JACK Quartet to Bring Modern Medieval Program To London And Berlin

The GRAMMY-nominated JACK Quartet will appear for back-to-back engagements of its newest program, Modern Medieval, in Europe this May, starting with a trio of concerts at Wigmore Hall in London on Saturday, May 11, 2024. In performances at 11:30am, 3:00pm and 7:30pm, the quartet returns for its annual Wigmore Hall marathon in three distinct programs highlighting elements of early music, featuring both original works and contemporary arrangements and interpretations - including multiple U.K. and world premieres. On the following evening, Sunday, May 12 at 6:00pm, the ensemble brings a modified version of the final concert program, Modern Medieval 3, to Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin, Germany.

Known for its work as an experimental string quartet and for its close collaborations with composers, the JACK Quartet has cultivated an international community through its mind-broadening performance style and immersive, always thought-provoking audience experiences. 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. With the ensemble now celebrating its 20th season, The New York Times reflected that: "With that sprawling stylistic range and its technical mastery, its enthusiastic curiosity about eminent and student composers alike, its precision and passion, the JACK has, since its founding in 2005, become one of contemporary music's indispensable ensembles."

In the first of their three concerts at Wigmore Hall, the JACK Quartet performs Modern Medieval 1, featuring the UK premieres of Christopher Otto's work Miserere, after Nathaniel Giles, Otto's 2020 adaptation of a 16th century work by Giles, a composer of the English Renaissance. Also making its UK premiere is Amy Williams' Tangled Madrigal, a work inspired by the work of 16th century composer Nicola Vicentino, inventor of a keyboard divided into what are now called microtones. Weaving between consonance, dissonance and offbeat tuning, the piece moves between intricate hocketing, choral textures and four solos written specifically with the members of the JACK Quartet in mind. Completing this first program is Elliott Carter's String Quartet No. 1, the 20th century composer's rhythmically complex breakthrough work inspired by a year spent in the Sonoran Desert in Arizona.

In Modern Medieval 2, at 3:00pm, the quartet performs the UK Premiere of 3 Imaginary Chansons by Juri Seo, a Korean-American composer known for her works of extreme contrast - reflecting, for instance, the serious and humorous; the tranquil and violent. This concert also marks the world premiere of a new work, Roundabout, by Vicente Hansen Atria, winner of the Deutscher Jazzpreis Album of the Year award for his 2023 album Orlando Furioso. In a UK premiere, the quartet will perform Johnny MacMillan's Songs from the Seventh Floor, a work drawing inspiration from Renaissance music with an experimental, tonally innovative twist. Christopher Otto's arrangement of Nicola Vicentino's Madonna il poco dolce, also conceived using the composer's unique microtonal keyboard, completes this program.

Modern Medieval 3, at 7:30pm, opens with the European premiere of Austin Wulliman's Dave's Hocket. In this work, the composer draws on the image of light viewed through the intricate stained glass of a cathedral window which overlays new and beautiful forms on the ray of light itself. Musically speaking, Wulliman uses the same idea to "filter" 14th century composer Guillaume de Machaut's Hoquetus David through his own unique harmonic vision, layering an artful new interpretation on a familiar piece. This program also highlights the European premiere of Liza Lim's String Creatures, developed in workshops with the JACK Quartet where hands-on experiments - including one in which Richards' hands were tied to the neck of his viola - were used to develop the work's themes of being trapped and struggling to escape. The program also features Gabriella Smith's piece Carrot Revolution - which celebrates the power in fresh interpretations of familiar objects, as captured in painter Paul Cézanne's statement that "The day will come when a single, freshly observed carrot will start a revolution." JACK goes on to perform Ruth Crawford Seeger's landmark modernist work String Quartet 1931, followed by Morton Feldman's avant garde work Structures. The quartet follows with Cenk Ergün's experimental piece Sonare, built from software-facilitated rhythm patterns that were collaboratively workshopped into a full-fledged composition by the composer and the musicians of the JACK Quartet.

The program from Modern Medieval 3 - with the exception of Lim's piece - will be reprised in JACK's performance at Berlin's Pierre Boulez Saal on the following evening, Sunday, May 12 at 6:00pm.

Program Information

May 11, 2024
JACK Quartet Performs Modern Medieval
Wigmore Hall | London, UK
Links: www.wigmore-hall.org.uk/whats-on/202405111130
www.wigmore-hall.org.uk/whats-on/202405111500
www.wigmore-hall.org.uk/whats-on/202405111930

Modern Medieval 1 (11:30am)
Christopher Otto - Nathaniel Giles: Miserere [Europe Premiere]
Ruth Crawford Seeger: String Quartet (1931)
Elliott Carter - String Quartet No. 1

Modern Medieval 2 (3:00pm)
Juri Seo - 3 Imaginary Chansons [Europe Premiere]
Johnny Macmillan - Songs From the Seventh Floor [Europe Premiere]
Vicente Atria - Roundabout [World Premiere]
Nicola Vicentino - Madonna il poco dolce (arr. Christopher Otto) [Europe Premiere]
Amy Williams: Tangled Madrigal [Europe Premiere]

Modern Medieval 3 (7:30pm)
Austin Wulliman - Dave's Hocket [Europe Premiere]
Gabriella Smith - Carrot Revolution
Morton Feldman - Structures
Cenk Ergün - Sonare
Liza Lim - String Creatures [Europe Premiere]

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 - Dave's Hocket [German Premiere]
Gabriella Smith - Carrot Revolution
Ruth Crawford Seeger - String Quartet (1931)
Cenk Ergün - Sonare
Morton Feldman - Structures
Cenk Ergün - Sonare
Liza Lim - String Creatures [German Premiere]

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. 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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