The JACK Quartet performs Georg Friedrich Haas’s In iij. Noct.

(December 20, 2010) — New Music New College (NMNC) brings the critically acclaimed JACK Quartet to Sarasota, Fla., to perform Georg Friedrich Haas’ “String Quartet No. 3 (In iij. Noct.)” Jan. 14-16, 2011, at New College of Florida’s Black Box Theater. The NMNC schedule includes three performances and a free demonstration and discussion about this unique, ever-changing work performed in the dark. While at New College, the JACK Quartet will also work with students and NMNC Director Stephen Miles on a new experimental composition.

“The JACK Quartet, one of the finest ensembles on the contemporary music scene, has won rave reviews for their performances of this innovative and powerful work by Georg Friedrich Haas,” said Miles. “The musicians are especially eager to perform the work for NMNC because they have consistently found our audience to be receptive and even adventurous. We’re all in for a memorable experience.”

The JACK Quartet’s performance of Haas’ work offers the NMNC audience an experience of sensual immersion. Sitting in the center of a completely dark space, the audience is surrounded by the intrepid musicians who lead the audience on an unpredictable journey where all must rely solely on their sense of hearing. The Los Angeles Times called the JACK Quartet’s performance of this work “a revelatory romp in the dark.” The New York Times dubbed them “viscerally exciting” and “a tour de force of intensity and color.”

“Every performance seems to invite new ideas and possibilities,” said quartet member Ari Streisfeld in an interview with The New Yorker. “In the performance you heard of ours back in September there were some moments that I couldn’t believe what we had accomplished. Moments where we were passing material around the ensemble in such a fluid fashion you would think we had planned it out, but it was totally improvised in the moment.”

“The performers, who are positioned in the corners of the room, seem to map the space with tones, like bats using echolocation to navigate a lightless cave,” wrote Alex Ross, New Yorker music critic. “Often, the music borders on noise: the strings emit creaks and groans, clickety swarms of pizzicato, shrill high notes, moaning glissandos. At other times, it attains an otherworldly beauty, as the players spin out glowing overtone harmonies.”

Performances run Friday, January 14 and Saturday, January 15 at 8:00 pm and Sunday, January 16 at 4:00 pm. Tickets are $15 for the general public, $5 for non-New College students and free for the New College community. For tickets and information call 941-487-4888 or visit newmusicnewcollege.org/reservations. The demo/discussion on January 14 at 3:30 pm is free and open to the public.

New College’s Black Box Theater is located in the Hamilton Center on the College’s Pei (East) Campus at 5850 General Dougher Place. From U.S. 41, turn east at the stoplight onto Gen. Spaatz Boulevard, just north of University Parkway. Turn right onto Gen. Dougher Place.

The JACK Quartet focuses on the commissioning and performance of new works and educating the community to broaden and diversity the potential audience for new music. JACK is an acronym for the first letters of the musicians’ first names: violinists John Richards, Ari Streisfeld and Christopher Otto and cellist Kevin McFarland, who first played together while students at the Eastman School of Music.