The Puck Quartet: New Works by Stanford Undergraduate Composers

The Puck Quartet, drawing inspiration from their mischievous Shakespearean namesake, seeks to bring a capricious spirit and evocative language to music. Formed by chance in 2013 at Purchase College Conservatory of Music, they discovered a shared passion and sense of humor in their approach to chamber music and have been performing together ever since.

In 2018, the Puck Quartet gave the New York premiere of Stephen Prutsman’s score to The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari in a sold-out performance at the Baryshnikov Arts Center. The quartet gave the inaugural concert of the Garth Newel Emerging Artist series in western Virginia and returned for a second season to the Rhinebeck Chamber Music Society in Rhinebeck, New York. In previous years, the Puck Quartet was invited to perform in the St. Lawrence String Quartet Chamber Music Seminar’s International Showcase at Stanford's Bing Concert Hall and was one of four quartets hand-picked by Robert Mann to participate in the Robert Mann String Quartet Institute at the Manhattan School of Music. In 2014, supported by an award from the Marx Family Foundation, Puck gave the world premiere performance of “Ascension”, a new work by composer Jason Eckardt.  

The Puck Quartet is equally committed to bringing the highest quality performances to community audiences beyond the concert hall setting. Most recently, the quartet gave concerts as part of Our Joyful Noise Baltimore, a concert series dedicated to making music accessible to people in challenging circumstances. The group will be returning to Baltimore to perform for homeless veterans facing addiction, incarcerated women, and people facing autism and similar challenges. While participating in the 2017 Ensemble Connect Audience Engagement Institute at Carnegie Hall, Puck worked closely with members of the Decoda Ensemble to develop an interactive performance that they brought to various community centers in Queens.

This fall, the quartet brings their take on interactive performances to the St. Lawrence String Quartet’s Emerging String Quartet Program, an intensive community outreach residency aimed at exploring new ways of reaching non-traditional audiences.

Program: New works by Stanford undergraduate composers Noah Berrie, Andreas Garcia, and Blaine Rister