the new school's mannes school of music announces jack quartet in residence

The Jack Quartet. Photo by Beowulf Sheehan.

NEW YORK, NY, February 25, 2019 – As The New School celebrates its Centennial in 2019, the university’s College of Performing Arts, including Mannes School of Music, School of Jazz and Contemporary Music, and School of Drama, is investing in the future of new and experimental music with the appointment of the JACK Quartet as the new Quartet in Residence at Mannes.

In 2020, the second year of its residency, JACK will lead a brand-new Graduate String Quartet program at Mannes. Applications for this program will available later this year.

The JACK Quartet appointment is a changing of the guard for Mannes, as it signals the conclusion of the Orion String Quartet’s 26-year residency at Mannes.

The Mannes School of Music has a long history of resident string quartets and piano trios including not only the Orion String Quartet, but the Galimir Quartet and The Mannes Trio, the latter of which was founded by former Mannes president Leopold Mannes. David Mannes himself was a leading violinist of his generation, who often performed chamber music with his friend, Pablo Casals. The JACK Quartet announcement comes on the heels of the of the creation of the Philip Glass Institute at The New School’s College of Performing Arts, featuring the Philip Glass Ensemble as resident ensemble, as well as the appointment of the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra as ensemble in residence at the School of Jazz and Contemporary Music.

Richard Kessler, Executive Dean of the College of Performing Arts and Dean of Mannes stated: “We are thrilled to have the JACK Quartet make Mannes and The New School their educational home. We admire JACK greatly and believe they are a perfect fit for the increasingly contemporary and experimental profile of Mannes. I have no doubt that their magical approach to repertoire, performance practice, teaching, and inventive projects and partnerships will inspire our students and larger community across The New School. At the same time, we are deeply grateful to the Orion String Quartet for their 26 years of exemplary performances and teaching.”

“JACK’s curiosity about new music has led us to work with deeply inspiring artists around the globe, and we are grateful to share our richly varied experiences with the Mannes community," said John Pickford Richards, JACK violist and Executive Director. "In addition to innovative teaching, we are thrilled to make The New School the home of our annual Frontiers Festival featuring music by artists who we think propel music forward. Mannes's vision of a broad musical community is one we are honored to join.” 

Hailed by the New York Times as the “nation’s most important quartet”, the JACK Quartet is one of the most acclaimed, renowned, and respected groups performing today. JACK has maintained an unwavering commitment to their mission of performing and commissioning new works, giving voice to underheard composers, and cultivating an ever-greater sense of openness toward contemporary classical music. Over the past season they have been selected as Musical America’s 2018 “Ensemble of the Year” and named to WQXR’s “19 for 19 Artists to Watch.”

Through intimate relationships with today’s most creative voices, JACK embraces close collaboration with the composers they perform, leading to a radical embodiment of the technical, musical, and emotional aspects of their work. The quartet has worked with artists such as Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Julia Wolfe, George Lewis, Chaya Czernowin, and Simon Steen-Andersen, with upcoming and recent premieres including works by Tyshawn Sorey, Georg Friedrich Haas, Clara Iannotta, John Luther Adams, Catherine Lamb, and John Zorn.

JACK has been covered by all major news outlets, with the Boston Globe calling them "superheroes of the new music world", the Washington Post heralding them as "the go-to quartet for contemporary music, tying impeccable musicianship to intellectual ferocity and a take-no-prisoners sense of commitment", and NPR stating “no one today has the command of [contemporary] music like the young JACK quartet.”

JACK has performed to critical acclaim at Carnegie Hall (USA), Lincoln Center (USA), Berlin Philharmonie (Germany), Wigmore Hall (United Kingdom), Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ (Netherlands), IRCAM (France), Kölner Philharmonie (Germany), the Lucerne Festival (Switzerland), La Biennale di Venezia (Italy), Suntory Hall (Japan), Bali Arts Festival (Indonesia), Festival Internacional Cervatino (Mexico), and Teatro Colón (Argentina). Additional awards include Lincoln Center's Martin E. Segal Award, New Music USA's Trailblazer Award, and the CMA/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming.

According to Musical America, “many of their recordings are must-haves, for anyone interested in new music.” Among their dozens of releases, the most recent Cold Blue Music album of John Luther Adams’ Everything That Rises was praised as a “a wise and eloquent performance” by the San Francisco Chronicle, their concept album Imaginist with the Le Boeuf Brothers was nominated for a GRAMMY award in 2018, and their complete Xenakis: String Quartets was named one of TimeOut New York’s “Top Recordings of the Year.” Other albums include music by Alex Mincek, Elliott Sharp, Laura Elise Schwendinger, Amy Williams, Lei Liang, Helmut Lachenmann and more.

Committed to education, the quartet teaches each summer at New Music on the Point, a contemporary chamber music festival in Vermont for young performers and composers, and at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, where they work with a dozen emerging string quartets. JACK has long-standing relationships with the University of Iowa String Quartet Residency Program, where they teach and collaborate with students each fall and spring, as well as with the Lucerne Festival Academy, of which the four members are all alumni. Additionally, the quartet makes regular visits to schools including Columbia University, Harvard University, New York University, Princeton University, and Stanford University.

Comprising violinists Christopher Otto and Austin Wulliman, violist John Pickford Richards, and cellist Jay Campbell, JACK operates as a nonprofit organization dedicated to the performance, commissioning, and appreciation of new string quartet music.

Now in its second century as a dynamic musical center, Mannes School of Music is a standard bearer for innovative artistry, dedicated to developing citizen artists who engage their communities and the world through music. Through its undergraduate, graduate, professional studies, and preparatory programs, Mannes offers a curriculum as imaginative as it is rigorous, taught by a world-class faculty and visiting artists. As part of The New School’s College of Performing Arts, together with the School of Jazz and Contemporary Music and the School of Drama, Mannes makes its home on The New School’s Greenwich Village campus in a state-of-the-art facility at the newly renovated Arnhold Hall.

The College of Performing Arts at The New School was formed in the fall of 2015, bringing together Mannes School of Music, the iconic 100-year-old conservatory; the legendary New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, and the innovative and ground-breaking School of Drama. With each school contributing its unique culture of excellence, the College of Performing Arts creates opportunities for cross-disciplinary collaboration, innovative education, and world-class performances. As part of the formation of The College, Mannes has moved into the newly renovated Arnhold Hall in Greenwich Village, a state-of-the-art facility designed especially for the performing arts. Also housed in Arnhold Hall are The School of Jazz and the School of Drama’s BFA program. As a part of The New School, students and faculty across the College of Performing Arts experience a supportive and rigorous environment with enhanced opportunities to collaborate with colleagues in a wide array of disciplines, from the visual arts and fashion design, to the social sciences, to public policy and advocacy, and more. CoPA has over 900 degree and diploma seeking students, including a variety of programs at the undergraduate and graduate level, as well as Mannes Prep, a pre-college program with 400 students.

Founded in 1919, The New School was established to advance academic freedom, tolerance, and experimentation. A century later, The New School remains at the forefront of innovation in higher education, inspiring more than 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students to challenge the status quo in art and design, the social sciences, the liberal arts, management, the performing arts, and media. The university welcomes thousands of adult learners annually for continuing education and executive courses and public programs. The New School maintains a global presence through our online learning portals, research institutes, and international partnerships. Learn more at www.newschool.edu.

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