ABOUT UNHEARD-OF
Ford Fourqurean (clarinet), Matheus Souza (violin), Iva Casian-Lakoš (cello), and Daniel Anastasio (piano) are Unheard-of, a Brooklyn-based clarinet, violin, cello, and piano quartet performing dedicated to connecting new music to communities in New York and across the United States through the development and performance of adventurous programs using technology and interactive multimedia. Unheard-of is committed to the idea that new music belongs in every community, and implements this mission through concerts and educational workshops throughout New York as well as on tour. Unheard-of originally started as a commissioning project by Ford and Daniel in 2014 to expand the chamber music repertoire for clarinet and piano. The group formed as a quartet in 2018 and has since grown into a nation-wide community across multiple artistic genres. With an approach that is open and welcoming of all voices, Unheard-of strives to be a vehicle for development and growth for voices novel and experienced, experimental and traditional, uncomfortable and accessible.
2023-24 HIGHLIGHTS
Unheard-of Ensemble tours regularly, commissions large-scale multimedia projects, and runs its own summer workshop for emerging composers, the Collaborative Composition Initiative (CCI). The 2023-24 season focuses on our newest performance series in collaboration with the Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club, the Cultural Ecologies Series, an immersive set of multimedia concerts utilizing Brooklyn’s own Gowanus Canal as our stage. The series includes one of their newest commissioning projects, the world premiere of Helix, from composer Ana Lopez (Nnux) and video artist Martha Maya, exploring the concept of femicide in Latin-American communities. Unheard-of’s Dialogues series also returns bringing together composers and audiences to explore the creative process behind music creation. upcoming Dialogues concerts feature premieres and brand new commissions by composers Asuka Kakitani, Nickitas Demos, Lila Meretzky, artist team NNUX and Martha Maya, Nirmali Fenn, and a workshop premiere by David Crowell. On tour, Unheard-of visits Georgia State University, Columbus State University, and University of Florida in the Fall of 2023, performs three multimedia premieres from Brian Harnetty, HyeKyung Lee/Christian Faur, and Robert McClure/Mare Hirsch from our Ohio Multimedia Call for Scores at Short North Stage, and at Ohio University. In Spring 2024, they visit Cal State Northridge and have a residency with the graduate composers at University of Pittsburgh.
SUPPORT
Unheard-of has received support from the Johnstone Fund for New Music, the Dwight and Ursula Mamlok Foundation, the Tennessee Arts Commission, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, the Barlow Endowment, the Alice M. Ditson Fund, the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, the New York Women Composers Organization, the Brooklyn Arts Council, and the Puffin Foundation. Unheard-of was a recipient of a Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Grant to commission Rome Prize-winner Christopher Stark, 2023 Artistic Projects Grant for their Cultural Ecologies series, and a 2020 Chamber Music America Ensemble Forward Grant made possible with support of the New York Community Trust.
ALBUM
Their debut album Unheard-of//Dialogues was released last season to critical acclaim, being called “a fantastic debut by a group that has been doing more than their part to inject vitality into the new music scene for the last few years” (Jeremy Shatan, An Earful). The album’s eclectic repertoire has garnered the attention of critics from ArtsATL (“Powerfully evocative”), Steve Smith of National Sawdust Log (“scintillating and evocative”), and Creative Loafing Atlanta (“mellifluous magic”).
EDUCATION
During the 2022-23 season, Unheard-of presented educational residencies, workshops, and performances at Kent State University, Kent State Stark Campus, Oberlin Conservatory, Washington University of St. Louis, Illinois State University, and Northwestern as well as performing at Constellation Chicago, Crosstown Arts’s series in Memphis, Ukrainian Contemporary Music Festival performance at Merkin Hall, and a collaboration with Minnesota-based Spitting Image Collective workshopping and premiering new multimedia works written by the collective. Unheard-of served as the 2021-22 KEAR ensemble-in-residence at Bowling Green State University. They presented tours of the Midwest, visiting the Johnstone Fund Series in Columbus, Ohio, Miami University, Ohio University, and West Virginia University. The group also toured the South with performances at University of Texas- San Antonio, Texas State University, Southeastern Louisiana University, University of Tennessee Chattanooga, Emory University, Chattanooga State Community College, and University of Georgia. In 2020-21, the ensemble presented virtual residencies at Florida State University, University of Florida, University of Central Florida, CCM, and the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga. To date, the ensemble has premiered over 100 works with commissions.
Unheard-of is in the 6th year of their annual composer workshop, the Collaborative Composition Initiative. Their 5th festival was held across San Antonio with seven performances at San Antonio institutions including San Antonio landmark Mission Concepción, iconic underpass Echo Bridge, San Antonio College, a special collaborative installation at Evergreen Garden Center, and San Antonio Botanical Garden. Their 4th festival took place across Brooklyn on canoes in the Gowanus, at Mise-en_Place, and at Scholes Street Studio. Previous festival years took place online and at Stony Brook University.