We are beyond excited to announce the upcoming release of our third studio album, What Is American, this coming June. Because we know you'll want to be the first to get your copy, we've launched a crowdfunder where you can do just that!There are also several exclusive perks - from a VIP record preview speakeasy, to a graphic score postcard, to our signed CD collection.
For Your GRAMMY® Consideration!
FREEDOM AND FAITH: On the GRAMMY® Ballot in Four Categories!
Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance: PUBLIQuartet
Best Contemporary Classical Composition: Jessica Meyer: Get Into The Now
Best Engineered Album classical: Ryan Streber
Producer of the Year, classical: Louis Levitt
🔊 Listen Here 🔊
ABOUT
Released last spring on indie classical label Bright Shiny Things, Freedom and Faith is the second album from the intrepid ensemble PUBLIQuartet, winner of Chamber Music America’s 2019 Visionary Award. Freedom & Faith features artists whose music represents resilience, resistance, and subversion; Jessica Meyer, Shelley Washington, Nina Simone, Ella Fitzgerald, Hildegard Von Bingen, Chiara Margarita Cozzolani, Francesca Caccini - composers that highlight the diversity and legacy of women in music over the last millennium. The album is comprised of music from two of PUBLIQuartet’s signature initiatives: MIND | THE | GAP, collaborative compositions and improvisations by the four members of the group; and PUBLIQ Access (PQA), a genre-independent program that commissions new works for string quartet by emerging composers living within the U.S. Running through the entire album is the spirit of collaboration and spontaneity that embodies PUBLIQuartet’s mission.
PQ receives CMA Visionary Award!
We are incredibly honored to receive the 2019 CMA Visionary Award in recognition of ensembles who have "led the field in creative thinking and innovation!" We will accept the award at the Chamber Music America Saturday Night Soireé on January 19th. If you are attending the CMA conference, we hope you will celebrate with us!
Our 2017-18 season in review!
PUBLIQuartet had an incredibly exciting and dynamic 2017-18 season and we are thrilled with the progress we've made developing programs in education outreach, performing, collaborating, and commissioning new works for string quartet. Several of these programs culminated and others have only just begun.
We write this post from Avaloch Farm in Boscawen, NH, where we are working on next season's repertoire and the works we will record on our album in August! The album is called "Freedom and Faith" and explores themes of spirituality, awakening, and inspiration by composers Jessica Meyer, Shelley Washington, Hildegard von Bingen, Nina Simone, Ella Fitzgerald, and more. In true PQ style, we will delve into a sound world uniquely our own. You'll hear jazz, bluegrass, tango, Gregorian chant...even whistles! Check out more about the album on our Indiegogo page!
Last year was the culmination of our third round of PUBLIQ Access, a program that showcases and promotes the works of emerging composers. This third round upgraded our previous format of call-for-scores to a full commission based program. We workshopped with the three composers we commissioned twice: once at Avaloch Music Farm Institute in New Hampshire, and once in NYC. Steven Snowden, one of the three composers chosen, received his world premier of Silent Sentinels, on the 100th anniversary of the Night of Terror, a historic moment in the suffragette movement. The premiere took place in what was originally Occoquan Workhouse, now known as the Lorton Workhouse Arts Center in Virginia. The multi-media work includes video of Harry Truman, live audio-processing, and images of the actual suffragettes who were arrested on that fateful night. Jessica Meyer, another commission, received her world premiere of her funky soul-spiked, Get into the Now, a piece surrounding ideas of inspiration and resilience at Sixth and I Synagogue in Washington DC through Washington Performing Arts. And Xian Wang received her premiere of her haunting Nevermore for quartet and live video processing received her premiere in May in Areté, Brooklyn.
Pictured: PQA Composers Xian Wang, Jessica Meyer, and Steven Snowden
PUBLIQ Access 4.0 “Our Environment” is already underway with our freshly announced winners, Vahid Jahandari, Niloufar Nourbakhsh, and Gemma Peacocke, and a scheduled premiere date on Earth Day, April 22, 2019 at National Sawdust in Brooklyn, as part of our upcoming National Sawdust Residency. Our first of three NS concerts on November 7, 2018 will feature the works of Andy Akiho, including his Ligneous Suite for string quartet and marimba, which we premiered at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2017 with percussionist Ian Rosenbaum. Our second concert will take place on February 10, 2019 and will be based on the music from our upcoming album Freedom and Faith, which features works by all-female composers past to present and explores ideas of spirituality, resilience, and inspiration.
In addition to curating shows at National Sawdust, we've also taken on collaborations with fellow musicians and mentors, giving the US premiere of Kate Moore's Bushranger Psychodrama with percussionist Doug Perry and vocalists Iarla ó Lionáird at Symphony Space in the Fall of 2017 and the world premiere of Sam Suggs' bass concerto Ursa for string quartet and vibraphone at the Sheen Center for the Arts in March 2018. We also worked closely with John Corigliano on his Farewell quartet, and performed this sprawling work at National Sawdust for his 80th Birthday Celebration concert and at the Barns at Wolf Trap in April 2018.
Education is also a major part of our mission because our approach to teaching includes improvisation and composition, which frees up our students to think outside the box and make music for themselves. In September 2017, we visited the Bronxville High School as part of a multi-visit composition residency culminating in a performance of the student's works for the school district in January 2018. While on tour, we led improv and composition workshops of middle school, high school, and college students in Colorado and Wyoming in October 2017. In February 2018 we hosted a chamber music masterclass at the National Opera Center produced by the Associated Chamber Music Players, which reached thousands of people via their live-stream service. We've also visited public schools doing masterclasses and improv workshops in Ossining through Friends of Music and Washington DC as a special collaboration with improvising violinist Chelsey Green through Washington Performing Arts. This coming September we are visiting Alfred University in Alfred, NY where we will be working with students on improvisation, chamber music technique, performance practice.
As we find ourselves on our last day at the wonderful Avaloch Farm Music Institute, a blissful artist residency in Boscawen, NH, we come away with several group compositions that fall into our project MIND THE GAP. We create MTGs by merging styles of multiple composers and periods after much experimentation and deliberation, usually focusing on a social issue. Our MTGs have been performed in all of our concerts from our tour out west to our return visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the Young Patrons Gala in April 2018.
Thank you to New Music USA for inviting us into the Impact Fund cohort! Your support enabled us to take our ensemble to the next level and achieve our dream projects! We look forward to commissioning new music through PUBLIQ Access, visiting more schools for improvisation and composition workshops, and continuing to develop our musical voice through thoughtfully curated concerts, composition, and improvisation.
Next PQA application cycle opens February 15!!
Composers!! Our next PUBLIQ Access commissioning cycle will open on February 15. We have exciting new ideas in development. Check back soon for details!
PQ will be Quartet-In-Residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art!
It's official! We are ecstatic to announce that we will be the Quartet-In-Residence at the The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York during the 2016-17 season!! Check out the next season's preview video featuring the magnetic Limor Tomer who is pushing boundaries by opening the eyes and ears of Met visitors to some of today's most forward-thinking living artists!
www.metmuseum.org/…/pr…/met-live-arts/publiquartet-residency
You may recognize that tune!
Our debut album is on sale!
We are so happy to announce our self-titled debut album has been officially releasesed and is on sale now!
Listen to tracks and purchase HERE!
PQ Awarded Copland Fund Grant
We have been awarded a grant from the Copland Fund to help support our debut album!
PQ wins CMA/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming
We are ecstatic to announce that we have been awarded the 2015 CMA/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming! This award recognizes ensembles and presenters for outstanding and innovative approaches to the programming of contemporary classical, jazz, and world chamber music.
We accepted the award at the CMA National Conferenceon January 18th among such incredible ensmbles and presenters: Miller Theatre at Columbia University; Music at Noon, the Logan Series; SwitchboardMusic; Yellow Barn; Festival of New Trumpet Music; Sean Smith Ensemble; and Either/Or.
PQ featured on NPR
Check it out! Tune in to NPR's Weekend Edition to hear an interview with Bob Stewart and Curtis Stewart about Bob's most recent album "Connections: Mind The Gap" featuring music composed by Jessie Montgomery and performed PUBLIQuartet!
Missed it? You can hear the interview forever and ever here!
PS, this album received 4.5 stars in a rave review in DownBeat Magazine!
PQ to make their Carnegie Hall debut Spring 2015!
We could not be more excited for our upcoming Carnegie Hall debut at Weill recital Hall on Tuesday, April 28, 2015! This concert will be presented by Concert Artists Guild and Chamber Music NY. We are creating our concert program and we can assure you that it will be a true PUBLIQuartet experience!
Symphony Space debut listed in Broadway World
Check out our write-up about our March 20th debut at Symphony Space in Broadway World!
Spend Valentine's Day with PQ and friends!
February 14th we celebrate the day of Love with some amazing musicians at our PUBLIQ Access fundraiser show! The featured performers are the ever so fabulous Joshua Rubin, clarinet; Nadia Sirota, viola; Rebekah Heller, bassoon; Flutronix; JP Jofre, bandoneon; and the band HOLLANDS.
We are throwing an after party with drinks, music, raffle prizes, and silent auction! All donations made at the show are tax deductible and will support this great program to help emerging composers have their voices heard.
Admission is free with an encouraged donation to the proram. For every $10 donated, you will receive a raffle ticket to win some awesome prizes including albums of our featured artists, PUBLIQuartet merchandise, and gift certificates!
Silent auction prizes include:
Stumptown Coffee gift basket bagged fresh in Red Hook, Brooklyn; a free 2-hour improvisation workshop by PUBLIQuartet at your educational institution; a free house concert by PUBLIQuartet; a 1-hour private lesson from each member of PUBLIQuartet; a dinner date with PUBLIQuartet (we're great cooks!); and a bound and signed copy of our Haydn Op. 50, No. 2 MIND|THE|GAP score.
This is going to be an incredible evening and we hope to see you there!!
University Settlement
184 Eldridge Street, NYC
Doors 7pm // Show 7:30pm
CAG News and introducing PUBLIQ Access!!
The results from the 2013 Concert Artists Guild Competition are in! CAG invited us to join their roster as the New Music/New Places Ensemble and we were awarded the Sylvia Ann Hewlett Adventurous Artist Prize! We had a boundary-pushing program of new pieces written for us by emerging composers Howie Kenty and Jessie Montgomery and our own MIND|THE|GAP composition. We are so thrilled to be joining the CAG family!
What makes us EXTRA thrilled about this is there is a cash prize that comes with this award and that is the perfect foundation to start funding our next major project - our inaugural Emerging Composers Program: PUBLIQ Access! This project is almost two years in the making and is designed to promote new works for the string quartet and highlight the voices of today’s emerging composers. PQ will host the annual event in the Spring at the Dimenna Center in New York City where the chosen composers of this competition will have their pieces showcased. After each concert there will be an open discussion featuring notable new music composers and performers. We are pleased to announce that the 2014 panelists will be Mark Steinberg of the Brentano Quartet, David Bowlin of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), Nadia Sirota of the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME) and yMusic, Laura Kaminsky, composer and Artistic Director of Symphony Space! Find our more about PUBLIQ Access here!
Great concert at Hobart and William Smith Colleges!
Universities are one of our most favorite venues to play at. The audiences are always so diverse, open, and have an incredibly great attitude. We had a really amazing time playing for the audience at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. Sometimes there is just something in the air that really connects between audience and performer and the music love was definitely all around us that night. We even had a grand time during the moment when Nick (our most organized member - no exaggeration) somehow had his music all mixed up and we needed a little comic relief to allow him to find his next page between movements! We couldn't have planned the fun more perfectly if we tried. This is what we love so much about PQ concerts. We have fun, we enjoy the moment - no matter what happens! Mark Olivieri, our dear friend and fantastic composer, told us when we smiled or giggled, he couldn't tell if it was because we made a mistake or were having fun. Who knows what we're smiling about at any given moment, the point is that we truly love and respect each other. The times we spend together on stage are magical and we are so thrilled that the HWS audience picked up on that. They are great singers at that! The concert was such a success that the President of the Colleges himself asked us back. HWS, see you in 2015!
PQ featured in Bargemusic profile video
Check out PQ featured in the Bargemusic profile for the "Arts in the City" video on CUNY TV!
The true PQ
Letter to our friends
Dear Friends,
We hope you have all had a happy and healthy start to the New Year! This month we celebrate the three year anniversary of PUBLIQuartet and it has been quite something to look at how much we have grown over these past few years. A grass roots string quartet starting out on the Lower East Side, we have been making strides toward developing the voice and future of PQ. It hasn't always been easy managing and coordinating on our own, but it's been damn fun and we are incredibly thankful for all of the support we have received along the way. We wouldn't be where we are today without our coaches, family members, colleagues, and friends who all believe in us and give us the inspiration to keep going. 2012 was a year of excitement, change, struggle, opportunity, challenge, development, thrill, and growth. As 2013 is here, we are looking forward to another year of making music together and with much anticipation of what's to come. Thank you for sharing these three great years with us.
Love,
PUBLIQuartet
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A great end to 2012
We are so thrilled with the success of our 92Y Tribeca concert! Many thanks to Kunle Mwanga for inviting us to play on his "Four For the Apple" series. The audience really responded well to our MIND|THE|GAP programming and even jumped in and sang during one of our improvisations! Those are the special moments we as PQ love -when we have the opportunity to create music together with our audience. As the year comes to an end, we have two more performances left and are looking at 2013 with wide eyes and great ideas!
We love Harlem House Concerts!
We had a wonderful time at our first concert with Jannina! Our many thanks to Ron Melichar and Lana Turner for their warm hospitality. The concert was an exciting event for us not only because it was great to step "on stage" with Jannina for the first time as PQ, but really because the people that shared the experience with us were some of the most giving, interesting, and inviting people we have played for. This is the start of a wonderful new journey for us. Next up in NYC, the 92Y Tribeca!