Poiesis Quartet

Founded in 2022, Grand Prize and Lift Every Voice Prize winners of the 2023 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, a 2024 debut album—as we are (Bright Shiny Things label), First Prize and Commission Prize winners of the 2025 Banff International String Quartet Competition, 2026 Cleveland Quartet Award: the rise of the Poiesis Quartet has been swift and extraordinary. Violinists Sarah Ying Ma (she/they) and Max Bell (he/they), violist Jasper de Boor (any pronouns), and cellist Drew Dansby (he/him) took their name from an ancient Greek word meaning “to make,” to create something that has never existed before. True to their name, they
have chosen to focus on expanding the string quartet repertoire with vibrant new works by emerging and underrepresented composers. In a program of quartets by Prokofiev, Jeff Scott, Sky Macklay, and Beethoven, the Poiesis displays its “palpable chemistry,” “remarkable warmth,” and “honeyed group sound.”