JACK Quartet

Undeniably our generation’s “leading new-music foursome,” JACK Quartet’s “stylistic range, precision, and passion have made the group one of contemporary music’s indispensable ensembles” (The New York Times). Comprising violinists Christopher Otto and Austin Wulliman, violist John Pickford Richards, and cellist Jay Campbell, JACK Quartet enters their third decade as a pioneering string quartet synchronized in their mission to create an international community through transformative, mind-broadening experiences and close listening. Founded in 2005, JACK Quartet operates as a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the performance, commissioning, and appreciation of 20th- and 21st-century string quartet music.

JACK Quartet has been awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Fromm Music Foundation Prize, Musical America’s 2019 “Ensemble of the Year” Award, Lincoln Center’s Martin E. Segal Award, New Music USA’s Trailblazer Award, CMA/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, 2024 Chamber Music America’s Michael Jaffee Visionary Award, and the Italian Music Critics’ Prize as the Best Ensemble of 2024.

The 2025-2026 season highlights include JACK Quartet returning to the 92NY for a concert featuring new works by JACK Studio Resident Artists Kier GoGwilt, Ailie Ormston, and Jules Reidy and a world premiere by Tristan Perich for string quartet and electronics; a Composer Portrait at Miller Theatre at Columbia University celebrating the 90th birthday of their musical mentor Helmut Lachenmann; a Cal Performances ensemble debut with a world premiere by Gabriella Smith; a multi-concert residency at The Metropolitan Museum of Art; collaborative work with Ellen Fullman commissioned by Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; and an appearance at Big Ears Festival with soprano Barbara Hannigan.

International engagements include three concerts at Festival d’Automne (Paris), where JACK Quartet serves as the “Portrait Musicians” of the festival, performing European premieres by Natacha Diels and Ellen Fullman, as well as Georg Friedrich Haas’ In iij Noct, performed in absolute darkness; JACK Quartet’s annual three-concert, day-long marathon at Wigmore Hall (U.K.); and appearances at Pierre Boulez Saal (Germany), Instituzione Universitaria dei Concerti (Italy), Musica Festival Strasbourg (France), Open Music Graz (Austria), Only Connect Oslo (Norway), and Hochschule der Künste Bern (Switzerland), among others.

JACK Quartet embraces close collaboration with the composers whose work they perform. JACK Quartet has both self-commissioned and been commissioned to create new works with artists including Philip Glass, Georg Friedrich Haas, Liza Lim, Caroline Shaw, and John Zorn, with upcoming and recent premieres by John Luther Adams, Ellen Fullman, Catherine Lamb, George Lewis, Andrew Norman, Terry Riley, Gabriella Smith, and Tyshawn Sorey.

JACK Quartet has a prolific recording catalog and has been nominated for two Grammy Awards, the most recent being Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance for John Luther Adams’ Waves and Particles. Other albums include music by Zosha di Castri, Nick Dunston, Jason Eckardt, Helmut Lachenmann, Liza Lim, Christopher Otto, Austin Wulliman, Du Yun, Iannis Xenakis, the complete string quartets of John Zorn, and an upcoming release of the complete quartets of Elliott Carter.

JACK Studio was created by JACK Quartet in 2019 to support commissions, recordings, and workshops with emerging musical artists interested in exploring and expanding the repertory for string quartet. In 2024, JACK Studio expanded to support commissions for string quartet by prominent composers, two-year paid residencies for emerging composers, and annual reading sessions of existing string quartets by emerging composers.

More than 40 composers have worked with JACK Quartet through JACK Studio thus far, hailing from Argentina, Belarus, Canada, Germany, Malaysia, Mexico, Myanmar, South Africa, Syria, and the United States. Their projects have been performed by JACK Quartet at venues including TIME:SPANS, MoMA PS1, the Ojai Music Festival, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the Lucerne Festival, and Wigmore Hall, in addition to being recorded for professional releases.

JACK Quartet has performed to critical acclaim at venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, UChicago Presents, and the Library of Congress in the U.S., as well as the Berlin Philharmonie (Germany), BBC Proms (U.K.), Royal Library (Denmark), Philharmonie de Paris (France), Kölner Philharmonie (Germany), Sydney Opera House (Australia), La Biennale di Venezia (Italy), Suntory Hall (Japan), Bali Arts Festival (Indonesia), Festival Internacional Cervantino (Mexico), and Teatro Colón (Argentina).

JACK Quartet makes their home in New York City, where they are the Quartet-in-Residence at the Mannes School of Music at The New School and provide mentorship to Mannes’ Cuker and Stern Graduate String Quartet. They teach at summer music festivals including the Lucerne Festival Academy, Banff Centre for the Arts and Creativity, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, and New Music on the Point. JACK has a long-standing relationship with the University of Iowa String Quartet Residency Program, where they teach and collaborate with students in the fall and spring.