"Microtonal Theory and Performance" — Artist Talk presented by JACK Quartet

Name: "Microtonal Theory and Performance" — Artist Talk presented by JACK Quartet
Start: 2025-02-21T16:00:00-05:00
Location: Bellefield Hall, room 205

Schedule

Fri, 21 Feb, 2025 at 04:00 pm

UTC-05:00

Location

Bellefield Hall, room 205 | Pittsburgh, PA

BEYOND: MICROTONAL MUSIC FESTIVAL PRESENTS:
The legendary JACK string quartet visits Pitt's campus to give a presentation on Microtonal Theory and Performance.
This talk is free and open to the public.

About JACK quartet:
The JACK Quartet is a string quartet dedicated to championing music by 20th- and 21st-century composers.
They curate and perform programs that feature a variety of musical styles by both established and emerging artists, aspiring to create transformative experiences with every performance. Their music invites audiences to listen with their whole beings, fostering a deeper connection and broadening perspectives through close listening.
Since its founding in 2005, the quartet has introduced audiences worldwide to a wide range of experimental chamber music. Performing in venues that span classical music halls, art galleries, and bars, JACK Quartet commissions new music and collaborates closely with composers to bring their works to life. Through their JACK Studio program—which includes residencies, commissions, readings, and recordings—they are committed to dismantling outdated classical music pipelines for composers.
The JACK Quartet serves as the Quartet in Residence at The New School in New York City and frequently teaches at music festivals, conservatories, and universities.
https://www.jackquartet.com/

about BEYOND: MICROTONAL MUSIC FESTIVAL 2025
The Beyond: Microtonal Music Festival 2025 is a follow-up to Music on the Edge's very successful Beyond Festivals in 2020, 2018 and 2015 which according to the Post-Gazette "made a compelling case for the continued integration of microtonal music into Pittsburgh’s performing arts scene and provided a look at the vibrant community that already exists." Our last festival was in March of 2020, just days before the pandemic struck. We are very excited to present the Beyond festival again in 2025 together with our festival partners City of Asylum, Carnegie Mellon University and WQED.
Microtonal music is music that uses tuning systems other than, or in addition to, the standard twelve-note equal tempered system that is the norm in Western popular and classical music. This norm has been evolving with many composers in all idioms currently using a variety of tuning approaches influenced by world music, early music, and physics and acoustics, to name a few.
The fourth Beyond: Microtonal Music Festival will explore connections between early music tuning and contemporary works, microtonal sound installations and sound environments, transnational microtonal jazz, as well as a wide variety of other approaches to microtonal composition. There will be five world premieres, works by local composers Paul Gallagher, Ryan McMasters, Eric Moe, Amy Williams and Mathew Rosenblum, and videos by Pittsburgh artists who have created visual responses to the music. Featured artists include JACK Quartet, Ekmeles, Ellen Fullman, Dsilton, Theophilus Root, Eric Moe, Ryan McMasters and Scott Pauley. We look forward to seeing you at the concerts and talks.
full festival passes can be found at:
https://ci.ovationtix.com/36300/store/packages/143994