JACK Quartet: Haas in the Dark

Thu, Apr 9, 2026, 8 pm
REDCAT, Los Angeles, CA
Co-produced by LA Phil and Liquid Music
Presented by LA Phil and REDCAT
Part of the Body and Sound Festival

Communicating solely through the sounds produced by their instruments, the musicians of JACK invite one another into musical processes, accepting these invitations or responding in kind with an invitation of their own—and always deciding for themselves how far they choose to go down each path together, before turning back.

Georg Friedrich Haas’ visionary Third String Quartet is designed to be performed in total darkness, creating a uniquely physical concert experience. As Haas wrote in his “darkness rider” for this work, “The outline of one’s hand will ideally not be visible even when directly in front of their face. The darkness is absolute, and the effect is disorienting: an audience member feels they have become absorbed in an India ink level of blackness with no visual cues to demarcate the size and shape of the space or their relation to it.” For the Body and Sound festival, JACK Quartet, the foremost interpreters of Haas’ work, will perform his String Quartet No. 3, “in iij Noct.”

Attendees to Haas in the Dark may not enter the theater until they sign a mandatory waiver in-person upon arrival that acknowledges their understanding that the performance is entirely in the dark and their assumption of risk for such a performance. The waiver can be previewed here. 

Please note there is no late seating and no reentry following the start of the performance.

Body and Sound’s offsite programming is part of the LA Phil Insight initiative, generously supported by Linda and David Shaheen.

About the Artists

Comprising violinists Christopher Otto and Austin Wulliman, violist John Pickford Richards, and cellist Jay Campbell, JACK Quartet enters their third decade as a pioneering string quartet synchronized in their mission to create an international community through transformative, mind-broadening experiences and close listening.

Nominated for two GRAMMY® Awards, JACK Quartet has also been recognized for their contributions to the field with honors such as the Avery Fisher Career Grant, Fromm Music Foundation Prize, Musical America’s 2019 “Ensemble of the Year” Award, and New Music USA's Trailblazer Award.

JACK Quartet has both self-commissioned and been commissioned to create new works with artists such as Philip Glass, Georg Friedrich Haas, Liza Lim, Caroline Shaw, and John Zorn, with upcoming and recent premieres by John Luther Adams, Ellen Fullman, Catherine Lamb, George Lewis, Andrew Norman, Terry Riley, Gabriella Smith, and Tyshawn Sorey.

Created in 2019, JACK Studio has supported more than 40 composers through commissions for string quartet by prominent composers, two-year paid residencies for emerging composers, and annual reading sessions of existing string quartets by emerging composers.

JACK Quartet has performed to critical acclaim at venues such as Carnegie Hall (USA), Lincoln Center (USA), Library of Congress (USA), Berlin Philharmonie (Germany), BBC Proms (United Kingdom), Philharmonie de Paris (France), Salzburg Festival (Switzerland), La Biennale di Venezia (Italy), Sydney Opera House (Australia), Suntory Hall (Japan), Bali Arts Festival (Indonesia), Festival Internacional Cervantino (Mexico), and Teatro Colón (Argentina).

JACK Quartet makes their home in New York City, where they are the Quartet-in-Residence at the Mannes School of Music at The New School. 

Christopher Otto is a composer and violinist living in the Bronx, New York. He studied composition at the Eastman School of Music and mathematics at the University of Rochester. In addition to his work as a founding member of the JACK Quartet, he has performed with such groups as Alarm Will Sound, the Cellar and Point, Ensemble Signal, International Contemporary Ensemble, the Knights, Ne(x)tworks, Talea, and the Theatre of Eternal Music String Ensemble. He has premiered and recorded numerous solo and chamber works by John Zorn and performed as a soloist in Zorn’s violin concerto Contes de Fées, and in Brian Ferneyhough’s Terrain. Chris’s compositions have explored harmonic possibilities in an expanding universe of just intonation. JACK has been a laboratory for some of these experiments, performing several of his quartets, and recording his rag′sma for two or three string quartets, which was released in 2021. He has also made arrangements for JACK of several medieval and Renaissance works notable for their rhythmic and harmonic complexity. His music can be heard at christopherotto.bandcamp.com, soundcloud.com/ottotelic, and christopherotto.space. Christopher serves on the faculty of the Mannes School of Music, where JACK is Quartet in Residence.

Praised as a “gifted, adventuresome violinist” by the Chicago Tribune and as possessing “hardcore chops and ceaseless curiosity—the kind of musician that devours new ideas, masters new techniques, and pours himself into every endeavor with unabashed devotion.” by Peter Margasak for Best of Bandcamp, Austin Wulliman has gained critical and audience attention through his “wide technical range and interpretive daring” (New Music Box) as a soloist and chamber musician. A member of JACK Quartet since 2016, his second album of original music was released with JACK in 2025 to wide critical acclaim in media as diverse as The Wire, Gramophone and WNYC. He first forged his reputation in Chicago with the collective Ensemble Dal Niente, serving as the group’s Program Director, and winning the Kranichstein Music Prize at the Darmstadt Summer Course in 2012. Austin was also a founding member of Spektral Quartet, serving as Ensemble in Residence at the University of Chicago from 2011-2016. Consistently in search of new musical pathways through ensemble work, Austin has collaborated with a wide range of musical voices, from artists like Deerhoof and Julia Holter, to Miguel Zenon and Billy Childs, or Brian Ferneyhough and Kaija Saariaho. Furthermore, he has also been a guest artist with groups such as Eighth Blackbird, The Knights, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s MusicNow Ensemble. 

Jim Dolan of ABC7 Eyewitness News says, “John Richards plays viola.” The New York Times declares him "wholesome-looking." Violist John Pickford Richards has gained a reputation for performing new and visionary music around the globe. He was a founding member of the ensemble Alarm Will Sound and has served as JACK Quartet’s violist since the group’s founding in 2005. John has appeared with artists including Björk and David Byrne and has performed as soloist with the Pasadena Symphony, Armenian Philharmonic, Wordless Music Orchestra, OSSIA, and with the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra playing the solo part to Luciano Berio's Chemins II under the direction of Pierre Boulez. He holds degrees from the Interlochen Arts Academy and Eastman School of Music, where his primary teachers were David Holland and John Graham, and currently serves on the faculties of the Mannes School of Music at The New School, where JACK is Quartet in Residence, and the Manhattan School of Music’s Contemporary Performance Program. 

Cellist Jay Campbell has been recognized around the world for approaching both old and new works with equally probing curiosity and emotional commitment. His performances have been described as “brilliant and insatiably inquisitive”, “electrifying”, and “prodigious” by the New York Times, and “gentle, poignant, and deeply moving” by the Washington Post. A recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, Jay performed with the New York Philharmonic in 2013 and was a curator for the New York Philharmonic’s 2016 Biennale. He has soloed in major venues around the globe including Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium, Avery Fisher Hall, and Lucerne’s KKL and performed recitals in Carnegie’s Weill Hall, the Kennedy, Mondavi, and Krannert centers. Dedicated to introducing audiences to the music of our time, Jay has worked closely with some of the most creative minds of the 20th/21st centuries including Pierre Boulez, Elliott Carter, Matthias Pintscher, Kaija Saariaho, and countless others from his own generation. His close association with John Zorn has resulted in over a dozen works written for him including The Aristos, a Pulitzer Prize runner up ­­resulting in the release of Hen to Pan (Tzadik), listed in the New York Times Best Recordings of 2015. Jay is the cellist of Junction Trio with violinist Stefan Jackiw and pianist Conrad Tao. He has been a guest at the Marlboro, Chamber Music Northwest, Moab, Heidelberger­Fruhling, DITTO, and Lincoln Center festivals. Jay serves on the faculty of the Mannes School of Music, where JACK Quartet is Quartet in Residence.