The Momenta Quartet opens its seventh season with music by composers who blur the boundaries between uptown and downtown aesthetics. Celebrated for its eclectic programming, this “striking new-music quartet” (Time Out, 2008) presents Huang Ruo’s Chinese-inflected “The Flag Project” (2009); avant-jazz composer/performer Gordon Beeferman’s intensely rhythmic and microtonal “String Quartet 2006”; Chinese-Canadian composer Melissa Hui’s evocative and semi-improvisational “Map of Reality” (2009); and Philip Glass’ lyrical and dramatic “String Quartet no. 5” (1991).
Described by Time Out New York as a “striking new-music quartet,” the Momenta Quartet (Emilie-Anne Gendron and Asmira Woodward-Page, violins; Stephanie Griffin, viola; and Michael Haas, cello) has premiered over 40 works since 2004, alongside classical, Renaissance and contemporary masterworks. In residence at Temple University for six years, Momenta has also performed and lectured at Cornell, Columbia and Yeshiva Universities; Bryn Mawr, Swarthmore and Haverford Colleges; The Mannes School of Music and the Boston Conservatory; among others. The quartet has performed in England, Singapore and Indonesia and has received grants from the Koussevitzky Music Fund, the Brooklyn Arts Council, Meet the Composer and the Aaron Copland Fund.