Flux Quartet
Biographie Flux Quartet
FLUX Quartet
(Tom Chiu, Conrad Harris, Max Mandel and Felix Fan) was founded in the late 90’s and is strongly influenced by the irreverent spirit and “anything-goes” philosophy of the fluxus art movement. The quartet has since cultivated an uncompromising repertoire that follows neither fashions nor trends, but rather combines yesterday’s seminal iconoclasts with tomorrow’s new voices. Alongside late 20th-century masters like Cage, Feldman, Ligeti, Nancarrow, Scelsi and Xenakis, the FLUX Quartet has premiered more than 100 works by many of today’s foremost innovators, including Michael Byron, Julio Estrada, David First, Oliver Lake, Alvin Lucier, Marc Neikrug, Matthew Welch; the group has also performed with many influential artists, including Thomas Buckner, Ornette Coleman, Joan La Barbara, Wadada Leo Smith, Henry Threadgill and many more.
The quartet has performed at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Chihuahua International Arts Festival in Mexico and at the Samuel Beckett Centenary Festival in Ireland, as well as such art institutions as the Kitchen, EMPAC and the Walker Art Center. Their radio credits include NPR’s All Things Considered, WNYC’s Soundcheck and WFMU’s Stochastic Hit Parade.The group’s discography includes recordings on the Cantaloupe, Innova, Tzadik and Cold Blue Music labels, in addition to two critically acclaimed releases on Mode Records that encompass the full catalogue of string quartet works by Morton Feldman. The two volumes feature String Quartet No.1 and String Quartet No.2—seminal large-scale late works by the iconic composer.
As part of its mission to support future musical pioneers, FLUX actively pursues commissions with recent grants from the American Composers Forum, USArtists International, Aaron Copland Fund, and the Meet The-Composer Foundation. The group also explores new voices from its numerous college residencies throughout the US, including Wesleyan, Dartmouth, Williams, Princeton, Rice, and the College of William and Mary.
The spirit to expand stylistic boundaries is a trademark of the FLUX Quartet, and thus the quartet avidly pursues projects with genre-transcending artists working in mixed media. These artistic synergies have led to an acclaimed recording with experimental balloonist Judy Dunaway, collaborations with choreographers Pam Tanowitz and Shen Wei, and the 3-D video work Upending with digital art-ensemble, OpenEnded Group. Most recently, FLUX appeared both on film and the soundtrack of River of Fundament, the latest work by visionary artist Matthew Barney and composer Jonathan Bepler.
