ConTempus Quartet
ConTempus Quartet is a part of the ConTempus Initiative. Through this smaller chamber instrumentation, we are committed to discovering and commissioning compelling repertoire, and presenting performances that connect with today's audiences of all ages.
NEW RELEASE
10th Anniversary Album
STRINGS INTERTWINED marks a meaningful milestone in our ensemble’s career and celebrates our 10th year as a quartet. Since we formed in November 2015, we’ve been guided by a shared commitment to rediscovering underrepresented music and collaborating with living composers whose voices resonate with us.
This multi-year project began with Florence Price’s String Quartet no. 2, one of the manuscripts rediscovered in 2009 and now increasingly recognized for its artistic and historical significance. We were drawn to the way this piece lets her voice and heritage come through, blending Romantic lyricism with elements rooted in spirituals, blues, and forward-thinking harmony.
We then turned to Fernande Decruck, whose career unfolded in the same era. Her Suite dans le style ancien, believed to be her only work for string quartet, was found in manuscript form with no evidence of having been published or premiered. Through Matthew Aubin, Director of the Jackson Symphony Orchestra, we obtained access to a scan of the original score. Shaped by elements of French Baroque dance forms but expressed through her own harmonic voice, the work felt like something we could help bring into today’s musical conversation.
To complete the arc, we commissioned composer Ivette Herryman Rodríguez to write her first string quartet, String Quartet no. 1. Inspired by the works of Price and Decruck and shaped through the lens of her own musical roots and perspective, this piece brings a contemporary voice into the conversation.
The title of our album, Strings Intertwined, speaks to a musical dialogue across generations, one reimagined, one revived, and one newly created, where voices shaped by different eras and musical languages meet through the string quartet. In playing them, we feel personally connected to the composers and their stories.
As an all-female string quartet performing in a medium historically shaped by male composers and performers, we feel personally committed to this project. Performing these works has been deeply meaningful, and we hope experiencing them brings listeners the same spirit of curiosity and connection.
— ConTempus Quartet
