Aug 28 Aug 29

Hard Times are over - No brutal time signatures, no existential dread— a celebration of ease, warmth, and pure unfiltered joy.

Antonin Dvořák’s lush Quartet no. 10 opens with sunny lyricism, Jessie Montgomery’s Strum pulses with rhythmic vitality, and Paul Wiancko’s American Haiku captures fleeting beauty in miniature. Plus: Danish String Quartet’s fiddle-tune bangers guaranteed to leave you humming and toe-tapping.

- Curated by Mitso Floor

Oct 18 Oct 19

A vibrant snapshot of today’s string quartet—fresh, bold, and boundary-defying.

A program of works all written in the last decade, each offering a distinct lens on modern composition. Longtime collaborator Sam Adams’ String Quartet No. 3 glows with minimalist ferocity and serenity. Taylor Rankin’s electroacoustic pieces, originally recorded by Friction for his film Snow Leopard, blur the lines between acoustic and electronic soundscapes. Juri Seo’s Just Intonation Etudes unfold hidden harmonies waiting to be heard, and bassoonist Jamael Smith joins for a special arrangement of Marcelo Nisinman’s Rui’s Tango - tango like you’ve never experienced before.

- Curated by Doug Machiz

Apr 17 Apr 19

Every great piece has a spark—what ignites the music?

This concert traces the hidden threads between sound and inspiration, from medieval poetry to pandemic resilience, beams of light in the dark, and a Russian novel’s fiery drama. Loren Loiacono’s Besides reimagines the lone surviving song of a 12th-century female troubadour, while Isaac Schankler’s Unveiling(written for Friction Quartet) captures the collective tension and tenderness of lockdown. Juhi Bansal’s Cathedralsof Light transforms shimmering imagery into sound, and Janáček’s quartet no. 1“Kreutzer Sonata” channels Tolstoy’s tragic tale—itself inspired by Beethoven’s violin sonata.

- Curated by Otis Harriel

Jun 5 Jun 6

Music that evolves before your ears.

Works that bend, morph, and reinvent—where folk tunes become avant-garde anthems, classical forms twist into surreal dreams, and every note holds the thrill of change. Julia Wolfe’sBlue Dress fractures Appalachian fiddle music into something fiercely new, while GyörgyLigeti’s Métamorphoses nocturneswarps time and texture like moonlight through a prism. And in Joseph Haydn’sQuartet op. 76 No. 6, even 18th-century elegance takes an unexpected turn.

- Curated by Kevin Rogers