natural resonance of the quartet's strings ring out as if swept by the wind atop a mountain or tracing the steps of Adams' daily walks in the Montana foothills, the music is an invitation to inhabit space and sound and to rediscover a fascination with music's very relationship to the natural world.

After a performance at Princeton Sound Kitchen playing new works by graduate student composers on November 28 and 29, 2023, JACK heads to Washington, D.C. for a recital at The Phillips Collection on December 3, 2023, featuring music by Caleb Burhans, Christopher Otto, Gabriella Smith, Nicola Vicentino, and John Zorn.

They’ll return to the University of Iowa from December 4-7, 2023, where they teach twice each season in collaboration with the String Quartet Residency Program and the Composition Department. Their residency will culminate in a recital co-presented by Hancher Auditorium on December 6, 2023 featuring the string quartet repertoire of John Zorn.

They close off the year at home in New York with their 2nd annual JACK Studio Festival on December 15, 2023. This festival is held in partnership with Mannes School of Music at the The New School, where JACK is the quartet-in-residence. Committed to helping dismantle outmoded classical music pipelines for composers, JACK’s all-access initiative JACK Studio supports collaborations with a selection of artists each year, who receive money, workshop time, mentorship, and resources to develop new works for string quartet. The festival will showcase premieres by JACK Studio composers Zara Ali, Seare Farhat, Tatiana Gerasimenok, Rishin Singh, and Sakari Vanderveer. It also features a screening of Lost & Founds, a film by Daniel Iván Bruno commissioned and performed by JACK Quartet. Each of these artists has worked with JACK for a two-year residency, during which they received paid opportunities to develop new work, hear their music performed by JACK Quartet, and receive mentorship by leaders in the field.

On February 2, 2024 at 8:00pm, JACK Quartet performs the world premiere of Natacha Diels’ Beautiful Trouble at Penn Live Arts in Philadelphia. The production, constructed as a five-video series for a choreographed string quartet, is designed with the purpose of examining a moment in time using the power of abstract narrative and music. Diels, an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania, used these ideas to create a concert-length production with experimental music, video, and theater, in order to create a sensory experience that considers both our ability and desire to consume media.

JACK Quartet then performs student works in Baltimore, MD, at Peabody Institute on February 8, 2024, before returning to the Miller Theatre for the final time this season, performing a portrait concert featuring the works of composer Amy Williams on February 22, 2024. The program includes a world premiere string quartet by Williams, commissioned by Miller Theatre in honor of the portrait.

After additional engagements at Connecticut College on February 23, 2024 and their second residency visit to the University of Iowa on March 4-6, 2024, JACK performs at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston on March 10, 2024, where they play a recital of works by Christopher Otto, John Zorn, Amy Williams, Iannis Xenakis, and a world premiere by Jeffrey Mumford, commissioned by the museum.

JACK Quartet embarks on a three-city tour of Australia. Between April 5 to April 10, 2024, they will perform and conduct educational programs at the nation’s most prestigious venues in Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide. Programs include Elliot Carter’s Sring Quartet No. 1, Liza Lim’s String Creatures, ancient music arranged by JACK violinist Christopher Otto, and bonus works by Gabriella Smith, Ruth Crawford Seeger, Amy Williams, and Johnny MacMillan.

The Quartet returns to the United States for the U.S. Premiere of Terry Riley’s Holy Liftoff with Claire Chase at Bing Concert Hall with Stanford Live on May 8, 2024. Written for modular instrumentation, this iteration will be performed for flute, string quartet, and electronics.

JACK Quartet will perform a day-long three-concert marathon at the iconic Wigmore Hall in London on May 11, 2024, featuring the European premieres of JACK-commissioned new works by Vicente Atria and Juri Seo, as well as one of the new premieres by Amy Williams commissioned by Miller Theatre. Seo’s new work will present a rare combination of two passions shared by both JACK and the composer: counterpoint and just intonation. The piece draws inspiration from the Medieval “Ars subtilior,” and leverages the ensemble’s exceptional ability to navigate the subtle nuances of infinitesimal pitch variations.

For their final performance of the 2023/24 season, JACK Quartet will perform at Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin on May 12, 2024. The performance will close out an exciting and packed-full season that sees the JACK Quartet engage in music education, performances at iconic venues, reaching new cities and audiences with new original music from their members.

JACK Quartet Season Calendar
August 13, 2023
TIME:SPANS Festival Presents JACK: Lachenmann
The Dimenna Center for Classical Music | New York, NY
Link: https://timespans.org/concert/jack-lachenmann/

Program:
Helmut Lachenmann – Quartet No. 2 Reigen Seliger Geister (1989)
Helmut Lachenmann – Quartet No. 3 Grido (2000-01)

August 14, 2023
TIME:SPANS Festival Presents JACK: Ergün, Farhat, Iannotta
The Dimenna Center for Classical Music | New York, NY
Link: https://timespans.org/concert/jack-ergun-farhat-iannotta/

Program:
Seare Farhat – Ka Spoojmai Shwa Poh Hala Ke (2022)
Clara Iannotta – you crawl over seas of granite (2019/20)
Cenk Ergün – Yekpare (2023) [World Premiere]

September 3, 2023
JACK Plays Zorn
Great American Music Hall | San Francisco, CA
Link: https://gamh.com/shows-zorn70/

Program:
John Zorn – Sigil Magick
     JACK Quartet
John Zorn – Economia
     Steve Gosling, piano
John Zorn – Prolegomena To Any Future Metaphysics That Will Be Able To Present Itself As A Science
     JACK Quartet
     Yura Lee, viola
     Michael Nicolas, cello

September 9, 2023
Zorn @ 70: On the Stage
Walker Arts Center | Minneapolis, MN
Link: https://walkerart.org/calendar/2023/zorn-70-on-the-stage

Program:
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.

September 21, 2023
John Zorn at 70: Music for Strings
Miller Theatre at Columbia University | New York, NY
Link: www.millertheatre.com/events/john-zorn-at-70-music-for-strings

Program:
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)
John Zorn – The Gas Heart a mini opera for 2 celli and 2 percussionists (2020)
John Zorn – Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics That Will Be Able to Present Itself as a Science for string sextet (2020)

September 27, 2023
Album Release, Austin Wulliman: The News From Utopia
Roulette | Brooklyn, NY
Link: www.jackquartet.com/upcoming-performances/austin-wulliman-album-release

Program:
Austin Wulliman – SYSTEM NOTES for string quartet and electronics (2023) [World Premiere]
Austin Wulliman – BLINK for string quartet, electric guitar and electronics (2022) [World Premiere]
Austin Wulliman – Down Pat for electric guitar and electronics (2023) [US Premiere]
     Alec Goldfarb, guitar
Austin Wulliman – The Docks for string quartet and electronics (2022) [World Premiere]
Austin Wulliman – Late Edition for string quartet and electronics (2023) [World Premiere]

October 26, 2023
San Francisco Performances Presents JACK in a John Luther Adams 70th Birthday Celebration
Herbst Theatre | San Francisco, CA
Link: https://sfperformances.org/performances/2324/jack-quartet.html

Program:
John Luther Adams – “Rising” from Untouched
John Luther Adams – Lines Made by Walking
John Luther Adams – The Wind in High Places

November 1, 2023
JACK Plays Zorn
Cité de la Musique | Paris, France
Link: https://philharmoniedeparis.fr/en/activity/concert/26105-hannigan-sings-zorn?itemId=129144

Program:
John Zorn – Jumalattaret
John Zorn – Pandora’s Box
John Zorn – Star Catcher

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

November 2-4, 2023
SoundsOfMusic Festival Presents JACK Plays Zorn
Various Venues | The Netherlands
Link: https://soundsofmusic.nl/

November 6, 2023
JACK Plays Zorn
Prague Sounds Festival | Prague, CZ
Link: www.praguesounds.cz/cs/udalost/jack-quartet-2dSnbJ

Program:
John Zorn – Cat o' Nine Tails
John Zorn – The Alchemist
John Zorn – The Remedy of Fortune
John Zorn – Necronomicon

November 16, 2023
John Zorn at 70: Barbara Hannigan
Miller Theatre at Columbia University | New York, NY
Link: www.millertheatre.com/events/john-zorn-at-70-barbara-hannigan

Program:
John Zorn – Star Catcher (2022)
John Zorn – Split the Lark (2021)
John Zorn – Liber Loagaeth (2021)
John Zorn – Ab Eo, Quod (2021)
John Zorn – Pandora’s Box (2013)

November 28 and 29, 2023
Student Works (Princeton PhD Program)
Princeton Sound Kitchen | Princeton, NJ
Link: www.princetonsoundkitchen.org/current-season

December 3, 2023
JACK Quartet Performs Modern Medieval
The Phillips Collection | Washington, D.C.
Link: www.phillipscollection.org/music
Tickets go on sale at www.phillipscollection.org/music on Tuesday, September 5, 2023 at 12pm ET

Program:
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

December 4-7, 2023
Residency
University of Iowa | Iowa City, IA
Link: https://events.uiowa.edu/79021

December 15, 2023
JACK Studio Festival
Mannes School of Music | New York, NY
Link: www.jackquartet.com/upcoming-performances/jack-studio-festival-dec-2023

Program:
Zara Ali – New Work
Seare Farhat – New Work
Tatiana Gerasimenok – New Work
Rishin Singh – New Work
Sakari Vanderveer – New Work
Screening: Lost & Founds, a film by Daniel Iván Bruno

February 2, 2024
Natacha Diels Beautiful Trouble
Penn Live Arts | Philadelphia, PA
Link: https://pennlivearts.org/event/jackquartet

Program:
Natacha Diels – Beautiful Trouble (2023) [World Premiere]

February 8, 2024
Residency at Peabody Institute
Peabody Institute | Baltimore, MD

February 22, 2024
Composer Portrait of Amy Williams
Miller Theatre at Columbia University | New York, NY
Link: www.millertheatre.com/events/amy-williams

February 23, 2024
Residency at Connecticut College
Connecticut College | New London, CT

March 4-6, 2024
Residency
University of Iowa | Iowa City, IA
Link: https://studentlife.uiowa.edu/event/118906/0

Program:
Program of Student Works from the University of Iowa Composition Department

March 10, 2024
JACK in Recital
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum | Boston, MA
Information: Tickets on sale in November 2023.

Program:
Jeffrey Mumford – New Work
Christopher Otto – Miserere, after Nathaniel Giles
John Zorn – Necronomicon
Amy Williams – New Work
Iannis Xenakis – Tetras

April 5-10, 2024
JACK Quartet Tours Australia    

April 5 and 6: Sydney, AUS
   
     Program:
     Johnny MacMillan – Songs from the Seventh Floor
     Nicola Vicentino – Madonna il poco dolce
     Nathaniel Giles (arr. Christopher Otto) – Misere
     Amy Williams – New Work
     Liza Lim – String Creatures    

April 7: Adelaide, AUS    

Program:
     Nathaniel Giles (arr. Christopher Otto) – Misere
     Elliot Carter – String Quartet No. 1
     Liza Lim – String Creatures    

April 10: Melbourne, AUS    

Concert 1 Program (7:00pm):
     Nathaniel Giles (arr. Christopher Otto) – Misere
     Elliot Carter – String Quartet No. 1
     Liza Lim – String Creatures    

Concert 2 Program (10:00pm):
     Nicola Vicentino (arr. Christopher Otto) –Madonna il poco dolce
     Johnny MacMillan – Songs from the Seventh Floor
     Nathaniel Giles (arr. Christopher Otto) – Misere
     Ruth Crawford Seeger – String Quartet 1931
     Gabriella Smith – Carrot Revolution

May 8, 2024
Claire Chase and JACK Quartet
Stanford Live | Palo Alto, CA
Link: https://live.stanford.edu/calendar/may-2024/claire-chase-and-jack-quartet

Program:
Terry Riley – New Work [World Premiere]

May 11, 2024
JACK Quartet Performs Modern Medieval
Wigmore Hall | London, UK
Link: Tickets on sale in Winter 2023.

Concert 1 Program:
Nathaniel Giles (arr. Christopher Otto) – Misere
Amy Williams — New Work
Elliott Carter — String Quartet No. 1

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

Concert 3 Program:
Austin Wulliman — Hoquetus David on Guillaume de Machaut
Gabriella Smith — Carrot Revolution by Gabriella Smith
Ruth Crawford Seeger — String Quartet 1931
Morton Feldman — Structures
Cenk Ergün — Sonare

May 12, 2024
JACK Quartet Performs Modern Medieval
Pierre Boulez Saal | Berlin, Germany
Link: www.boulezsaal.de/en/event/jack-quartet-216761

Program:
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

More About JACK Quartet
JACK embraces close collaboration with the composers they perform, yielding a radical embodiment of the technical, musical, and emotional aspects of their work. Through its successful nonprofit model, the quartet has both self-commissioned and been commissioned to create new works with artists such as Julia Wolfe, George Lewis, Helmut Lachenmann, and Caroline Shaw, with upcoming and recent premieres including works by John Luther Adams, Catherine Lamb, Liza Lim, Tyshawn Sorey, Wadada Leo Smith, Amy Williams, and John Zorn. The world’s top composers choose JACK because of its singular dedication to innovation and experimentation, realized through the invisible labor of extensive studio time and the support of full-time leadership staff and a Board of Directors.

JACK has performed to critical acclaim at Carnegie Hall (USA), Lincoln Center (USA), Berlin Philharmonie (Germany), Wigmore Hall (United Kingdom), Muziekgebouw (Netherlands), The Louvre (France), Kölner Philharmonie (Germany), the Lucerne Festival (Switzerland), La Biennale di Venezia (Italy), Suntory Hall (Japan), Bali Arts Festival (Indonesia), Festival Internacional Cervantino (Mexico), and Teatro Colón (Argentina). Among their honors, they have earned an Avery Fisher Career Grant and Fromm Music Foundation Prize; been selected as Musical America’s 2018 “Ensemble of the Year; and received Lincoln Center's Martin E. Segal Award, New Music USA's Trailblazer Award, and the CMA/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming.

According to Musical America, “many of their recordings are must-haves, for anyone interested in new music.” They have been nominated for multiple GRAMMY Awards, the most recent being their albums of music by John Luther Adams – nominated in the 2022 and 2023 Best Ensemble Performance category. Other albums include music by Helmut Lachenmann, Catherine Lamb, Du Yun, Elliott Sharp, Zosha di Castri, Iannis Xenakis, and an upcoming release of the complete quartets of Elliott Carter.

Having long observed how the social, cultural, and economic realities of institutional access disproportionately and unfairly exclude many people, JACK Studio offers composers paid opportunities to develop new work, hear their music performed by JACK, consult with mentors in the field, and receive recorded documentation. JACK receives hundreds of applications each season, and selects up to 15 composers or artists for two distinct opportunities: Two-Year Residencies, offering a longer-term relationship with the quartet, and Reading Sessions, in which recipients have existing works for string quartet read by JACK.More than 40 composers have worked with JACK through JACK 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.

The JACK Quartet makes its home in New York City, where it is the Quartet in Residence at the Mannes School of Music at The New School and provides mentorship to Mannes’s Cuker and Stern Graduate String Quartet. They also teach each summer at New Music on the Point, a contemporary chamber music festival in Vermont for young performers and composers, and at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. JACK has long-standing relationships with the University of Iowa String Quartet Residency Program, where they teach and collaborate with students each fall and spring, as well as with the Lucerne Festival Academy, of which the four members are all alumni. Learn more at www.jackquartet.com.

*Photo Credit: Shervin Lainez

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