icarus Quartet, piano/percussion
Saturday, April 29, 2023 at 4:00 pm
Ticket: $60
icarus Quartet musicians Larry Weng, Christopher Goodpasture, Matt Keown, and Jeff Stern, bring a whole new meaning to barnstorming at Silo Hill! The piano/percussion ensemble presents an eclectic program featuring piano, synthesizers, fixed electronics, and an arsenal of melodic, unpitched, and ethnic percussion instruments. Like their mythological namesake, icarus Quartet dares to fly towards the sun, aspiring to new artistic heights in a program featuring music by Quinones, Ugay, and Downing.
This is music making of the highest order.
Paul Lansky
great energy, sensitivity, and precision. . .
Martin Bresnick
icarus Quartet
icarus Quartet musicians Larry Weng, Christopher Goodpasture, Matt Keown, and Jeff Stern, all celebrated soloists in their own rights, together have found a special chemistry and inimitable joy playing chamber music. The ensemble is dedicated to the discovery, creation, and performance of new music, but what distinguishes their approach to contemporary music is a strong training and background in the classical genre. icarus Quartet is committed to performing new works with a studied and convincing interpretation that mirrors the validity of works with performance practices developed over centuries.
Winner of the 2019 Chamber Music Yellow Springs Competition and laureate of the 2017-18 American Prize, icarus has given new life to old masterpieces, as well as the future of their instrumentation. What started as a graduate school project Yale composition chair Martin Bresnick regarded as “one of the best student performances of any work I have ever heard,” has developed into the one of the most exciting, unique, and engaging touring quartets. icarus was the first ensemble to hold the Klinger ElectroAcoustic Residency at Bowling Green State University. Past engagements include appearances at the Horowitz Piano Series, Queens New Music Festival, Adalman Chamber Series, and a Lansky tribute concert at Princeton University held in honor of the emeritus professor’s 75th birthday.
Most recently, they have presented concerts at Kennedy Center, University of Northern Iowa, Music in the Valley, Delaware County Community College’s New Music Concert Series, University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music, Florida State University, and Community Concerts at Second. They made they international debut at Vienna Summer Music Festival.
Fostering the development of new works through commissioning and collaborating with composers is at the core of the iQ mission; last season, icarus won kudos for their performances of world premieres by David Crowell, Scott Lee, and Douglas Knehans.
Passionate about educating and engaging with the next generation of musicians, iQ often works in school and university settings. They have given classes and coachings on chamber music, as well as composition seminars on writing for their instruments at Peabody Conservatory, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Bridgeport University, University of Florida, Yale College, Wright State University, and University of Idaho’s Lionel Hampton School of Music, in addition to presentations for grade school and Pre-K students.
