Friction Quartet exists to modernize the chamber music experience and expand the string quartet repertoire. Friction achieves this mission by commissioning new works, curating imaginative programs, collaborating with artists, and presenting interactive educational outreach. They gave their Carnegie Hall debut as part of the Kronos Quartet Workshop in 2016 and returned in 2018 to perform Black Angels at “The ’60s” festival. They were the first ensemble in residence at the Center for New Music in San Francisco. This past summer they served as Artist-in-Residence at The Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance and as Quartet Fellows in Residence at Interlochen Arts Camp. They also served for the second time as Quartet in Residence at the New Music for Strings Festival in Aarhus, Denmark.
Friction is participating in the San Francisco Symphony’s “Adventures in Music” program for the second consecutive year, providing interdisciplinary music education to young students. They are also Ensemble Partners with Young Composers & Improvisors Workshop, working with and performing works by young composers in Bay Area schools.
Since forming in 2011, Friction has given more than seventy world premiere performances and commissioned thirty-seven works for string quartet. Friction received a Chamber Music America grant to commission a piano quintet from Andy Akiho, which premiered in November 2016 with Jenny Q Chai. They have received additional grant support from San Francisco Friends of Chamber Music and the Zellerbach Family Foundation. While Friction has garnered international attention as commissioners and interpreters of new music, they are also devoted to performing masterworks of the string quartet repertoire. They were the second place winner of the 2016 Schoenfeld International String Competition and were quarter-finalists in the 2015 Fischoff Competition.
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