An emerging young “ensemble to watch” (Hyde Park Herald), the Poiesis Quartet already has a long list of prizes under their belt, including winning last year’s Concert Artists Guild Competition. The Quartet was lauded as “agile collaborators” with an “extraordinary, honeyed group sound” (Cleveland Classical); for their Austin Chamber Music Festival debut, they’ll be collaborating with violist John Largess and cellist Joshua Gindele from the award-winning Miró Quartet.
Subject to availability, $12 Student Rush (with student ID), $35 General Admission, $45 Preferred, and $85 Premium tickets may be purchased at the box office on the day of the concert. The box office will open one hour before the concert begins, and hall doors will open for seating 30 minutes before.
Program
Many Many Cadences | Sky Macklay (b. 1988)
String Quartet in D Major, Op. 71, No. 2 | Joseph Haydn (1732–1809)
- Adagio – Allegro
- Adagio
- Menuetto – Allegro
- Finale: Allegretto
String Quartet No. 7 (Austin Premiere) | Kevin Lau
INTERMISSION
String Sextet No. 2 in G, Op. 36 | Johannes Brahms (1833–1897)
- Allegro ma non troppo
- Scherzo
- Adagio
- Allegro
POIESIS QUARTET
Sarah Ma, Max Ball, violins | Jasper de Boor, viola | Drew Dansby, cello
John Largess, viola | Joshua Gindele, cello
Approximate run time: 76 minutes, plus one short intermission
Poiesis Quartet
An emerging young “ensemble to watch” (Hyde Park Herald), The Poiesis Quartet is the 2023 Grand Prize winner of the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and winner of the 2024 Concert Artists Guild Competition. Founded during Oberlin Conservatory’s Advanced Quartet Seminar program in Fall 2022, within their first year playing together they also received Fischoff’s Senior Strings Gold Medal and the Lift Every Voice prizes, and Gold Medal and BIPOC Prize at the 2023 St. Paul String Quartet Competition. In 2023, the Quartet completed an international tour in Uruguay as well as in the midwestern U.S. as part of their Fischoff Gold Medal prize. Recently, they were a featured ensemble at the 2024 Chamber Music America conference in New York City. The Quartet was also lauded as “agile collaborators” with an “extraordinary, honeyed group sound” (Cleveland Classical) for performances of a new song cycle by Rick Stout with mezzo-soprano Nancy Maultsby. The Poiesis Quartet is the current Graduate Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM). As graduates of Oberlin College & Conservatory, they were previously mentored by the Verona Quartet and Sibbi Bernhardsson of the Pacifica Quartet.
John Largess
Violist John Largess began his studies in Boston at age 12 in the public schools, studying with Michael Zaretsky of the Boston Symphony, and later as a student of Michael Tree at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. In 1995, he graduated from Yale University to join the Colorado String Quartet as interim violist with whom he toured the United States and Canada teaching and concertizing. The following year he was appointed principal violist of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra in South Carolina, a position he held until joining the Miró Quartet in 1997. Also an active speaker and writer about all things chamber‐musical, in 2004 Mr. Largess was invited to give a week‐long audience lecture series as a part of the Eighth International String Quartet Competition at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Alberta, Canada; he repeated this series in 2007 and again in 2010.
Joshua Gindele
Cellist Joshua Gindele, a founding member of the Miró Quartet, began his cello studies at the age of 3 playing a viola his teacher had fitted with an endpin. As cellist for the Miró, Josh has taken first prizes at several national and international competitions including the Banff International String Quartet Competition and the Naumburg Chamber Music Competition. In 2005, the Miró Quartet became the first ensemble ever to be awarded the coveted Avery Fisher Career Grant.
He has shared the stage with some of the classical worlds most renowned artists including Yo-Yo Ma, The New York Philharmonic, Pinchas Zuckerman, Joshua Bell, Midori, Andre Watts and Menahem Pressler. He continues to perform across four continents and on some of the world’s most prestigious concert stages.