breaking the Mold. aspiring to new Heights.
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Like the mythological figure from which it draws its name, the half piano/half percussion icarus Quartet dares to fly towards the sun, aspiring to new heights of artistry. Following their Carnegie Hall debut, composer Paul Lansky simply remarked, “This is music making of the highest order.” The Wall Street Journal praised icarus Quartet’s 2022 album, BIG THINGS, for the group’s “virtuosity, precision and unflagging energy,” applauding the release as “a beautifully immersive recording… an impressive calling card.”

Winner of the 2019 Chamber Music Yellow Springs Competition, icarus Quartet has given new life to old masterpieces as well as the future of their instrumentation. The Quartet was chosen as Chamber Music Northwest’s 2020 Protégé Project Ensemble and was subsequently the first ensemble to hold the Klinger ElectroAcoustic Residency at Bowling Green State University. Past engagements include appearances at the Kennedy Center’s REACH, the Vienna Summer Music Festival, the Horowitz Piano Series, the Queens New Music Festival, the São Paulo Contemporary Composers Festival, the Adalman Chamber Series, and at Princeton University for a Lansky tribute concert held in honor of the emeritus professor’s 75th birthday.

icarus’ indie classical aesthetic blends the best of adventurous contemporary programming with an arena rock atmosphere. Their instrumental installations are flanked by jumbotron-esque projections of the pianists’ fingers flying up and down their keyboards, giving audiences truly immersive experiences where the visceral, communal energy of live performance doesn’t sacrifice the detail offered by video captures with an ideal view. And while the majority of iQ’s sounds are produced acoustically, albeit through occasionally unconventional means, their setups have increasingly featured synthesizers, drum trigger pads, and augmentative electronic audio samples. This inclusion of synthesized timbres have enabled unique infusions of disparate musical genres, including looped and reprocessed audio layerings typifying DJ mixes as well as dance styles like merengue and EDM. Their mainstream leanings are further injected into recital programs with the constant breaking of the fourth wall, as the musicians speak candidly from the stage to provide inside perspectives on the repertoire along with their personal relationships with the composers represented throughout their set list.

Fostering the development of new works through commissioning and collaborating lies at the core of the group’s mission, inspiring partnerships with titans of the classical contemporary field, established artists of electronic and indie music scenes, as well as the two gifted student composer Scholars chosen each year for their iQ Tests program. In Fall 2024, icarus made their Secrest Artist Series debut with “Bartók Rebórn,” a program showcasing the Hungarian’s 1937 masterpiece, Sonata for two pianos and percussion, an arrangement of Witold Lutosławski’s Variations on a Theme by Paganini, and three commissioned Bartók companion works written expressly for the Quartet by Charles Ives Living Award recipient Martin Bresnick, Pacific Symphony composer-in-residence Viet Cuong, and Pulitzer Prize winner Jennifer Higdon. The Cultural Voice of North Carolina lauded icarus’ concert as a “performance about as perfect as one could ask for: superior musicality with nuance, and a commitment to music-making as expressive as possible.”

The ensemble’s work often extends beyond the realm of music. In Spring 2025, icarus collaborated with the Peabody Institute’s NEXT Ensemble, conductor Juliano Aniceto,  and the American Prison Writing Archive to present “Songs from the Inside,” a pairing of Luigi Dallapiccola’s Canti di prigionia (Songs of Imprisonment) with a commissioned companion work by Elijah Daniel Smith featuring poetry by incarcerated author Brian Fuller. And Wilderness Suite, an in-progress intermedia project combining icarus Quartet with the forces of composer Ruby Fulton, geographer Teresa Cavazos Cohn, and eight independent video artists, examines the unique “anti-development” of the 2.4 million-acre Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness site through still imagery, data, film, recorded interviews, natural sound samples, and live music. With generous support from the NEA, the University of Idaho’s Confluence Lab, the University of New Hampshire’s Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, and the Tri-M Foundation, the Suite will receive its full premiere in February 2026.

Passionate about educating and engaging with the next generation of musicians, icarus Quartet thrives in school and university settings. They have given classes on chamber music, composition seminars on writing for their instruments, and discussions on entrepreneurship and nonprofit operations at institutions including Columbia State’s Schwob School of Music, the University of North Carolina’s School of the Arts, the Peabody Conservatory, Purdue University Fort Wayne, Colorado State University, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Bridgeport University, the University of Florida, the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, the University of Northern Iowa, Florida State University, Lebanon Valley College, the University of Central Florida, Wright State University, the University of Idaho’s Lionel Hampton School of Music, and the São Paulo State University, in addition to presentations for grade school and Pre-K students.

Larry Weng, Max Hammond, Matt Keown, and Jeff Stern are all celebrated soloists in their own rights, and together they have found a special chemistry and inimitable joy playing chamber music. They are dedicated to the discovery, creation, and performance of new music, but what distinguishes their approach to contemporary music is a strong training and background in the classical genre. icarus Quartet is committed to performing new works with a studied and convincing interpretation that mirrors the validity of works with performance practices developed over centuries.