Mivos Quartet, “one of America’s most daring and ferocious new-music ensembles,” have performed everywhere from museums to metal clubs. They will play acoustic and electro-acoustic compositions by artists from across the United States, Denmark, and Iran.
Pieces range from the propulsive String Quartet No. 3 by composer and Zs guitarist Patrick Higgins to the cold minimalism of Martin Stauning’s Atmende Steine. Mivos will also play Moonblood, by Mario Diaz de Leon, a metal guitarist and composer of “extreme instrumental music,” as well as Scott Wollschleger’s String Quartet No. 2, “White Wall”, which the composer describes as “music written at the end of the world.” Finally, Mivos will premiere a revised and expanded version of Distorted Attitudes IV, by California-based Iranian composer Anahita Abbassi.
The Mivos Quartet, “one of America’s most daring and ferocious new-music ensembles” (The Chicago Reader), is devoted to performing the works of contemporary composers, presenting new music to diverse audiences. The quartet has been lauded for their “performances of edge-of-your-seat intensity” and “thrillingly committed accounts” (The Strad Magazine) and has earned a reputation as a leading interpreter of contemporary music.
Mivos is invested in commissioning and premiering new music for string quartet, particularly in a context of close collaboration with composers over extended time-periods. The quartet has worked closely with composers such as Clemens Gadenstätter, Ted Hearne, Alex Mincek, Helmut Lachenmann, Sam Pluta, Steve Reich, Katharina Rosenberger, Kate Soper, Eric Wubbels and Samson Young. The quartet maintains a full schedule of touring throughout the USA and around the world, including performances at Aldeburgh Music (UK), Carnegie Hall (USA), HellHOT! New Music Festival (Hong Kong), Kennedy Center (USA), Shanghai New Music Week (China), Teatro La Fenice (Italy), and Wien Modern (Austria). Mivos has received commissions and awards from organizations including Aldeburgh Music (UK), Chamber Music America (USA), Darmstadt Summer Festival for New Music (Germany), Fromm Foundation (USA), Jerome Foundation (USA), Lucerne Festival (Switzerland), and the Ralph Kaminsky Fund for Music (USA).
In addition to their work as interpreters, Mivos is committed to collaborating with guest artists, exploring multimedia projects involving live video and electronics, creating original compositions and arrangements for the quartet, and performing improvised music. Mivos’s work as improvisers has led to collaborations with artists including Dan Blake, Ned Rothenberg, Timucin Sahin and Nate Wooley.
Mivos is also active in education, and has been engaged in residencies at Central Michigan University, University at Buffalo, Princeton, Northwestern University, Smith College, CUNY Graduate Center, Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music, SUNY Fredonia, Royal Northern College of Music (UK), Yong Siew Toh Conservatory (Singapore), the Hong Kong Art Center and MIAM University Istanbul (Turkey). The quartet also runs the annual Mivos/Kanter String Quartet Composition Prize, established to support the work of emerging and mid-career composers and to encourage continued interest in new compositions for string quartet. The winning composer, selected from over one hundred applicants, receives a performance of their work in New York City on the Mivos Quartet concert season and a cash prize. Mivos also co-founded the biennial I Creation Prize for composers of Chinese descent.
Mivos new album Garden of Diverging Paths is now out on New Focus Recordings, featuring literature-inspired works by emergent young American composers Kate Soper, Andrew Greenwald, and Taylor Brook. Reappearances, Mivos Quartet’s critically acclaimed debut album, “a sonic dynamo of unrelenting musical power” (Sequenza 21), is available on Carrier Records.
Cost: $10-20