10th Chamber Music - POIESIS QUARTET - Bühnen Bern

Description

Poiesis Quartet 10th Chamber Music Concert 2025, the Poiesis Quartet received first prize and the prize for the best interpretation of the commissioned composition Rapprochement by Kati Agócs at the 15th International String Quartet Competition in Banff. "Poiesis" comes from Ancient Greek (ποιεῖν) and means "to create," especially something that has never existed before. The quartet aims to expand the repertoire for string quartets with works by emerging composers—particularly LGBTQ+ composers of Color. After premieres of works by Brian Raphael Nabors, Kitty Brazelton, and Cara Haxo, the commissioned work String Quartet No. 7 Surfacing by Chinese-Canadian composer Kevin Lau was premiered in 2025 at the Chautauqua Institution. The debut album as we are (Label Bright Shiny Things, 2024) was praised for the "immeasurable depth" of the quartet (Cleveland Classical). As part of the competition prize, the Poiesis Quartet will perform in Europe, including at the Venice Biennale, the Lucerne Festival, London's Wigmore Hall, Schloss Esterházy, and DeutschlandRadio in Cologne. From the immediate present to a masterpiece exactly two hundred years old—that is the formula of this fascinating program. It begins with a composition created in 2020. To Unpathed Waters, Undreamed Shores (after a quote from Shakespeare's Winter's Tale) is a multi-movement work for string quartet by American composer and violinist Michi Wiancko. The piece is a musical response to global challenges such as climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic. It deals with resilience, regeneration, and hope for humanity. The first four movements address environmental themes like the ocean, species extinction, and biological life in Central Park. "Crying, Together" forms the emotional core of the work; this movement represents collective mourning and connection. In "Follow the Water," water symbolizes regeneration and inexhaustible life. "Rise up," the final movement, is a call to humanity and an expression of hope. Program Michi Wiancko *1976 To Unpathed Waters, Undreamed Shores (2020/21) (22’) Jeff Scott *1967 Tapestry of the Beloved Beatified (20’) Commissioned work for the Poiseis Quartet (2026) Sky Macklay *1988 Many Many Cadences (9’) Ludwig van Beethoven 1770–1827 String Quartet No. 16 in F major, Op. 135 (1826) (25’)