Cereal Music playlist for 03/18/2014

We were joined in this Cereal Music broadcast by two members of the JACK string quartet, violinist Ari Streisfeld and violist John Pickford Richards. The recipient of New Music USA's 2013 Trailblazer Award, the quartet has performed to critical acclaim at venues across the globe, from New York to the Netherlands to Indonesia. Comprising violinists Christopher Otto and Ari Streisfeld, violist John Pickford Richards, and cellist Kevin McFarland, JACK is focused on the commissioning and performance of new works, leading them to work closely with composers Derek Bermel, Chaya Czernowin, James Dillon, Brian Ferneyhough, Beat Furrer, Georg Friedrich Haas, Vijay Iyer, György Kurtág, Helmut Lachenmann, Steve Mackey, Matthias Pintscher, Steve Reich, Wolfgang Rihm, Salvatore Sciarrino, and John Zorn Upcoming and recent premieres include works by Wolfgang von Schweinitz, Toby Twining, Georg Friedrich Haas, Simon Holt, Kevin Ernste, and Simon Bainbridge. The members of the quartet met while attending the Eastman School of Music and studied closely with the Arditti Quartet, Kronos Quartet, Muir String Quartet, and members of the Ensemble Intercontemporain. In addition to the interview with Ari and John, we sampled from two of the quartet's albums, both on Mode records — the complete quartets of Iannis Xenakis (of which we played the first and second, ST-4 and Tetras), released in 2009; and the complete quartets of Helmut Lachenmann (of which we played the first and third, Gran Torso and Grido), to be released on April 1st, 2014. Interview hosted by Zak Hap and Chason Goldfinger.