Quince Ensemble

The Quince Ensemble, an American vocal quartet devoted to contemporary repertoire, regularly commissions fresh compositions and established a dedicated fund to expand works written for women's voices. It also joins forces with prominent ensembles active in new music.

Formed in 2010 while its founders were enrolled at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio, the group began when Amanda DeBoer Bartlett and Kayleigh Butcher first crossed paths at an Americana concert by Neko Case. They soon brought in McKayela Collins-Hornor, Aubrey von Almen, and Liz Pearse, forming a quintet whose name derived from that initial count; the suggestion of "Quince" stuck even after von Almen and Collins-Hornor departed. Carrie Henneman Shaw, previously a member of Ensemble Dal Niente, joined to restore the quartet's complement, and the original name was retained because "Quartz" seemed unsuitable. The ensemble has occasionally appeared under the fuller billing Quince Contemporary Vocal Ensemble. Its first recording, Realign the Time, appeared in 2014, followed in 2017 by Hushers on the New Focus label; Opera News praised the latter by labeling the singers the "Anonymous 4 of new music." After maintaining its base in Chicago for several years, the quartet relocated its operations to Minnesota's Twin Cities, where multiple members now maintain their primary activities.

The ensemble has performed extensively throughout the United States and overseas, most often at festivals and series devoted to recent music, among them New York's SONiC Festival, the Outpost Concert Series at the University of California, Riverside, and Poland's KODY Festival in Lublin. Its programs have encompassed both established figures such as Steve Reich and Morton Feldman and emerging voices including Jennifer Jolly, Kate Soper, and Missy Mazzoli. In 2019 the group inaugurated the Quince New Music Commissioning Fund to enlarge the body of works available to women and treble singers. Collaborative projects have linked it with Eighth Blackbird, Third Coast Percussion, Ensemble Dal Niente, and avant-garde rock artist Laurie Anderson. Motherland was issued on New Focus in 2018, after which the quartet moved to Innova for the 2021 release of David Lang's love fail. An all-digital album titled This a Changin' World is slated for 2024.