“One of the most fearless and important new-music ensembles around,” (Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle) “who has a brought a new renaissance to quartet music,” (Kyle Gann, The Village Voice) the FLUX Quartet has performed to rave reviews at many music centers around the world.  It has appeared at Da Camera of Houston, Miller Theater, the Walker Art Center, the Library of Congress, and Carnegie Hall’s When Morty Met John Festival.  It has also recently made two rave debuts, in Ireland at the Samuel Beckett Centenary Festival, and in San Francisco with the Morrison Series, which invited the quartet back as special guests for its 50th anniversary gala concert.  FLUX’s numerous radio credits include NPR’s All Things Considered, WNYC’s New Sounds and Soundcheck, and WFMU’s Stochastic Hit Parade.  Its growing discography includes recordings by composers Michael Byron, Annie Gosfield, and bagpipe virtuoso Matthew Welch.  Highlights of recent seasons include the debut appearances at The Kennedy Center and Walt Disney Hall in Los Angeles, residencies at Wesleyan College and Princeton University, and the Interpretations Series, a leading series, based in New York City, for innovative music of living performers and composers.

FLUX captivates its audiences worldwide with a vivid repertoire balanced between notable pioneers as well as visionaries of tomorrow.  From "classics" by Conlon Nancarrow, Giacinto Scelsi, and Iannis Xenakis, to new works by Leroy Jenkins, Elliott Sharp, Welch, and John Zorn, FLUX brings to all of its performances a “boundless, uninhibited energy.” (New York Times)  The quartet avidly seeks out collaborative relationships with genre-transcending artists such as Ornette Coleman, Joan La Barbara, Oliver Lake, balloon artist Judy Dunaway (new CD on Innova Recordings), and musical-visual artist collective, the Slave Pianos. Members from the quartet have also done significant work in dance, including frequent collaborations with Morphoses/Wheeldon Company and Shen Wei Dance Arts.   Strongly dedicated to uncovering new works both by it own members as well as emerging composers, FLUX actively pursues commissions, with recent grants from the American Composers Forum, Meet-The-Composer Foundation, USArtists International, and the Aaron Copland Fund.

The spirit to explore and expand stylistic boundaries is a trademark of the FLUX Quartet.  Partly as an homage to the 60’s Fluxus art movement, violinist Tom Chiu founded the FLUX Quartet in the 90’s with a quest similar to that of some of the original Fluxus artists:  a search for a living art for all people with an embracing "anything-goes" spirit.   To that end, FLUX has always been committed to projects of unique vision that defy aesthetic categorization.  One such project is Morton Feldman's String Quartet No. 2.  Lasting more than six continuous hours, it is "a disorienting, transfixing experience that repeatedly approached and touched the sublime." (Alex Ross, The New Yorker)  The recording of this monumental work can be found on Mode Records at mode.com.
 
A noted champion of new music, experimental violinist Tom Chiu has performed over 100 premieres worldwide and has worked closely with many distinguished composers including Virko Baley, Dean Drummond, Oliver Lake and Chen Yi, among others. He avidly pursues collaborations with unconventional artists whose work he admires, including balloon virtuoso Judy Dunaway, avant choreographer Eun-Me Ahn, puppeteer Basil Twist, and guitarist-electronicist David First. He has also worked closely with Ornette Coleman, with whom he appeared at the 2000 Bell Atlantic Jazz Festival. Tom's discography includes recordings for the Asphodel, Cambria, Koch, Mode, Sombient, and Tzadik labels. His original works as composer/improvisor have been performed in numerous countries, including Mongolia and Uzbekistan. Having also composed for motion pictures, his first soundtrack for the short film Boris (written and directed by Francesca Galesi) won the top prize at the NY Expo Festival of Shorts.  Holding degrees in music and chemistry from Juilliard and Yale, Tom occasionally reminisces about his childhood appearance with Tom Hanks in The Man With One Red Shoe.  
 
 
 
Violinist Conrad Harris has performed new works for violin at the Darmstadt Ferrienkürse für Neue Musik, Gulbenkian Encounters of New Music, Radio France, Warsaw Autumn, and New York's Sonic Boom Festival. In addition to being a member of the Flux Quartet, he is concertmaster of the New York based S.E.M. Ensemble and the Ostravska Banda, founded in the Czech Republic. He has performed and recorded with such artists as DJ Spooky, Jean-Claude Risset, and Tiny Tim, as featured violinist on his final recording "Prisoner of Love." A solo CD featuring premiers by Alvin Lucier, David Behrman, Robert Ashley, and Gordon Mumma will soon be released on Mode Records. He has also recorded for Asphodel, Vandenburg, CRI, and Vinyl Retentive Records.  
 
 
 

Canadian violist Max Mandel is one of the most acclaimed and active chamber musicians of his generation. Comfortable in many styles and genres, Mr. Mandel's current group affiliations in addition to FLUX include The Caramoor Virtuosi, The Silk Road Ensemble, The Metropolitan Museum Artists in Concert, The Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players, The Kirby String Quartet, The Smithsonian Chamber Players, The Knights, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, and I Furiosi Baroque Ensemble. Private studies at the University of Toronto and the Juilliard School were with Steven Dann and Samuel Rhodes. Mr. Mandel is a fan of all kinds of music from Mozart to Feldman to Ghostface and considers himself very fortunate to have collaborated with great artists in many genres from Vera Beths to Ornette Coleman to Kirk Hammett of Metallica. Mr. Mandel plays on a 1973 Giovanni Battista Morassi generously loaned to him by Lesley Robertson of the St. Lawrence Quartet. He resides in Brooklyn, NY.

 
 
 
 

Felix Fan's versatility has made him one of the most sought after cellists of his generation. As a chamber musician, he has performed with Yo-Yo Ma, Gil Shaham, and Janos Starker, in venues such as Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, Musikverein and Royal Festival Hall. Fan's interest in contemporary music has led to collaborations with today's leading composers including George Crumb, Tan Dun, Oliver Knussen, Kaija Saariaho, and Charles Wuorinen. Appearances with the Bang on a Can All-Stars has allowed Fan to work with artists as diverse as Philip Glass, Meredith Monk, Terry Riley, and Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth. In 1998, Fan founded Muzik3, a performance series and commissioning foundation dedicated to the advancement of modern music with an emphasis on integrating theater, dance, and video. Muzik3 led to the formation of cello/percussion/piano trio Real Quiet, which has premiered over 20 works and recorded music by Marc Mellits (Endeavour Records) and David Lang (Naxos). In 2005, Fan performed a series of radio plays written by acclaimed screenwriters Charlie Kaufman and the Coen Brothers, starring actors Steve Buscemi, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Meryl Streep. Fan has also worked with innovative choreographers Karole Armitage, Shen Wei, and Christopher Wheeldon.