On July 10th, multi-Grammy nominated Spektral Quartet will present a program that has been carefully curated to reflect the wide array of styles the Quartet has played and loved over the years - from classics to commissions. The program opens with the earliest composition on the program, written in 1834, goes through a metamorphosis of styles written through 2022, then heads backwards to 1893. This is retrospective of their time together using some of their very favorite works, in honor of their final season together as an ensemble.

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Something to Write Home About invites you to create right alongside us, penning postcards as we perform an elastic program spanning the 16th century up through today. Through recorded interviews, historic letters, and nimble storytelling, we’ll connect the composers, their music, and you the listener in an animated evening of shared creativity.

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Current is a project born out of kinship. The Mendelssohn was originally intended for a concert featuring members of each of our families as our collaborators – an early COVID casualty. The Schubert was unanimously exciting to the quartet – four musicians in a relationship that might be more accurately described as a marriage – as we brainstormed exceptional pieces from the traditional repertoire that deserve more time on stage. And finally, our commissioning of Samuel Adams is the result of a friendship that deepened during Sam’s tenure as composer-in-residence for our hometown band, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

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Nathalie Joachim’s Fanm d’Ayiti is heading to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC!

Fanm d'Ayiti is a celebration of some of Haiti's most iconic female artists and an exploration of Joachim's Haitian heritage. The project features original songs incorporating the recorded voices of Joachim’s grandmother and the girls’ choir of Datan, the farming village of the composer’s family home; new arrangements of songs by some of the best-known female voices in Haitian music; and recorded interviews with these artists about their fight for social justice and uplifting the people of Haiti.

REGISTRATION REQUIRED

Nathalie Joachim’s Fanm d’Ayiti is a piece we are ecstatic to perform anytime and anywhere and this April, the five of us descend on Houston for an evening of storytelling, music, and discovery of the dauntless voices of Haitian women.

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Nathalie Joachim’s Fanm d’Ayiti is a piece we are ecstatic to perform anytime and anywhere and this April, the five of us descend on Houston for an evening of storytelling, music, and discovery of the dauntless voices of Haitian women.

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Through a network of charming in-person interviews, field recordings, and nimble new arrangements of original songs, Nathalie Joachim assembles a mesmerizing sonic exhibition of the (largely) unheralded female singers of Haiti. With her grandmother’s voice as the leaping-off point, Fanm d’Ayiti (“Women of Haiti”) celebrates powerful women – in revolution, on stage, or in the home – blending electronics, live recordings, a live string quartet (hi!), and Nathalie’s own voice in an irrepressible and captivating melange.

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Chicago is lucky to call the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Bernard Rands one of its own, and we are tenacious in our admiration for his artistry and ingenuity. So when the Chicago Composers’ Consortium approached us about a celebration of – and tribute to – his music, we eagerly jumped on board. But the real coup is that the creatives behind C3 are writing us 9 brand-new works, all inspired by – or actively mining – elements of Bernard’s new quartet.

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Chicago is lucky to call the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Bernard Rands one of its own, and we are tenacious in our admiration for his artistry and ingenuity. So when the Chicago Composers’ Consortium approached us about a celebration of – and tribute to – his music, we eagerly jumped on board. But the real coup is that the creatives behind C3 are writing us 9 brand-new works, all inspired by – or actively mining – elements of Bernard’s new quartet.

TICKETS AVAILABLE SOON

For our second Big Ears appearance in 2022, we are taking the stage with another of our most cherished collaborators, saxophonist/composer Miguel Zenón. We’ll be performing the kinetic, concert-length suite he wrote for the five of us, Yo Soy La Tradición (“I Am the Tradition”).

With an aim identical to Spektral’s mission – honoring the past while celebrating the music of our time – Yo Soy La Tradición looks to the folk traditions of Miguel’s native Puerto Rico as the catalysts for his own flavor of jazz composition. And rather than treating the string quartet as a backing band, he deftly invites all five instruments to the fore, creating dynamic conversations between them.

We feel lucky to have been invited into Miguel’s musical world…and think you will be surprised by what you hear.

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This March, we are ultra-mega-stoked to be making our Big Ears debut with the stunning Nathalie Joachim and her Fanm d’Ayiti!

We’ve been fans of flutist/singer/composer Nathalie Joachim for ages, but it just so happens that our first collaboration materialized for a project in which she is investigating her Haitian heritage in the most breathtaking way. Through a network of charming in-person interviews, field recordings, and nimble new arrangements of original songs, Nathalie assembles a mesmerizing sonic exhibition of the (largely) unheralded female singers of Haiti. With her grandmother’s voice as the leaping-off point, Fanm d’Ayiti (“Women of Haiti”) celebrates powerful women – in revolution, on stage, or in the home – blending electronics, live recordings, a live string quartet (hi!), and Nathalie’s own voice in an irrepressible and captivating melange.

BUY TICKETS

Through a network of charming in-person interviews, field recordings, and nimble new arrangements of original songs, Nathalie Joachim assembles a mesmerizing sonic exhibition of the (largely) unheralded female singers of Haiti. With her grandmother’s voice as the leaping-off point, Fanm d’Ayiti (“Women of Haiti”) celebrates powerful women – in revolution, on stage, or in the home – blending electronics, live recordings, a live string quartet (hi!), and Nathalie’s own voice in an irrepressible and captivating melange.

REGISTER HERE

Through a network of charming in-person interviews, field recordings, and nimble new arrangements of original songs, Nathalie Joachim assembles a mesmerizing sonic exhibition of the (largely) unheralded female singers of Haiti. With her grandmother’s voice as the leaping-off point, Fanm d’Ayiti (“Women of Haiti”) celebrates powerful women – in revolution, on stage, or in the home – blending electronics, live recordings, a live string quartet (hi!), and Nathalie’s own voice in an irrepressible and captivating melange.

REGISTER FOR TICKETS!

Through a network of charming in-person interviews, field recordings, and nimble new arrangements of original songs, Nathalie Joachim assembles a mesmerizing sonic exhibition of the (largely) unheralded female singers of Haiti. With her grandmother’s voice as the leaping-off point, Fanm d’Ayiti (“Women of Haiti”) celebrates powerful women – in revolution, on stage, or in the home – blending electronics, live recordings, a live string quartet (hi!), and Nathalie’s own voice in an irrepressible and captivating melange.

BUY TICKETS

Chicago is lucky to call the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Bernard Rands one of its own, and we are tenacious in our admiration for his artistry and ingenuity. So when the Chicago Composers’ Consortium approached us about a celebration of – and tribute to – his music, we eagerly jumped on board. But the real coup is that the creatives behind C3 are writing us 9 brand-new works, all inspired by – or actively mining – elements of Bernard’s new quartet.

TICKETS AVAILABLE NOW

It took a long year of waiting, but our Berkeley debut has finally arrived! The wonderful team at Cal Performances co-commissioned one of our favorite new works with us, Samuel Adams’ Current, and we can’t think of a more perfect place to present the world premiere of this mesmeric quartet.

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FROM THE SCRAG MOUNTAIN MUSIC WEBSITE
Scrag welcomes back to Vermont the award-winning Spektral Quartet for the World Premiere of a special Spektral/Scrag co-commission by composer Eliza Brown, a work for string quartet and soprano that explores the cycle of life and makes use of poetry by American poet Susan Stewart. Also on the program George Walker's Lyric for Strings and works by Franz Schubert.

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FROM THE SCRAG MOUNTAIN MUSIC WEBSITE
Scrag welcomes back to Vermont the award-winning Spektral Quartet for the World Premiere of a special Spektral/Scrag co-commission by composer Eliza Brown, a work for string quartet and soprano that explores the cycle of life and makes use of poetry by American poet Susan Stewart. Also on the program George Walker's Lyric for Strings and works by Franz Schubert.

PAY WHAT YOU CAN (in-person)
PAY WHAT YOU CAN (streaming)

PROGRAM
Henri Dutilleux – Ainsi la nuit
Anna Thorvaldsdottír – Enigma

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PROGRAM
Henri Dutilleux – Ainsi la nuit
Anna Thorvaldsdottír – Enigma

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After receiving a prompt from us, seven Indiana University Jacobs School of Music composition students will scramble to each write us a brand-new piece for string quartet…IN ONLY 48 HOURS! We will then perform these still-warm-from-the-printer scores for a live audience at IU and for you at home via livestream.

This event is FREE and open to the public
Please note that this performance begins at 6pm Central / 7pm Eastern
Stream it live here

Looking Skyward is an invitation to tilt your head up to the night sky and be astonished. With nothing but stars encompassing your view, do you become infinitesimal or voluminous? Does the darkness imbue a sense of wonder, or rather, provoke you to nervously quicken your pace? You may notice your other senses sharpening as sight retreats, amplifying, say, delicate claws skittering through dry leaves into a hair-raising chaos of percussion.

This concert is FREE and open to the public

Looking Skyward is an invitation to tilt your head up to the night sky and be astonished. With nothing but stars encompassing your view, do you become infinitesimal or voluminous? Does the darkness imbue a sense of wonder, or rather, provoke you to nervously quicken your pace? You may notice your other senses sharpening as sight retreats, amplifying, say, delicate claws skittering through dry leaves into a hair-raising chaos of percussion.

This concert is FREE and open to the public
*masks required

We are very happy to be visiting our friends from the north at Lawrence University for an evening of two French stunners: Claude Debussy and Henri Dutilleux.

PROGRAM
Claude Debussy – String Quartet in G minor (1893)

***PLEASE NOTE: All are welcome to watch this live performance virtually. Only Lawrence University faculty, students, and staff are allowed to attend on-campus/in-person.
Henri Duttileux. – Ainsi la nuit (1976)

We are very happy to announce that our Anthony Cheung portrait concert concert at the TIME:SPANS Festival has been rescheduled! As a longtime friend and collaborator, Anthony writes some truly outstanding music that we are eager to make a part of our return to live performance this summer.

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For this cabaret-style-seated summertime concert, we’re offering two of the most compelling works from the French repertoire: Debussy’s unforgettable String Quartet in Gmin, Op. 10 and Henri Dutilleux’s mysterious Ainsi la nuit. The sheer beauty of these pieces is undeniable, and when heard together, the world around you begins to shimmer and seem somehow more luminous.

If you’re as eager as we are to return to the concert hall, we can’t think of a more sumptuous reentry.

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One of our very first in-person concerts in more than a year, we are pleased to be returning to the Green Lake Festival of Music this summer. This charming lakeside community has become something of an annual destination for us, and this year, we return with a stunner of a program: Debussy’s unforgettable String Quartet in Gmin, Op. 10 and Henri Dutilleux’s mysterious Ainsi la nuit.

$15 suggested donation

Something to Write Home About is an era-hopping sonic thrill ride that encourages audience members to encounter their past and present. Listeners progress through a series of prompts that focus attention on one’s own emotions and experiences, and then get up close and personal with the composers themselves through letters, interviews, and musical examples. Stamped postcards—designed with photography from artist Eliaichi Kimaro—are provided by the quartet for audience members to jot down notes and inspirations of their own. A behind the scenes look at some singularly mesmeric music, Something to Write Home About uncovers the heart and the intellect behind the music with an experience that invites the audience to do much more than sit back and relax.

*Due to necessary precautions taken by the presenter regarding the COVID-19 virus, we are sorry to report that this concert has been cancelled*

PROGRAM

O Magnum Mysterium (1572) – Tomás Luis de Victoria
String Quartet No. 13 in A minor, D. 804, "Rosamunde" (1824) – Franz Schubert
EnigROGRAM

O Magnum Mysterium (1572) – Tomás Luis de Victoria
String Quartet No. 13 in A minor, D. 804, "Rosamunde" (1824) – Franz Schubert
Enigma (concert version) (2019) – Anna Thorvaldsdottir & Sigurdur Gudjonsson (video artist)

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