JACK Quartet

The JACK Quartet, known commonly by the shortened form JACK, has concentrated its efforts on presenting new compositions written for string quartet. Beyond its concert and recording activities, the ensemble maintains a robust commitment to teaching.

Formed in 2005 by violinists Christopher Otto and Ari Streisfeld, violist John Pickford Richards, and cellist Kevin McFarland—the four names supplying the group’s title—the members first met while studying at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. They later assembled in New York City and worked under the guidance of the Kronos, Arditti, and Muir Quartets. In 2016 violinist Austin Wulliman and cellist Jay Campbell succeeded Streisfeld and McFarland, though the ensemble kept its original name.

JACK has appeared at leading international halls such as Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York, Wigmore Hall in London, and the Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam. Its festival schedule has spanned longstanding European centers of new music—the Donaueschingen Festival in Germany, the Venice Biennale in Italy, and the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland—as well as Indonesia’s Bali Arts Festival. Central to its repertoire stand pieces by Iannis Xenakis, Georg Friedrich Haas, Helmut Lachenmann, and Steve Reich. Broadcasts featuring the quartet have aired on multiple U.S. National Public Radio programs and their local stations, together with national radio outlets in Australia. The group’s first recording, issued in 2009, presented the complete string quartets of Iannis Xenakis.

Alongside its performing schedule, JACK has pursued an active educational program. It has undertaken residencies involving composition students at New York University, Columbia University, and the University of Iowa, maintaining an extended partnership with the latter’s String Quartet Residency Program. Additional summer teaching engagements have taken place at New Music on the Point, a Vermont festival for emerging performers and composers. The quartet also conducts frequent visits to institutions including Columbia University, Harvard University, and Stanford University. Its discography includes releases on the Mode, Tzadik, and Wergo labels; in 2018 the ensemble joined mezzo-soprano Inbal Hever for a recording of music by Chaya Czernowin. During the COVID-19 pandemic JACK remained active, producing six albums in 2020 alone. The following year it issued Christopher Otto: rags'ma on Greyfade, then returned in 2022 on Naxos with Derek Bermel: Intonations and, in collaboration with the choir The Crossing, on the Cantaloupe release Sila -- The Breath of the World.