Celebrating 30+ Years of Wild and Scenic Music

Praise for the Taos Chamber Music Group!

“One of the great treasures of Taos” -The Taos News 
“Big magic…silken ensemble playing” -Albuquerque Journal
“A remarkable concert of juxtaposed styles” -Horse Fly 
“Depth, vitality and inventiveness” -Spencer Beckwith, KUNM

Press Release

Taos Chamber Music Group Presents “Renewal: A New Classical”,
the first of two Fall Festival programs, featuring ~Nois Quartet on
Saturday, October 10, at 5:30 pm and Sunday, October 11, at 3:30 p.m. at the Harwood Museum in Taos, New Mexico.

Take your preconceptions of ‘noise’ and toss them out the window. Equal parts
“fiendishly good and fiendishly goofy” (Chicago Tribune), ~Nois Quartet is a “prolific,
charismatic young ensemble that is swiftly becoming the American saxophone quartet
du jour” (Musical America). Founded in 2016, the Chicago-based ensemble is dedicated
to championing new music for saxophone and building community through innovative,
inclusive, and exceptional musical experiences.
~Nois Quartet has presented over 200 performances in their 10 years of music-making
and has “continued to legitimize the saxophone quartet as a premier ensemble
formation for classical music” (thank you Brutal New Music). Their performances have
spanned 31 states, including invitations to perform at some of the top festivals and
concert series in the nation, including LONG PLAY, the Great Lakes Chamber Music
Festival, Princeton Sound Kitchen, and the University of Chicago Presents Series. As
educators, the quartet has held residencies at some of the nation’s top academic
institutions including the University of Chicago, Princeton University, Michigan State
University, CU Boulder, and more. The ensemble has also been awarded top prizes at
numerous prestigious chamber music competitions including the M-Prize International
Arts Competition and the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. They were also
selected as winners of the 2026 CAG Louis and Susan Meisel Prize and were once
deemed, “too loud for the Farmers’ Market” (Evanston Local, Illinois 1st Ward
Constituent).
As proud residents of Chicago, the ensemble members seek to serve the city through
an annual season of self-presented concerts and programs. In the past nine seasons
alone, ~Nois Quartet has presented over 60 world premieres by Chicago composers.
Additionally, the group serves Chicago youth through their Young Creators Fellowship,
which selects local high school-aged students each year to collaborate with the
ensemble on new compositions.

At the core of ~Nois Quartet’s ethos is a fierce dedication to the commissioning of living
composers (bonus points if the piece needs an instruction manual to perform). With

more than 150 world premieres to date, the members of the group have had the
privilege of working closely with some of the world’s leading voices in composition to
create new works for saxophone quartet, including Clarice Assad, Chris Cerrone, Viet
Cuong, Alex Mincek, Jessie Montgomery, Nico Muhly, Shawn Okpebholo, Jeff Scott,
Hans Thomalla, Augusta Read Thomas. They have had the honor of sharing the stage
with Third Coast Percussion, Sō Percussion, My Brightest Diamond, Darian Donovan
Thomas, and the United States Navy Band.
~Nois Quartet’s recorded output boasts a wide variety of genres and styles across more
than a dozen albums. Most recently, the group released their genre-bending third
album, “What is ~Nois”, on the label New Amsterdam Records. The album was featured
on NPR’s “Best Albums out April 10th, 2026”, rated “four stars” (BBC Music Magazine),
and heralded as “utterly gorgeous and gripping” (Cast The Dice). Their music can be
heard on New Amsterdam, Cedille, New Focus, Carrier, Bright Shiny Things, Sawyer
Editions, Better Company Records, and Records to Burn labels.
~Nois Quartet is János Csontos (he/him), Jordan Lulloff (he/him), Julian Velasco
(he/him), and Natalia Warthen (she/her). The members are Yamaha Performing Artists
and perform exclusively on Yamaha saxophones. For more information, please visit
www.noissaxophone.com.

~Nois Quartet’s program this weekend is entitled Renewal: A New Classical.
Featuring internationally renowned GRAMMY®/Pulitzer Prize-winning American
composers, this program harnesses the unique, flexible, and beautiful capacity of
chamber music with one foot in the past and the other in the present.
Composers Bolcom, Shaw, and Montgomery pull the quartet into the past, drawing from
the intimate and emotional music of Robert Schumann, the joyous and cheeky lilts of
Haydn, and the stark and prickly gestures of Webern in joyous new contexts. Works by
Okpebholo, Ge, Washington, and Muhly (all recently commissioned by the ensemble)
forge ahead in their journey to create new classical music that is vibrant, inclusive, and
focused on the future.
The luscious and warm sound of the saxophone quartet takes you to the other side of
the looking glass, viewing the musical past and present through a bold new lens
~Nois Quartet is János Csontos (he/him), Jordan Lulloff (he/him), Julian Velasco
(he/him), and Natalia Warthen (she/her). The four members are Yamaha Performing
Artists and perform exclusively on Yamaha saxophones. For more information, please
visit www.noisquartet.org

For tickets and more information on our season, program details, artists and
performances, visit taoschambermusicgroup.org.
Do you want to help bring wild and scenic music to Taos? Email
info@taoschambermusicgroup.org for more information on volunteer opportunities