Tribeca New Music is pleased to present the return of the Unheard-of ensemble, a boundary-pushing quartet of clarinet, violin, cello, and piano that redefines the possibilities of contemporary chamber music. In this evocative program, the ensemble invites audiences into vivid sonic landscapes that blend acoustic virtuosity with multimedia imagination. Works by Paul Novak, Christian Quiñones, and Christopher Starkexplore themes of digital culture, human connection, and our fragile environment. With Stark’s Fire Ecologies—a stirring multimedia work featuring video by Zlatko Ćosić—Unheard-of transforms the concert stage into a resonant meditation on sound, nature, and the world we share.
Program:
Paul Novak – entwining (2021)
One of the preoccupations of my music in the last several years has been miniature forms. I’m drawn to short, unassuming pieces which contain entire musical worlds...
Christian Quiñones – my eyes devour the internet (2025)
Explores themes of virtual excess, internet fatigue, and digital humor...
Christopher Stark – Fire Ecologies (2020–22)
Christopher Stark’s six-part Fire Ecologies is a musical homage to the global environment as it faces a perilous future...
About the Composers
The “spellbinding” (Washington Post) music of Chicago-based composer Paul Novak immerses listeners in shimmering, finely detailed sound worlds full of color and motion. His works often explore dreams, memory, queer identity, and humanity’s bond with nature. Novak’s 2025–26 season includes premieres with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, International Contemporary Ensemble, and several leading string quartets. His music has been performed at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and Chicago’s Symphony Center, and recognized by the Barlow and Underwood Commissions, ASCAP, BMI, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. A co-artistic director and flutist of Mycelium New Music, Novak champions diverse contemporary voices. Originally from Reno, Nevada, he is a PhD candidate at the University of Chicago.
Puerto Rican composer Christian Quiñones creates music that merges emotional vulnerability with reflections on identity, technology, and cultural memory. Using sampling, auto-tune, and multimedia, he weaves personal and intertextual narratives that challenge traditional boundaries. His music has been performed by Alarm Will Sound, JACK Quartet, the New York Youth Symphony, and the American Composers Orchestra. A fellow of the MATA Festival, Aspen Music Festival, and Copland House, he has received commissions from the Albany Symphony’s Dogs of Desire, the icarus and Bergamot String Quartets, and others. Quiñones holds degrees from the Conservatorio de Música de Puerto Rico and the University of Illinois and is currently a PhD President’s Fellow at Princeton University.
Montana-born composer Christopher Stark writes music inspired by the vast landscapes of the American West—energetic, cinematic, and deeply atmospheric. The New York Times describes his work as “fetching and colorful.” Stark’s music has been performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Alarm Will Sound, and American Composers Orchestra, and he has received honors including a Rome Prize, Guggenheim Fellowship, and awards from the Fromm Foundation and ASCAP. His debut album Seasonal Music (Bridge Records) and his score for the film Novitiate (Sony Pictures Classics) showcase his vivid, immersive sound world.