icarus Quartet

Like the mythological figure from which it draws its name, the half piano/half percussion icarus Quartet dares to fly towards the sun, aspiring to new heights of artistry. Following their Carnegie Hall debut, composer Paul Lansky simply remarked, “This is music making of the highest order.”

Winner of the 2019 Chamber Music Yellow Springs Competition, icarus has given new life to old masterpieces as well as the future of their instrumentation. What started as a graduate school project that Martin Bresnick regarded as “one of the best student performances of any work I have ever heard” has now toured professionally throughout the United States.

Their 2020-21 season includes performances at concert series such as Princeton Sound Kitchen and Music at the Forefront, as well as world premieres by Liliya Ugay, Natalie Dietterich, Ruby Fulton, and the two winners of the inaugural iQ Tests program.

Larry Weng, Yevgeny Yontov, Matt Keown, and Jeff Stern are all celebrated soloists in their own rights, and together they have found a special chemistry and inimitable joy playing chamber music. They are dedicated to the discovery, creation, and performance of new music, but what distinguishes their approach to contemporary music is a strong training and background in the classical genre. icarus Quartet is committed to performing new works with a studied and convincing interpretation that mirrors the validity of works with performance practices developed over centuries.