What is American: Found Futures blurs the boundaries between improvisation and composition, Afrofuturism and contemporary classical performance, perceived past and imagined future.

In its Chamber Music Pittsburgh debut, PUBLIQuartet presents What is American: Found Futures. With works by Henry Threadgill, George Lewis, Vijay Iyer, and members of PUBLIQuartet, interspersed with reinterpretations of music by Julia Perry, Duke Ellington, and Sun Ra, this concert envisions a future for American classical music rooted in a spirit of now-ness.

Applauded by The Washington Post as “a perfect encapsulation of today’s trends in chamber music,” multi-Grammy-nominated PUBLIQuartet is an improvising string quartet whose repertoire blends genres and highlights American multiculturalism. PUBLIQuartet rose on the music scene as winner of the 2013 Concert Artists Guild New Music/New Places award and in 2019 won Chamber Music America’s prestigious Visionary Award for outstanding and innovative approaches to contemporary classical, jazz, and world chamber music. PUBLIQuartet’s genre-bending programs range from newly commissioned pieces to re-imaginations of classical works featuring open-form improvisations that expand the techniques and aesthetic of the traditional string quartet. 

PUBLIQuartet features Curtis Stewart on violin, Jannina Norpoth on violin, Nick Revel on viola, and Hamilton Berry on cello.