sirius quartet

“Versatility and flair with lively improvisations… Driving rhythms and aggressive arpeggios were woven around an elusive cello melody in this engaging score.” — The New York Times

 

“One of the highlights of the festival… each breakout solo seemed as inevitable as it was spontaneous.”

— The Wall Street Journal

 

“For nearly two hours, the group dazzled the packed house with virtuosic, rock-inflected, jazz-grounded, classical-minded polyglot music that was by turns lilting and churning, diaphanous and crushing, placid and rhythmic, soothing and fiery… always compelling and always exhilarating.” — Imperfect Fifths

 

Internationally acclaimed veterans of contemporary music, Sirius Quartet combines exhilarating repertoire with unequalled improvisational fire. These conservatory-trained performer-composers shine with precision, soul and a raw energy rarely witnessed on stage, championing a forward-thinking, genre-defying approach that makes labels like 'New Music' sound tame.

 

Since their debut concert at the original Knitting Factory in New York City, Sirius has played some of the most important venues in the world, including Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, the Beijing Music Festival, the Cologne Music Triennale, Stuttgart Jazz, Musique Actuelle in Canada, the Taichung Jazz Fest – Taiwan's biggest jazz event – and many others.

 

Having premiered works by significant living composers, Sirius continues their long-running commitment to musical innovation with bold, original works by its own members, pushing beyond the conventional vocabulary of string instruments by incorporating popular song forms, extended techniques, gripping improvisations and undeniable, contemporary grooves.

siriusquartet.com

 

 

FUNG CHERN HWEI VIOLIN

Born and raised in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Fung Chern Hwei absorbed a large amount of musical information since young in his diverse surroundings: Chinese pop and classical music, Indian Bollywood tunes, Malay dance music, and western classical music.  He insisted on learning the violin at around 4 years old, but couldn’t find a teacher until he was 8.  Since then Chern Hwei thrust himself into the world of violin and has never looked back. Shortly after starting violin lessons, Chern Hwei found himself imitating electric guitar and saxophone sounds on his violin.  In his high school years, he broke the school’s ban on rock music and electric instruments by sneaking a heavy metal band on stage during a charity night.  Seeds were being sown for a musical path far from that of the typical classical violinist.

 

Upon finishing graduate school in New York, Chern Hwei chose to stay on as a freelance musician, playing different genres of music, absorbing even more musical languages and means of expression. Styles that he plays frequently include western classical, jazz, middle-eastern belly dance music, historically-informed baroque, rock, and hip hop. He recently self-released his debut album, “From The Heart”. Artists that he has been fortunate enough to work with include Uri Caine, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Stanley Clarke, Tony Bennett, Bobby McFerrin, Steve Wilson, Elliot Sharp, Antonio Sanchez, and composer Mikael Karlsson, among others.

 

GREGOR HUEBNER VIOLIN

Gregor Huebner is an award-winning, Grammy -nominated composer and violinist, celebrated by audiences and critics alike for his visionary work across genres.  His music has been described by The New York City Jazz Record as “challenging and vivid… seamlessly incorporat[ing] chamber elements with Avant Garde Jazz,” while All About Jazz describes him as “a virtuoso with broad experience in large and small classical ensembles.” Huebner’s recent El Violin Latino, an album exploring the role of the violin in traditional Latin American music, was praised by The Wall Street Journal as “by turns sexy and sly, impassioned and dreamy, his collection of well-known tunes, unexpected arrangements and original compositions brings together far-flung members of the fiddle diaspora.”

 

As a composer, Huebner’s unique musical voice variously integrates improvisation, experimental notation, traditional counterpoint, pop song structures, post-tonal gestures and innovative performance techniques within formal compositional frameworks.  Recent commissions include “Clockwork Interrupted,” an orchestral work premiered by the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra and SWR Big Band in July 2014; “Six Songs of Innocence,” a lyrical setting of poems by William Blake premiered by Sirius Quartet and Collegium Iuvenum Stuttgart Boys Choir in June 2014; A violin and a piano concerto premiered by the WDR in Cologne in 2016 and “Ich rufe zu Gott” for choir and violin solo premiered and recorded by Ida Bieler and the Orpheus Vokalensemble in 2016.  Huebner has also been commissioned by the International Bach Academy in Stuttgart, the State Theater of Fürth and the State Academy of Music Ochsenhausen, among many others. His works have been premiered by major ensembles such as the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Nova Philharmonic Orchestra and the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra. Huebner has been a longstanding member of Sirius Quartet for over a decade.

 

RON LAWRENCE VIOLa

From John Adams to John Zorn, violist Ron Lawrence has performed and recorded with many of new music’s most exciting personalities.  Besides being a founding member of the Sirius Quartet, he has performed extensively with Cuartetango, Quartet Indigo, the Soldier String Quartet and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s.  Other collaborators include Anthony Braxton, John Blake, Bob Beldon, Anthony Davis, Regina Carter, Elliott Sharp, James Blood Ulmer,  Cassandra Wilson, John Cale, and Eumir Deodato.  Further uptown, he has recorded with Kathleen Battle, Robert Craft, John Cage, and Andre Previn.

 

One of Ron’s most exciting projects was a journey to Alaska to record John Luther Adams’ multi-media spectacular, Earth and the Great Weather –A Sonic Geography of the Arctic.  Despite a rigorous performance schedule, he was able to break away each evening to cross-country ski under the Northern Lights.

 

JEREMY HARMAN Cello

Boston-based cellist, guitarist, composer and songwriter Jeremy Harman is always exploring shifting musical terrain with a continual desire to evolve as both an artist and a person.  Drawing from a diverse pool of stylistic influences including contemporary classical, modern jazz, folk, metal/hardcore, post-rock, downtempo electronic, and free improvisation, his musical path has taken him across the globe in venues ranging from concert halls and art galleries to carnivals, street corners, bars, clubs and d.i.y. house shows.

 

Jeremy is the cellist for the NYC-based Sirius Quartet who have spent the past few years playing shows abroad in Germany, Switzerland, Taiwan and Malaysia and closer to home at Merkin Hall, Shapeshifter Lab, The Lily Pad, The Jazz Gallery, The Stone, The Issue Project Room and other venues for forward-thinking music and art. Recent collaborators include Tracy Silverman, Uri Caine, Rufus Reid, John Escreet, Linda Oh, Billy Martin, Peter Stan, Ivo Perelman, and Matthew Shipp.  He also appears frequently with instrumental chamber music/indie-rock alchemists Cordis, including a spot on NPR's Mountainstage and shows throughout the Eastern US.

 

As a freelance cellist, Jeremy has been fortunate to cross paths and share the stage with an extremely wide range of artists including Quincy Jones, John Williams, Pinchas Zuckerman, Bobby McFerrin, Tony Bennett, Sir Elton John, Sting, Lady Gaga, DeVotchKa, Debbie Harry, Mark Ribot, Mary J Blige, and Peter Gabriel in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Radio City Music Hall, House of Blues Boston, Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, the Kodak Theatre, Walt Disney Hall, and The Newport Jazz Festival.

 

 

A Midwest native (WI, MN), Marga Richter earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in composition from The Juilliard School. She has written over 150 works, encompassing virtually every genre. Her orchestral music has been performed by more than 50 orchestras including the Atlanta, Oklahoma, and Milwaukee Symphonies and the Minnesota Orchestra, and recorded by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Polish Radio National Symphony Orchestra, the Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Seattle Symphony Orchestra.

 

She has received two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships (for orchestral pieces), commissions from MGM Records, The Harkness Ballet, The Eastern Music Festival, and more, and awards from Meet The Composer, the Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund, and ASCAP.

 

New York Debut Concert

“Her most valuable attributes are an original sense of rhythm, of drama in choice of materials and...an ability to make her own forms grow from the very nature of her materials and ideas.” — Peggy Glanville-Hicks - New York Tribune - 02/04/51

 

Concerto for Piano and Violas, Cellos and Basses

“I do not recall hearing a new piano concerto with such keen interest since the second concerto of Ravel was unveiled... It communicates a sense of adventure. It goes places.”

— Alfred Frankenstein - San Francisco Chronicle – 12/12/57

 

Landscapes of the Mind I – Concerto for Piano with Orchestra

“It is an extraordinary piece...Over its 30-minute length...(it) challenges, compels, soothes, stimulates, and ultimately enthralls.” — Derrick Henry - The Atlanta Journal/The Atlanta Constitution - 03/22/86

 

Variations and Interludes on Themes from Monteverdi and Bach – Concerto for Piano, Violin and Cello

“..there’s something wild and very strange about it, something inimitable, personal, unforgettable: this music doesn’t sound like anybody else’s...and the way the composer’s mind works...is likewise distinctive.” — Michael Redmond, music critic

 

A full-length biography, Marga Richter by Sharon Mirchandani, was published in 2012 by the University of Illinois Press.

margarichter.com

 

Brian Field began his musical endeavors at the age of 8 with the study of piano and began his first serious compositional efforts when he was 16. He earned his undergraduate degree in music and English literature from Connecticut College, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa. At Connecticut, he studied composition with Noel Zahler, piano with the Polish pedagogue Zosia Jazinovich, organ with John Anthony, and harpsichord/figured-bass realization with Linda Skernick.

 

Devoting himself to composition, Field continued his musical studies at the Juilliard School in New York City where he was awarded his Master of Music degree. At Juilliard he was a student of Milton Babbitt. From Juilliard, Field attended Columbia University, where he earned his Doctorate. At Columbia, he was a President’s Fellow and studied composition with George Edwards and Mario Davidovsky.

 

Field’s musical works include music for television and stage. These include solo acoustic, chamber, ballet, choral, and orchestral works—stylistically ranging from serious contemporary pieces to jazz to electronic music. His compositions have been performed throughout the United States and internationally.

 

Visit www.brianfield.com for a complete list of works, performances and updates.

Mari Tamaki is a Japanese cellist, composer, performer, and producer whose great improvisational and compositional skills create fascinating music, fluidly crossing through both classical and contemporary genres.

 

She began her musical studies on the piano at the age of 3 and began cello studies at the age of 11 with Mr. Yuji Tsukitari of Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra. She developed her musical talents and instrumental skills without attending formal music schools. She earned her master’s degree in quantum chemistry from Chiba University in Japan. Her journey to become a professional musician was unique and special. When she was a graduate student at the age of 24, she played as an amateur cellist at an orchestra conducted by Mr. Shigenobu Yamaoka, a famous Japanese conductor. He quickly discovered her buried talent and guided her to become a professional cellist and musician. Her unique background and experience as a professional musician allow her to aggressively and actively perform in borderless musical genres.

 

As a composer, she has successfully created works in a variety of styles, including classical music, progressive rock, free improvisation, avant-garde, and collaboration with the Butoh dance form. In her pieces, she skillfully transitions from tense dissonance to complete harmonization by the end. She employs a lyrical style while emphasizing dissonance.

 

With the elegant, delicate, and dynamic sounds of her music, she is well-known for scores of string quartet pieces. “The Romantic Cafe” has been used as theme music for television. She also produced “KAGEROHI(heat haze),” the theme music for a recitation drama; “ASAHI DE KOME WO TOGU (washing rice in the rising sun),” the theme music for a stage drama featuring the actor Mr. Keisuke Sagawa; and “Aluett,” the theme music played for a theatrical drama performed by Theatre Murs, along with many other pieces.

 

She has been pursuing musical adventures as an innovative cellist. She created work reflecting Japanese’ spirituality by collaboration with Kazuo Ohno Dance Studio and Saga Kobayashi at Istituto Di Cultura Tokyo in Butoh. She performed works at Pacifico Yokohama Convention Hall that have been inspired by the sound of the natural environment. At Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall in Arkansas, she performed a work for violin duo entitled “Tennyo no mai (the heavenly maiden’s dance)” using a phrase of Japanese traditional 能 (Noh) as a subject. She always focuses on Japanese archetype in her works.

 

She released her first album of inspiring music pieces performed not only at concert halls but also at live houses, drama theaters, and art studios. The title of the album was the 1st movement/Ripple played by “R-Aal,” Japan’s first string quartet with a repertoire of original Japanese musical pieces that had never been previously recorded.

 

“Mari Tamaki creates the new world of music with elaborative classical sound and innovative modern sound evoking progressive rock.” (Indie’pend Magazine)

 

“Mari Tamaki’s musical pieces, filled with unique approach and unexpected development, keep [the] audience thrilled and excited.” (Mr. Jun Fukamachi, a Japanese composer and a keyboard player)

 

“Mari creates her own mood, which is elevated from quiet and thought-provoking to powerful and uplifting.” (Mr. Yasuyuki Fujino, Music Producer)