Mivos Quartet Performs
Morton Feldman’s String Quartet No. 2



Nov 19
14.00-20.00
KMH
Kungl. Musikhögskolan
Valhallavägen 105
Stockholm
T-Stadion

TICKETS

Mivos Quartet:

Olivia De Prato, violin
Maya Bennardo, violin
Victor Lowrie, viola 
Louise McMonagle, cello

The Sound of Stockholm festival, in collaboration with Samtida Musik and the Royal College of Music, is proud to present Mivos Quartet performing Morton Feldman monumental work String Quartet No. 2 (1983), which will be the Swedish premiere of the piece.

Morton Feldman (1926-1987) is one of the seminal figures in 20th century American contemporary music, who along with other composers of the experimental New York School experimented with ideas such as alternative systems of notation and indeterminate music. In his late career, Feldman would push the duration of his musical works to the extreme: the pinnacle of which being String Quartet No. 2, ranging in duration from four to over six hours. This work symbolizes a radical shift from a conventional approach to music form. Rather than considering it a composition, the late composer thought of the work as an “assemblage”, without “[...] continuity of fitting the parts together as words in a sentence or paragraph”. Melodic motifs can repeat as much as thirteen times, and the listener actively participates in the unfolding of the larger structure that is String Quartet No. 2.

Sound of Stockholm is happy to present this concert in collaboration with the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, who will host the concert in their grand hall Kungasalen. 



The Mivos Quartet, “one of America’s most daring and ferocious new-music ensembles” (The Chicago Reader), is devoted to performing works of contemporary composers and presenting diverse new music to international audiences. Since the quartet's beginning in 2008 they have performed and closely collaborated with an ever-expanding group of international composers representing a wide aesthetic range of contemporary composition. Some highlights during the 2023/24 season will include performances and residencies at Miller Theater with Yarn/Wire performing new works by Sarah Hennies, Sound of Stockholm performing Morton Feldman’s String Quartet No. 2, Wien Modern, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Boston University, Berklee College of Music, University of Washington, and touring Europe and the US with Cécile McLorin Salvant and Ambrose Akinmusire.

Mivos is invested in commissioning, premiering, and growing the repertoire of new music for string quartet, striving for rich collaborations with composers over extended periods of time. Recently, Mivos has collaborated on new works with Sarah Hennies, Ambrose Akinmusire (ECLAT Festival Commission), Jeffrey Mumford (LA Philharmonic/Library of Congress), Michaela Catranis (Fondation Royaumont), Chikako Morishita (rainy days festival), George Lewis (ECLAT Festival Commission), Sam Pluta (Lucerne Festival Commission), Eric Wubbels (CMA Commission), Kate Soper, Scott Wollschleger, Patrick Higgins (Zs), and poet/musician Saul Williams. For this work and the continuation of it, the quartet was the recipient of the 2019 Dwight and Ursula Mamlok Prize for Interpreters of Contemporary Music. 

Beyond expanding the string quartet repertoire, Mivos is committed to working with guest artists exploring multi-media projects and performing improvised music. Mivos has worked closely with artists such as Cécile McLorin Salvant (Ogresse), Ambrose Akinmusire (Origami Harvest), Ned Rothenberg, Timucin Sahin,  Nate Wooley, and most recently guitarist, composer, and 2019 MacArthur Fellow, Mary Halvorson.

Mivos has performed to critical acclaim on prestigious series such as Edinburgh International Festival (UK), Noon to Midnight (USA), Lucerne Festival (CH), Jazz at Lincoln Center (USA), the New York Phil Biennial (USA), Wien Modern (AT), the Darmstadt Internationalen Ferienkurse für Neue Musik (DE), rainy days festival (LU), Asphalt Festival (DE), HellHOT! New Music Festival (Hong Kong), Shanghai New Music Week (CN), Música de Agora na Bahia (Brazil), Aldeburgh Music (UK), and Lo Spririto della musica di Venezia (IT). 

In addition to their performance season, Mivos is committed to the education of young composers and string players, and is regularly the quartet in residence at the Creative Musicians Retreat at the Walden School (USA) and the Valencia International Performance Academy and Festival (ES). The quartet has conducted workshops at Columbia University, Harvard University, Boston University, UC Berkeley, US San Diego, Duke University, Royal Northern College of Music (UK), Shanghai Conservatory (China), University Malaya (Malaysia), Yong Siew Toh Conservatory (Singapore), the Hong Kong Art Center, and MIAM University in Istanbul (Turkey) among others. Along with their work at educational institutions, Mivos grants the Mivos/Kanter String Quartet Composition Prize, a yearly award to support the work of emerging and mid-career composers residing in the USA, and the I-Creation prize, a competition for composers of Chinese descent worldwide.


Mivos Quartet Website
Photo credit: Andrej Grilic

Sound of Stockholm is supported by Stockholm Stad
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