Poiesis Quartet to compete at Banff International String Quartet Competition

UC College-Conservatory of Music graduate student ensemble the Poiesis Quartet is the only quartet in the USA to compete in the 2025 Banff International String Quartet Competition (BISQC).

Only 10 competing quartets will travel to the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity from August 25-31, 2025, for the 15th edition of the competition. Held every three years on Banff Centre’s campus in Alberta, Canada, BISQC’s grand prize awards the top quartet with residencies, performance opportunities and a financial award, together worth over $500,000.

The Poiesis Quartet studies chamber music at CCM with the Ariel Quartet, which serves as the college's faculty string quartet-in-residence. The Poiesis Quartet is comprised of four artist diploma (AD) students at CCM: Sarah Ying Ma, violin; Max Ball, violin; Jasper de Boor, viola; and Drew Dansby, cello. 

Each competing quartet will perform a selection of repertoire for each of the five rounds of the competition. Three quartets will be chosen for the fifth and final round. The Canadian Commission Round will feature a world premiere by composer Kati Agócs titled Rapprochement.

New to the 2025 event, the final round will require finalists to curate their own unique program of repertoire — and Poiesis' selection features CCM Composition alumnus Brian Raphael Nabors' String Quartet. Poiesis' selected competition repertoire includes:

21st Century Haydn Round

• Sky Macklay: Many Many Cadences (2015)
• Franz Joseph Haydn: String Quartet Op. 71, No. 2 in D Major

Romantic Round

• Johannes Brahms: String Quartet No. 3 in B flat Major, Op. 67

Canadian Commission Round

• Kati Agócs: Rapprochement

Beethoven/Schubert + 20th Century

• Ludwig van Beethoven: String Quartet Op. 59, No. 3 in C Major - Andante con moto - Allegro vivace
• Béla Bartók: String Quartet No. 5, Sz. 102

Finals

• Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate: Pisachi (Reveal) for String Quartet
• Brian Raphael Nabors: String Quartet
• Joe Hisaishi: String Quartet No. 1 – Phosphorescent Sea
• Kevin Lau: String Quartet No. 7

The laureate quartets will be offered residency opportunities at Banff Centre and, for the first prize laureates, a custom-designed three-year artistic and career development program — which includes touring, a recording residency, the Southern Methodist University Peak Fellowship Ensemble-in-Residence Prize of a paid residency worth $110,000 CAD, an Esterházy Foundation Residency with concerts at Haydn Hall in Eisenstadt and the Lucerne Festival, and an opportunity for a two-week Chamber Music in Residency at the prestigious Britten Pears Arts in England. All quartets not advancing to the finals will receive a Christine and David Anderson Prize of $5,000 CAD.

During the fall semester at CCM, Poiesis released its debut album as we are on Oct. 18, 2024. The album features Poiesis and mezzo-soprano Nancy Maultsby in world premiere recordings of pieces by Clint Needham and Richard Stout. Learn more about the album. 

Lauded as an "ensemble to watch" (Hyde Park Herald), the Poiesis Quartet is the Grand Prize winner of the 50th Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. Having formed just eight months earlier during Oberlin Conservatory's Advanced String Quartet Seminar, Poiesis also received Fischoff’s Senior Strings Gold Medal and the Lift Every Voice prizes, as well as the Gold Medal and BIPOC Prize at the 2023 St. Paul String Quartet Competition. In May 2024, Poiesis joined the Concert Artists Guild roster for North American management as the winners of the Louis & Susan Meisel Competition. Currently, Poiesis is the Graduate Quartet-in-Residence at CCM, studying under the Ariel Quartet. As graduates of Oberlin College & Conservatory, they have previously been mentored by Sibbi Bernhardsson of the Pacifica Quartet and members of the Verona Quartet.

Since their win at Fischoff, Poiesis has appeared on major concert series in cities including New York, Chicago, Cleveland, San Antonio, Des Moines, Charlotte, and Asheville, and in 2024, they recorded Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson's "Calvary" Quartet at Guarneri Hall in Chicago. Poiesis has also performed internationally in Punta del Diablo and Punta del Este, Uruguay in 2023, and Italy in summer 2024 for a residency at the Emilia Romagna Festival. In 2025, their travels take them to residencies in Nova Scotia, CA at the Lunenberg Academy of Music Performance and France for the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence.  

As an ensemble passionate about new music, the October 2024 release of their debut album as we are on the Bright Shiny Things label features world premiere recordings of works by Clint Needham and Richard Stout in collaboration with mezzo-soprano Nancy Maultsby.  For the 2024-25 season, Poiesis serves as the ensemble-in-residence of concertnova, a Cincinnati-based collective which presents multi-sensorial and interdisciplinary concert experiences. Poiesis is passionate about expanding the string quartet repertoire and has presented world premieres of works by Brian Raphael Nabors, Kitty Brazelton, Cara Haxo, and several others.

Comprised of violinists Sarah Ma (22) and Max Ball (22), cellist Drew Dansby (24) and violist Jasper de Boor (24), members of the Poiesis Quartet have attended programs such as Kneisel Hall, the Perlman Music Program, Verbier Festival Orchestra, Aspen Music Festival and Madeline Island Chamber Music’s Fellowship program. In addition to their performance degrees from Oberlin, Drew also received a BA in Chemistry; Sarah holds two minors in Comparative American Studies and Gender, Sexuality, & Feminist Studies; Jasper graduated with a double major in viola and violin performance, as well as a minor in baroque violin; and Max pursued a minor in jazz studies. When not playing chamber music, Poiesis loves to learn new languages on Duolingo, share delicious ice cream cakes and take long walks on the beach.

The name Poiesis is derived from the ancient Greek word ποιεῖν, which means "to make," specifically, to create something that has not existed before. Poiesis seeks to program music of all styles and genres with an emphasis on platforming works by emerging and underrepresented composers, creating unique moments of synchronicity and verve in each performance.

Featured image at the top: The four members of Poiesis Quartet. Photo/provided