Poiesis Quartet

Sunday, January 31, 2027 | 3:00pm

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A man and a woman are sitting next to each other next to a cello.
A group of people standing next to each other holding violins.
A group of people together, holding instruments.

Seasons of Renewal

2025 Grand Prize Winner of the Banff International String Quartet Competition, the Poiesis Quartet brings a remarkable diversity of styles to the stage, showing equal mastery of the tango world of Piazzolla, the profundity of late Beethoven, and the transformative musical landscape of Canadian composer Kevin Lau. 


A champion of the music of our day, the Poiesis Quartet opens their program with “Many Many Cadences” by American composer Sky Macklay, who “stretches the listeners’ perception of cadences by recontextualizing [them] in very fast cells that are constantly changing key and register”. Stability as we know it is completely de-stabilized - but to contrast, the chill vibes of Piazzolla’s “The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires” invite the listener to sit back and enjoy the sounds and emotions of Buenos Aires, birthplace of both the tango and the composer himself. 


To follow is one of the Poiesis Quartet’s most meaningful commissions, Canadian composer Kevin Lau’s String Quartet No. 7 entitled “Surfacing”, featured in their grand-prize-winning performance in Banff. The piece was inspired by a familial trauma, when the composer’s newborn son was diagnosed with a rare liver disease; navigating the parallel processes of recovery and growth, it surfaces from the depths of strife and hardship with a renewed exuberance. This feeling of optimistic renewal also pervades Beethoven’s final string quartet. Unexpectedly light and uplifting in its overall tone, his pensive side is nonetheless also revealed. In the final movement, he writes cryptically the following motto: “Must it be? – It must be, it must be!”


Left to right: Max Ball, violin; Drew Dansby, cello; Sarah Ying Ma, violin; and Jasper de Boor, viola.

PROGRAM

Sky Macklay

Many Many Cadences



Astor Piazzolla (arr. Poiesis Quartet)

The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires

I. Verano Porteño (Buenos Aires Summer)

II. Invierno Porteño (Buenos Aires Winter)

III. Primavera Porteña (Buenos Aires Spring)

IV. Otoño Porteño (Buenos Aires Autumn)



– Intermission –



Kevin Lau

String Quartet No. 7, “Surfacing”


Ludwig van Beethoven

String Quartet No. 16 in F Major, Op. 135



Program subject to change


  • Poiesis Quartet Biography

    Celebrated for their "multifaceted artistry" and "brilliantly idiomatic" programming (New York Times), the Poiesis Quartet is the winner of the 2026 Cleveland Quartet Award and the First Prize and Commission Prize recipients of the 2025 Banff International String Quartet Competition. In 2023, they were also named the Grand Prize and Lift Every Voice Prize winners of the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, as well as Gold Medal and BIPOC Prize winners at the 2023 St. Paul String Quartet Competition. 


    Derived from ancient Greek (ποιεῖν), the word Poiesis means “to make”; specifically, to create something that has never existed before. With a focus on expanding the string quartet repertoire with vibrant new works by emerging composers, the Poiesis Quartet infuses each performance with unique moments of synchronicity and verve. Their 2024 debut album, ‘as we are’ on the Bright Shiny Things label, which features world premiere recordings with mezzo-soprano Nancy Maultsby, was lauded for the quartet’s “bottomless depth” (Cleveland Classical). Their commission of String Quartet No. 7 ‘Surfacing’ by Chinese-Canadian composer Kevin Lau received its world premiere at the Chautauqua Institution in 2025. Furthermore, the Oberlin Commission Project (TOCP), an exciting new endeavor spearheaded by Poiesis, presents the world premieres of five newly commissioned works by LGBTQ+ composers of color from Oberlin Conservatory in March 2026. 


    Poiesis is honored to be selected as the 2025-26 Ernst Stiefl Quartet-in-Residence at the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, and as the 2025 St. Lawrence Emerging String Quartet in Residence at Stanford University. Poiesis has also completed multiple international residencies in Punta del Diablo and Punta del Este, Uruguay; the Emilia Romagna Festival in Italy; the Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance in Nova Scotia, CAN; the University of Victoria in British Columbia, CAN; and the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence in France. 


    The Poiesis Quartet is currently the Graduate Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM), studying under the Ariel Quartet. As graduates of Oberlin College & Conservatory, they were previously mentored by Sibbi Bernhardsson of the Pacifica Quartet and members of the Verona Quartet. As a multifaceted ensemble, in addition to their performance degrees from Oberlin, members of the quartet also received formal education in disciplines such as chemistry, comparative American studies, feminist studies, baroque music, and jazz. When not playing chamber music, Poiesis loves learning new languages, sharing ice cream cakes, and taking long walks on the beach.

The fifteenth Banff International String Quartet Competition (BISQC) jury made what many would say was a bold decision to award first prize to an American quartet that eschews the trappings of a traditional string quartet and champions both new music and their own LGBTQ identities, unreservedly.


– La Scena Musicale