Sirius Quartet combines exhilarating repertoire with unequaled improvisational fire. These conservatory-trained performer-composers shine with precision, soul and raw energy, championing a forward-thinking, genre-defying approach.
Since their debut concert at the original Knitting Factory in New York City, Sirius has played some of the most important venues in the world, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, the Beijing Music Festival, the Cologne Music Triennale, the Beethoven-Haus Bonn, Stuttgart Jazz, Musique Actuelle in Canada, the Taichung Jazz Fest — Taiwan’s biggest jazz event — and many others.
Sirius continues their commitment to musical innovation with original works by its own members, pushing beyond the conventions of string instruments by incorporating gripping improvisations and an undeniable modern groove. In 2019, they premiered their new program and album New World, a politically-charged work that explores themes of immigration, discrimination, and social change. The album was released August 23, 2019 on ZOHO Records. The album and its program is both an impassioned lament for the state of a nation and beyond, and a beautiful and hopeful call to action.
In the fall of 2022, Sirius made their Carnegie Hall debut premiering new works from their Navona Records PLAYING ON THE EDGE series, of which Gramophone Magazine writes, “On the evidence of their playing on this fascinating disc from Navona, the Sirius Quartet are a fine, adaptable ensemble and contemporary music specialists.” They also performed several of their own original works on the program.
For the past 8 years, Sirius has curated and run the Progressive Chamber Music Festival in NYC and Munich, featuring like-minded musicians and ensembles who blur genre lines and challenge preconceived ideas of what chamber music can be, including David Krakauer and Kathleen Tagg, Theo Bleckman and Ben Monder, Craig Taborn, Mat Maneri, Billy Martin, Mark Feldman, and Erik Friedlander, among many others.
Albums
Retrograde
Catalog Number: NV6588
Playing on the Edge 3
Catalog Number: NV6520
Flights of Imagination
Catalog Number: NV6512
Quadrants Vol. 4
Catalog Number: NV6483
A Song For Silenced Voices
Catalog Number: NV6405
High Voltage Chamber Music
Catalog Number: NV6366
Playing on the Edge 2
Catalog Number: NV6315
And the Snow Did Lie
Catalog Number: NV6280
Playing on the Edge
Catalog Number: NV6249
Described as having “Versatility and flair with lively improvisations” by the New York Times and being “always compelling and always exhilarating” by Imperfect Fifths, NYC-based Sirius Quartet is only the most natural choice for showcasing the genius of five genre-bending contemporary composers. Navona Records’ PLAYING ON THE EDGE brings inspiration and experience from all walks of life into one string quartet collection with the music of composers Jennifer Castellano, Ian Erickson, Brian Field, Marga Richter, and Mari Tamaki.
String Quartet No. 1 The Music of Erich Zann
Catalog Number: NV6083
An Arc of Quartets
Catalog Number: NV6081