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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Spektral Quartet’s final Chicago performance, celebrating its 12-year history with a party of epic proportions.

CLICK HERE FOR THE NO REGRETS! EVENT PAGE
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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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As we approach the concluding months of our final season together, we welcome back three of our earliest collaborators – composer Eliza Brown and Scrag Mountain Music co-founders Mary Bonhag (soprano) and Evan Premo (composer, bass) – for a presentation of three enchanting works that trace the cyclic nature of existence…and the stories we tell in an attempt to find our bearing.

IN-PERSON TICKETS ARE SOLD-OUT
But you can REGISTER for the free livestream!

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.

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.

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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

It might be said that we enter the planetarium for the same reason we enter the concert hall: to be brought in touch with the sublime and the unknown. In both places we make contact with tangible reality and imagined panoramas, and in both places our sense of perspective is expanded exponentially. Expect ENIGMA to do exactly that, and strap in for the marquee event of our 2019/20 season at Chicago’s stunning Adler Planetarium.

BUY TICKETS

It might be said that we enter the planetarium for the same reason we enter the concert hall: to be brought in touch with the sublime and the unknown. In both places we make contact with tangible reality and imagined panoramas, and in both places our sense of perspective is expanded exponentially. Expect ENIGMA to do exactly that, and strap in for the marquee event of our 2019/20 season at Chicago’s stunning Adler Planetarium.

BUY TICKETS

It might be said that we enter the planetarium for the same reason we enter the concert hall: to be brought in touch with the sublime and the unknown. In both places we make contact with tangible reality and imagined panoramas, and in both places our sense of perspective is expanded exponentially. Expect ENIGMA to do exactly that, and strap in for the marquee event of our 2019/20 season at Chicago’s stunning Adler Planetarium.

BUY TICKETS

It might be said that we enter the planetarium for the same reason we enter the concert hall: to be brought in touch with the sublime and the unknown. In both places we make contact with tangible reality and imagined panoramas, and in both places our sense of perspective is expanded exponentially. Expect ENIGMA to do exactly that, and strap in for the marquee event of our 2019/20 season at Chicago’s stunning Adler Planetarium.

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 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.

Read more

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

The Chicago Composers Consortium returns to the Floating Lounge this February for a sneak peak at two new pieces written for us by composers Kathleen Cecilia Ginther and Timothy Dwight Edwards.

RSVP HERE (required)

***PLEASE NOTE THIS DATE HAS BEEN CHANGED***

Ever dreamed of playing Carnegie Hall? Holy smokes do we have the Help Desk special guest for you!

Tapped as Carnegie Hall’s Director of Artistic Planning in 2020, one of our favorite things about Ab Sengupta – besides the fact that he is a violist (WOOT!) – is that he inhabits a performer’s perspective in his role as a top-level music administrator. Join us for this can’t-miss Help Desk exclusive!

RSVP required

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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We fell for our recent commission from Samuel Adams…hard. It’s energizing and hypnotic and unexpected, and this February, we’re going to bring Sam up on stage with us and unearth what this phenomenal string quartet is all about.

Current is the result of a friendship that deepened during Sam’s tenure as composer-in-residence for our hometown band, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Perhaps the most unusual element of It is that it employs snare drums, but not in the way you might expect.

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Stream Live (donations encouraged)

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

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)

The Chicago Composers Consortium returns to the Floating Lounge this May for a sneak peak at two new pieces written for us by composers Kyong Mee Choi and Timothy Ernest Johnson.

PROGRAM
Henri Dutilleux – Ainsi la nuit
Anna Thorvaldsdottír – Enigma

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