spektral on tour
past concerts
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.