“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. As concertmaster of the S.E.M. Ensemble, he has performed solo and ensemble works in North America and Europe including performances of Karlheinz Stockhausen's "Gruppen" for three orchestras, and, more recently, Earle Brown's "Centering" for violin and ensemble. 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." Recent solo recitals included premiers by Alvin Lucier, David Behrman, Robert Ashley, Gordon Mumma, and Paul Reller. A recent recording includes Lucier's "Still and Moving Lines of Silence in Families of Hyperbolas" for violin and sine-wave oscillator, on Lovely Music. In addition, he has recorded for Asphodel, Vandenburg, CRI, and Vinyl Retentive Records.  
 
 
 

From his student days to his current professional career Canadian violist Max Mandel has always been involved in chamber music groups of great variety. Max was a member of the Metro Quartet for six years, an experience which forged his dedication to chamber music through collaboration with his colleagues and teachers such as Lorand Fenyves and Menahem Pressler at many music festivals, but especially the Banff Center for the Arts. Private studies at the University of Toronto and the Juilliard School were with Steven Dann and Samuel Rhodes.  Comfortable in many styles and genres, Max's current group affiliations beside FLUX include the Caramoor Virtuosi, Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble, the Metropolitan Museum Artists, Toronto Camerata and Aradia Baroque Ensemble. This season's highlights include a guest appearance at the Smithsonian Institution using instruments from their famous collection of Stradivari. Max plays on a 1973 Giovanni Battista Morassi generously loaned to him by Lesley Robertson of the St. Lawrence Quartet.