About the Eclipse Quartet
The Eclipse Quartet is an ensemble dedicated to the music of twentieth century and present day composers. The scope of their repertoire spans works from John Cage and Morton Subotnick to collaborations with the singers Beck and Caetano Veloso. Eclipse has the versatility to cross genres from works that include electronics and computer processing to the jazz compositions of Grammy award winning pianist Billy Childs. The Quartet has performed frequently on both coasts and has participated in festivals such as the Look and Listen Festival in NYC, the Festival for New American Music in Sacramento, the Scarlatti Festival in Naples, Italy, the Martha’s Vineyard Chamber Music Festival, the Angel City Jazz Festival and the Hear and Now Festival in Los Angeles.
The repertoire of Eclipse contains works by such dynamic composers as Roger Reynolds, Julia Wolfe, Ben Johnston, Ruth Crawford Seeger, Annie Gosfield, John Zorn, Fred Frith, Philip Glass, John King and Lois V. Vierk. They have premiered new works by Sarah Gibson, Zeena Parkins, Carla Kihlstedt, Justin Haynes, Gernot Wolfgang, Alisson Krussmma and David Jaffe and Fred Frith.
Eclipse has recorded the string quartets of Zeena Parkins for the Tzadik label and Morton Feldman’s epic Piano And String Quartet piece with pianist Vicki Ray on Bridge Records. In 2013 Eclipse released a disc of three works for percussion and string quartet with percussionist William Winant on New World Records as recipients of the Aaron Copland Fund for Music Recording Grant. In 2014 the MicroFest label released Ruminations featuring Eclipse’s recording of Ben Johnston’s Revised Standards. In 2019 Cold Blue released Separations Songs a concert length piece by Matt Sargent for double quartet.
The Eclipse Quartet have been Artists in Residence at Mills College in Oakland California and at the historic artists’ retreat Villa Aurora in Los Angeles and University of California, Davis.
Mission Statement: Eclipse Quartet presents bold and dedicated performances of contemporary and nontraditional music for string quartet. Our repertoire reflects our interest in supporting composers from diverse backgrounds, women composers as well as composers from varied musical perspectives. Eclipse is committed to working with the next generation of performers and composers through educational outreach in a multitude of settings from academic settings to underserved communities.
Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Statement: Eclipse Quartet strives to be diverse and inclusive in the selection of composers we present. Our artistic goals as an ensemble are to collaborate and honor each individual’s compositional form and process. We endeavor to present works written by women, Indigenous peoples, persons of color and different nationalities, LGBTQ individuals and persons of non-binary orientation, thereby celebrating the richness of diverse expression and recognizing the systemic inequities of our field.
