This Thursday (aka tomorrow) we play all three of our beloved mentor Helmut Lachenmann’s string quartets at @millertheatreatcu . Thanks to Jeffrey Arlo Brown for this @nytimes feature on the significance of his music with great insight into how one might experience this world of sound. Also featuring beautiful words from the font of wisdom and true friend @brodskyseth
In Europe we play the complete quartets at @openmusic_graz on Nov 7 and at @wigmore_hall on Feb 7
Link in bio and stories
In which we are charged with our mission, Jay goes “a little bit Philharmonic” and we demonstrate our latest experiments with corporeal sounds in “Reigen seliger Geister”
Pulled from two days of intensive rehearsal with our beloved Helmut Lachenmann on his Second String Quartet in his composition studio by Lago Maggiore, Italy.
Thrilled to wake up to this profile by Zachary Woolfe in the NYTimes Sunday Arts section.
“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.”
Link in bio to read the full profile.
📷: Ulysses Ortega for The New York Times
So happy to present Beautiful Trouble to the wonderful audience at Only Connect Festival in Oslo on Saturday, with Kent Sprague and Matthew Craig (lights and live sound).
Excellent pics from Kristian Trana (1-3, 7-11) and Massimo Barberi (4-6).
Incredible longform review of my new monographic disc by Dominic Hartley published on MusicWebInternational today, which goes way beyond the call of a normal review. Dominic really gave this a close listening, and it feels incredible to put something out there and have someone engage with it so fully and so deeply. Also I’m very very happy that the care and commitment and virtuosity of everyone involved in this album was also rightfully recognized: @jackquartet , @austin_wulliman , @muratcolak.nyc , and Ty Bouque all get more than a nod: Dominic really highlights and contends with their contributions to this disc.
Full review on MusicWebInternational but some choice passages provided here
Experience music in total darkness
Communicating solely through the sounds produced by their instruments, the musicians of JACK invite one another into musical processes, accepting these invitations or responding in kind with an invitation of their own—and always deciding for themselves how far they choose to go down each path together, before turning back.
Georg Friedrich Haas’ visionary Third String Quartet is designed to be performed in total darkness, creating a uniquely physical concert experience. As Haas wrote in his “darkness rider” for this work, “The outline of one’s hand will ideally not be visible even when directly in front of their face. The darkness is absolute, and the effect is disorienting: an audience member feels they have become absorbed in an India ink level of blackness with no visual cues to demarcate the size and shape of the space or their relation to it.” For the Body and Sound festival, JACK Quartet, the foremost interpreters of Haas’ work, will perform his String Quartet No. 3, “in iij Noct.” Co-produced with Liquid Music. Co-presented by REDCAT.
There will be a post-show Q&A with JACK Quartet, moderated by REDCAT Deputy Director and Chief Curator, Performing Arts, Katy Dammers.
JACK Quartet
Christopher Otto, violin
Austin Wulliman, violin
John Pickford Richards, viola
Jay Campbell, cello
Program
Georg Friedrich HAAS
String Quartet No. 3 “in iij Noct”
This April, we open an exhibition looking at fame and legacy in black artistry across generations, host a concert in total darkness, combine dance and AI in a new work, and screen a film by a renowned LA filmmaker to the public for the first time.
📺 4/11: Harmony Holiday, SPECTACULAR BROODING
🎼 4/9: JACK Quartet, HAAS IN THE DARK
🤖 4/17–4/18: Rashaun Mitchell + Silas Riener, OPEN MACHINE
🎥 4/25: Ben Caldwell, FOR WHOSE ENTERTAINMENT
See the link in our bio to purchase tickets.
Coming up next in NYC we’re excited to present Morton Feldman’s masterpiece Piano and String Quartet with our pal @acwcomposer on April 15. The show is FREE and in celebration of their shared centennial year we’ll be playing in a gallery at @thenewschool exhibiting works by Robert Rauschenberg. More info in stories or at the link in our bio.
«Beautiful Trouble is a tour de force of reckless imagination and confident craft, and a testament, however offbeat, to the JACK Quartet’s unshakeable courage and coherence», skriver Steve Smith i Musical America.
25. april kan du få med deg Natacha Diels’ opera «Beautiful Trouble» med fantastiske @jackquartet .
🗓️ 25. april kl 20.00
📍 @kulturkirkenjakob
🎟️ 300,- / 250,- / 200,-
Mer info og billetter på www.onlyconnect.no
@natachadiels
Experience music in complete darkness.
@jackquartet performs Georg Friedrich Haas’ In iij Noct in absolute blackness—removing sight entirely and transforming the concert experience into something deeply immersive.
The musicians perform separated around the space, surrounding the audience. Deprived of visual cues, they communicate only through sound, allowing the music to unfold freely in time and space. In the darkness, listening becomes heightened, intimate, and profoundly alive.
✨ Post-show Q&A with JACK Quartet, moderated by REDCAT Deputy Director and Chief Curator of Performing Arts Katy Dammers.
Co-produced by @laphil and @liquidmusicseries
Co-presented by REDCAT
HAAS IN THE DARK
🗓 Thu, April 9, 2026 | 8:00PM
📍 @calartsredcat , Los Angeles
Step into the darkness—and hear differently: /events/performances/4241/2026-04-09/haas-in-the-dark
📸: Jason Smith
