Business Courier: CCM graduate quartet Poiesis signals future of classical music
Meet Poiesis Quartet in our video spotlight and attend their free performance at CCM on April 24
CCM graduate student ensemble Poiesis Quartet "signals the future of classical music," praises arts reporter Janelle Gelfand in a recent feature for the Cincinnati Business Courier. The musicians, all set to graduate from CCM this spring, present a free concert at Cohen Family Studio Theatre at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, April 24.
Poiesis Quartet consists of artist diploma students Sarah Ying Ma (she/they) on violin, Max Ball (he/they) on violin, Jasper de Boor (they/them) on viola and Drew Dansby (he/him) on cello.
They are upending expectations of what a string quartet can do, forging new paths in a musical tradition that goes back centuries.
Janelle Gelfand Cincinnati Business Courier
Titled "Love Letter," the April 24 performance is the Cincinnati premiere of the Poiesis Quartet’s Oberlin Commission Project, an initiative to expand the string quartet canon with commissions from five students and alumni of Oberlin Conservatory: Zola Saadi-Klein, Daniel Lasagna, Maya Irizarry Lambright, Max Lang and Calvin Ray Shawler.
This concert marks Poiesis’ final performance as CCM Graduate Quartet-in-Residence and features a special collaboration with Jacob Kaplan, a CCM Lighting Design and Technology student. CCM's Cohen Family Studio Theater will be illuminated with an immersive lighting display accompanying all five works. The concert will also include brief remarks from three of the composers who will be in attendance.
Poiesis Quartet performing with the Ariel Quartet at CCM. Photo/Provided.
Poiesis Quartet studies chamber music at CCM with the Ariel Quartet, which serves as the college's faculty string quartet-in-residence, and with Nick Photinos, CCM Professor of Chamber Music and Eminent Scholar. The quartet was the only American ensmeble selected for the Banff International String Quartet Competition this fall. They won the top prize at the prestigious international comeptition — triumphing over some of the world's finest musicians.
The quartet’s accolades include the 2026 Cleveland Quartet Award, the 2025 Grand Prize of the Banff International String Quartet Competition, the 2023 Grand Prize of the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and winner of the 2024 Concert Artists Guild Competition. Dansby, the quartet’s cellist, also joined the cello section of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in the 2023-24 season. At 22, he was the youngest member of the orchestra.
CCM has a long history of support for ensembles in residence, starting with the acclaimed LaSalle Quartet in the 1960s, which also mentored young quartets. Grammy Award-winning contemporary music sextet Eighth Blackbird also held a CCM residency. Its founding cellist and co-artistic director Nick Photinos is now a Professor and Eminent Scholar in Chamber Music at CCM.
Help CCM Fuel the Future of the Arts
The graduate chamber music group in residence program is supported by the Friedlander Family Fund. This fund pays tribute to the 35-year tenure at CCM of the former string quartet-in-residence, the LaSalle Quartet, and honors the Friedlander family’s past support of aspiring string quartets to study at CCM with the LaSalle Quartet through the Friendlander Fellowship. Presently, this fund recognizes the internationally recognized string quartet-in-residence, the Ariel Quartet, and reflects CCM’s focus on chamber music study by CCM students through Nick Photinos, CCM’s Eminent Scholar in Chamber Music.
Featured image at the top: The Poiesis Quartet. Photo by Peter Ringenberg Photography.
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