Momenta’s latest featured composer is Matthew Greenbaum, one of the earliest supporters of the quartet. Momenta premieres his work “More Venerable Canons” on February 25th at Tenri Gallery in Manhattan. Stephanie Griffin (SG) sat down with Matthew (MG) recently for this interview. Enjoy! SG: I’m here with Matthew Greenbaum who is a very important composer to the Momenta Quartet. In fact, one could e

In January Momenta traveled to Washington D.C. and Columbia, Maryland to present a pair of concerts on the theme of “Radical Romantics.” Each concert showcased a quartet of Leoš Janáček surrounded by music of Brahms, Webern, Eric Nathan, Philip Glass, and microtonal Mexican maverick Julián Carrillo. The first concert at the National Gallery featured Janáček’s String Quartet No. 2 Intimate Letters pr

The Momenta Quartet rounded out its Fall 2014 season with a fulfilling and action-packed pair of college residencies! We made a return visit to Bates College in Maine and our very first to Binghamton University in upstate New York. Our immense gratitude goes to Bates music faculty members Gina Fatone (director of the Bates Gamelan ensemble) and Hiroya Miura (who conducted the gamelan), and Bates Olin Arts Center mana

ERIC NATHAN PORTRAIT CONCERT September 19, 8pm Tenri Cultural Institute (43A W. 13th St. NYC) $20 suggested donation A concert of the chamber works of 2014 Guggenheim Fellowship and 2013 Rome Prize recipient Eric Nathan, including two quartets written for and previously premiered by Momenta. Momenta will collaborate with oboist Peggy Pearson and violist Samuel Rhodes, formerly of the Juilliard Quartet, on two other p

We are excited to announce that our Hatchfund campaign was a success, and our debut album has been recorded! We spend four days last month at Systems Two in Brooklyn with producers Judith Sherman and Jason Kao Hwang and recording engineer John Gurrin, as well as guest violinist Cyrus Beroukhim.  Our CD will be released early in 2015 on Albany Records featuring music of Debussy, Arthur Kampela, and Philip Glass. We co

The Momenta Quartet is thrilled to announce the launch of a Hatchfund campaign to raise money for MOMENTA: the debut album! In keeping with our eclectic musical world view, the CD will include one venerable “standard” by Claude Debussy, alongside the world premiere recording of Brazilian avant-garde composer Arthur Kampela’s Uma faca só lâmina (A Knife All Blade, 1998) and the first ever all-string recording of Phili

Momenta is reporting to you from Vermont this week where we are taking part in an intensive Yellow Barn artist residency. We’re working on Debussy Quartet and Ives Second Quartet with esteemed Yellow Barn faculty Roger Tapping and Gil Kalish. The residency will culminate tomorrow night with a performance of both works at Putney’s Next Stage. We’ve been having a great time working on these pieces and

Momenta kicked off the month of March with our very first visit to the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY. Our five-day-long residency had been in careful advance planning for well over a season, and included elements central to our quartet mission: to champion the work of living composers by disseminating their works in performance and recordings; to present stimulating programs drawn from diverse musical infl

Featured Composer Elizabeth Brown: In Conversation with Stephanie Griffin In preparation for the premiere of Elizabeth Brown‘s string quartet “Just Visible in the Distance” (2013) on February 20th at Brooklyn’s Firehouse Space, Momenta’s violist Stephanie Griffin sat down with Elizabeth for an interview. Tickets for the event can be purchased here, and Elizabeth’s famous guacamole