JACK Quartet

Georg Friedrich Haas: String Quartet No. 3 “In iij. Noct.” SOLD OUT
Tuesday, March 1, 2016 7:30 p.m.
Transformer Station
$25, CMA members $22

Cenk Ergün world premieres (program detail below)
Wednesday, March 2, 2016 7:30 p.m.
Gartner Auditorium
$33–$45, CMA members $30–$40

The JACK Quartet electrifies audiences worldwide with “explosive virtuosity” (Boston Globe) and “viscerally exciting performances” (New York Times). David Patrick Stearns (Philadelphia Inquirer) proclaimed their performance as being “among the most stimulating new-music concerts of my experience.” The Washington Post commented, “The string quartet may be a 250-year-old contraption, but young, brilliant groups like the JACK Quartet are keeping it thrillingly vital.” Alex Ross (New Yorker) hailed 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.”

The recipient of Lincoln Center’s Martin E. Segal Award, New Music USA’s Trailblazer Award, and the Chamber Music America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, JACK has performed to critical acclaim at Carnegie Hall (USA), Lincoln Center (USA), Wigmore Hall (United Kingdom), Suntory Hall (Japan), Salle Pleyel (France), Muziekgebouw (Netherlands), La Biennale di Venezia (Italy), the Lucerne Festival (Switzerland), Bali Arts Festival (Indonesia), Reykjavik Arts Festival (Iceland), Festival Internacional Cervatino (Mexico), Kölner Philharmonie (Germany), Donaueschinger Musiktage (Germany), and the Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik (Germany).

Comprising violinists Christopher Otto and Ari Streisfeld, violist John Pickford Richards, and cellist Kevin McFarland, JACK is focused on the commissioning and performance of new works, leading them to work closely with composers John Luther Adams, Derek Bermel, Chaya Czernowin, James Dillon, Brian Ferneyhough, Beat Furrer, Georg Friedrich Haas, Vijay Iyer, György Kurtág, Helmut Lachenmann, Steve Mackey, Matthias Pintscher, Steve Reich, Roger Reynolds, Wolfgang Rihm, Salvatore Sciarrino, and John Zorn. Upcoming and recent premieres include works by Wolfgang von Schweinitz, Toby Twining, Georg Friedrich Haas, Simon Holt, Kevin Ernste, and Simon Bainbridge.

JACK operates as a nonprofit organization dedicated to the performance, commissioning, and spread of new string quartet music. The quartet has led workshops with young performers and composers at Princeton University, Yale University, Harvard University, New York University, Columbia University, the Eastman School of Music, Oberlin Conservatory, Manhattan School of Music, June in Buffalo, New Music on the Point, and at the Darmstadt Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik.

The members of the quartet met while attending the Eastman School of Music and studied closely with the Arditti Quartet, Kronos Quartet, Muir String Quartet, and members of the Ensemble Intercontemporain.

For this unique mini-residency in Cleveland, the JACK Quartet perform concerts on successive nights in two museum venues. On March 1, they will perform Georg Friedrich Haas’ String Quartet No. 3 “In iij. Noct.”—a work performed in complete darkness, with the musicians playing from memory in different parts of the room. And on March 2, the quartet presents two world premieres by composer Cenk Ergün

About Cenk Ergün
Cenk Ergün is a composer and improviser based in New York. His music has been performed by artists such as Sō Percussion, Alarm Will Sound, Ensemble Laboratorium, and Joan Jeanrenaud. As an improviser, he performs electronics in groups with Alvin Curran, Jason Treuting, and Jeff Snyder. Venues that have featured Ergün’s music include New York’s Carnegie Hall, Le Poisson Rouge, The Roulette, The Stone; Amsterdam’s Muziekgebouw, Zurich’s Tonhalle, and Istanbul’s Babylon. Some events Ergün has participated in are Gaudeamus Music Week, MATA Festival, Bang on a Can Marathon, WNYC’s New Sounds Live, Peak Performances at Montclair University, Stanford Lively Arts, and San Francisco Electronic Music Festival. Records Ergün appears on include The Art of the Fluke with Alvin Curran and Sō Percussion’s Cage 100: The Bootleg Series. His first solo composition record, Nana, was released in May 2014 on Carrier Records. Ergün’s music has been described as “haunting,” “ominously throbbing” (New York Times), “psychedelically meditative” (NewMusicBox), and “conceptual rigor” (The Wire).

Program (March 2)
Guillaume de Machaut (arr. Ari Streisfeld): Three Pieces
John Zorn: The Remedy of Fortune
Cenk Ergün: Celare

Claudio Monteverdi (arr. Kevin McFarland): Selections from L'Orfeo
Caroline Shaw: Ritornello
Ergün: Sonore