Momenta Quartet at Vital Vox Fest At Roulette at Roulette

New York’s Momenta Quartet will perform string quartets composed by improvisational artists, including Yusef Lateef, Arthur Kampela, Gordon Beeferman, and a world premiere from Adam Rudolph. They will share the evening with Gene Coleman’s Ensemble N_JP, which is an ongoing cross-cultural project combining performers from Philadelphia and New York with members of the Tokyo experimental scene and traditional Japanese instruments.

The Momenta Quartet’s mission is to bring the best of contemporary music to audiences in New York City and around the world, with Emilie-Anne Gendron & Adda Kridler (violins), Stephanie Griffin (viola), Michael Haas (cello). This program features four new works by improvisers:...

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New York’s Momenta Quartet will perform string quartets composed by improvisational artists, including Yusef Lateef, Arthur Kampela, Gordon Beeferman, and a world premiere from Adam Rudolph. They will share the evening with Gene Coleman’s Ensemble N_JP, which is an ongoing cross-cultural project combining performers from Philadelphia and New York with members of the Tokyo experimental scene and traditional Japanese instruments.

The Momenta Quartet’s mission is to bring the best of contemporary music to audiences in New York City and around the world, with Emilie-Anne Gendron & Adda Kridler (violins), Stephanie Griffin (viola), Michael Haas (cello). This program features four new works by improvisers:
Gordon Beeferman: Quadrille (2012) with Stephanie Sleeper (choreography) & Gordon Beeferman (piano)
Arthur Kampela: “Uma Faca Só Lâmina” (“A Knife All Blade,” 1998)
Yusef Lateef: String Quartet no. 2 (2009)
Adam Rudolph: Morphic Resonances (2013): WORLD PREMIERE.


The Momenta Quartet’s vision of new music embraces composers from all cultures and from diverse musical backgrounds, including jazz and avant-garde improvisation. The quartet devotes the vast majority of its programming to living composers, many of whom are emerging or underrepresented in the New York new music scene. The ensemble gives multiple performances of their works on innovative concert programs that may include 20th/21st century masterworks and selected great music from the past. Praised by the New York Times for its “focused, fluid performance” and by Sequenza 21 for its “fire, fantasy and absolute musical commitment,” the Momenta Quartet has premiered over 50 works in the past eight years and has collaborated with over 80 living composers. Now in its ninth year in residence at Temple University, Momenta has also performed and lectured at Cornell, Columbia, Yeshiva and Hawaii Pacific 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 Foundation, Meet the Composer, the Aaron Copland Fund, the Brooklyn Arts Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts.

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