SPEKTRAL QUARTET actively pursues a vivid conversation between exhilarating works of the traditional canon and those written this decade, this year, or this week. With the New York Times writing that “they have everything: a supreme technical command that seems to come easily, a capacity to make complicated music clear, and, most notably…an ability to cast a magic spell”, Spektral is known for creating seamless connections across centuries, drawing in the listener with charismatic deliveries, interactive concert formats, an up-close atmosphere, and bold, inquisitive programming.
2016 saw the release of Serious Business (Sono Luminus), the foursome’s most ambitious recording project to date, which was nominated for a 2017 GRAMMY award.
In 2017, Spektral became one of the few quartets in the world to perform Morton Feldman’s six-hour masterpiece, the String Quartet No. 2, at both the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and the Toledo Museum of Art. Of this notable achievement, the Chicago Tribune writes, “…the account was more consistently sensitive to dynamics, color and nuance than on the two existing recordings — an achievement.”
In the 2017/18 season, Spektral performed the full string quartet cycle of Arnold Schoenberg to capacity crowds nationally and around Chicago, prompting The Strad Magazine to write, “It is a testament to the passion that the foursome brought to one of the composer’s most knotty works that the audience was clearly engrossed.”
Notable current and upcoming commissions include works by Tonia Ko, Christopher Trapani, Eliza Brown, and Anna Thorvaldsdottir.