Hazardous Materials, a new string quartet with four of New York City's best-known creative artists, makes its Boston debut in a concert with Professor Evan Ziporyn on bass clarinet on Sunday, March 12 at 4pm in Killian Hall.
They will perform works by Professor Ziporyn and John King, curator at New York's Kitchen and a composer/guitarist who has been a mainstay of the New York avant-garde scene for many years.
Hazardous Materials draws on years of experience in jazz, blues, contemporary classical and nonwestern music to redefine the string quartet into a performance model undefinable by genre and style. Each member is also a talented improvisor and solo performer, thus inviting concert performance ideas which include offerings of improvisation and composition from within the group.
In its concert, the group will perform the Boston premiere of Professor Ziporyn's duos for violin and clarinet, performed by first violinist Todd Reynolds. Professor Ziporyn, director of MIT's Gamelan Galak Tika, creates works where the interlocking parts and syncopated rhythms of the gamelan meld with the lyricism and virtuosity of the ensemble.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on March 8, 2000.
