FLUX Quartet

FLUX Quartet

The FLUX Quartet, “one of the most fearless and important new-music ensembles around” (Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle) “who has brought a new renaissance to quartet music” (Kyle Gann, The Village Voice), has performed to rave reviews in venues from Carnegie’s Zankel Hall and Kennedy Center, to influential art institutions such as EMPAC, The Kitchen, and the Walker Art Center (with jazz icon Ornette Coleman), to international music festivals in Australia, Europe, and the Americas. It has also appeared on numerous experimental series, including Bowerbird, Roulette, and the Music Gallery.  FLUX’s radio credits include NPR’s All Things Considered, WNYC’s New Sounds and Soundcheck, and WFMU’s Stochastic Hit Parade.  Widely praised for the premiere recording of Morton Feldman’s monumental String Quartet No.2 — described as a “disorienting, transfixing experience that repeatedly approached and touched the sublime” (Alex Ross, The New Yorker) — FLUX follows that with this companion recording, which completes the full catalogue of Feldman’s works for string quartet.

Strongly influenced by the irreverent spirit and “anything-goes” philosophy of the fluxus art movement, violinist Tom Chiu founded FLUX in the late 90’s. The quartet has since cultivated an uncompromising repertoire that follows neither fashions nor trends, but rather combines yesterday’s seminal iconoclasts with tomorrow’s new voices. Alongside late 20th-century masters like Cage, Feldman, Ligeti, Nancarrow, Scelsi, and Xenakis, FLUX has premiered more than 100 works by many of today’s foremost innovators, including Michael Byron, Julio Estrada, David First, Oliver Lake, Wadada Leo Smith, Alvin Lucier, Marc Neikrug, Matthew Welch, and many more.  As part of its mission to support future musical pioneers, FLUX actively commissions, and has been awarded grants from the American Composers Forum, USArtists International, Aaron Copland Fund, and the Meet-The-Composer Foundation.  FLUX also discovers emerging composers from its many residencies and workshops at colleges, including Wesleyan, Dartmouth, Williams, Princeton, Rice, and the College of William and Mary.

The spirit to expand stylistic boundaries is a trademark of the FLUX Quartet, and thus the quartet avidly pursues collaborations with genre-transcending artists working in mixed media.  These artistic synergies has led to an acclaimed recording with experimental balloonist Judy Dunaway, and two large-scale projects integrating Feldman’s String Quartet No.1:  Blue Ballet with choreographer Pam Tanowitz, and Upending with digital artist ensemble The OpenEnded Group (presented by EMPAC).  Most recently, FLUX appeared both on film and the soundtrack of River of Fundament, the latest work by visionary artist Matthew Barney and composer Jonathan Bepler.

 For more information, please visit www.fluxquartet.com