Mainly Mozart Festival 2026: POIESIS QUARTET

Poiesis Quartet — the fast-rising ensemble praised for its “multifaceted artistry” and recently recognized with Chamber Music America’s 2026 Cleveland Quartet Award, after winning the 2025 Banff International String Quartet Competition — brings a program of bold imagination and deeply personal expression to this Mainly Mozart appearance. In the first half, Daniel Lasaga’s Circus of the Mind, Maya Irizarry Lambright’s forest of taldeni, Max Lang’s commonplace little perils, and Calvin Ray Shawler’s Order unfold as a sequence of vivid contemporary musical “letters,” each with its own atmosphere, tension, and emotional world. It is repertory that reflects the quartet’s distinctive voice as creators, collaborators, and champions of new music.

After intermission, Poiesis is joined by pianist Marina Radiushina, the Miami Chamber Music Society’s Artistic Director and a pianist described as a “virtuoso whose playing is distinguished by rare depth of interpretation and understanding of style.” Together they turn to Brahms’s Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 34, one of chamber music’s most powerful masterpieces — sweeping, turbulent, and richly lyrical. The result is an evening that moves from intimate contemporary voices to a grand, passionate statement of Romantic expression.

PROGRAM

Daniel Lasaga: Circus of the Mind

Maya Irizarry Lambright: Forest of Taldeni

Max Lang: Commonplace Little Perils

Calvin Ray Shawler: Order

Brahms: Piano Quintet