icarus Quartet: “Bartók Reborn”

Like the mythological figure from which it draws its name, the half piano/half percussion icarus Quartet dares to fly toward the sun, aspiring to new heights of artistry. Following their Carnegie Hall debut, composer Paul Lansky simply remarked, “This is music making of the highest order.” The Wall Street Journal hailed icarus Quartet’s 2022 album, BIG THINGS, as “a beautifully immersive recording…an impressive calling card.”

Winner of the 2019 Chamber Music Yellow Springs Competition, icarus Quartet has given new life to old masterpieces, as well as, the future of their instrumentation. The quartet was chosen as Chamber Music Northwest’s 2020 Protégé Project Ensemble and was subsequently the first ensemble to hold the Klinger ElectroAcoustic Residency at Bowling Green State University. Past engagements include appearances at the Kennedy Center’s REACH, the Vienna Summer Music Festival, the Horowitz Piano Series, the Queens New Music Festival, the Adalman Chamber Series, and at Princeton University for a Lansky tribute concert held in honor of the emeritus professor’s 75th birthday.

Fostering the development of new works through commissioning and collaborating lies at the core of the group’s mission, inspiring partnerships with titans of the classical contemporary field, established artists of electronic and indie music scenes, as well as gifted student composers through their annual “iQ Tests” program. Recent and upcoming collaborators include Nick Zammuto, Michael Laurello, Liliya Ugay, Douglas Knehans, Natalie Dietterich, Scott Lee, and Amy Beth Kirsten as well as 2022-23 iQ Test Scholars Matīss Čudars and Sam Wu.

Larry Weng, Christopher Goodpasture, Matt Keown, and Jeff Stern are all celebrated soloists in their own right, and together they have found a special chemistry and inimitable joy in playing chamber music. They are dedicated to the discovery, creation, and performance of new music,

but what distinguishes their approach to contemporary music is a strong training and background in the classical genre. icarus Quartet is committed to performing new works with a studied and convincing interpretation that mirrors the validity of works with performance practices developed over centuries.

Béla Bartók (1881-1945) Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion

Witold Lutoslawski (1913-1994) Variations on a Theme by Paganini (arr. Marta Ptaszynska and icarus Quartet)

Three world premiere works:

Martin Bresnick (b. 1946) Hagyaték

Viet Cuong (b. 1990) Cloak of Night

Jennifer Higdon (b. 1962) Turbo Shift (A Crafter’s Workshop)

Adult $19

Senior $15

Student (non-WFU) $10

Child $5

WFU and Medical School Students, Faculty, Staff and Retirees – Free

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Join Dr. Megan Francisco for a pre-concert talk on composer Béla Bartók. This free event begins at 6:40 pm and will be held in a classroom just off the Brendle Recital Hall lobby.

Megan Francisco is an assistant professor of music at Wake Forest University and holds a PhD in musicology from the University of Washington. Her publications include a chapter on Mahler’s influence on Bernstein in Cambridge University Press’s Leonard Bernstein in Context and an article in the Journal of the Society for American Music about opera and Battlestar Galactica. Prior to the University of Washington, she received a master’s in religion and music from the Yale Institute of Sacred Music.