Poiesis Quartet
October 9, 2025 7:00 PM –8:30 PM
5 W. Cache La Poudre St.
| Colorado Springs, CO | 80903
Admission: Tickets are $30 for the general public, $25 for Festival donors, and $5 for children and non-CC students. All current Colorado College faculty, staff, and students get free tickets with their CCID.
Map
Event Summary
The Poiesis Quartet will perform at Colorado College as part of the Colorado College Summer Music Festival's 2025-26 Intermezzo Season.
Intermezzo Season "keeps the music alive" for Colorado Springs chamber music lovers in between the Festival's full season held every summer in June.
The concert program opens with the first movement of Beethoven's String Quartet, Op. 59, No. 3, followed by Sky Macklay's Many Many Cadences and Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson's String Quartet No. 1, Calvary. The quartet will close by performing the Colorado premiere of two compositions: Brian Raphael Nabors's String Quartet and Kevin Lau's String Quartet No. 7 Surfacing, commissioned by the Poiesis Quartet.
Lauded as an “ensemble to watch” (Hyde Park Herald), the Poiesis Quartet is the winner of the Grand Prize, Gold Medal, and Lift Every Voice prize at the 2023 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, as well as the Gold Medal and BIPOC Prize at the 2023 St. Paul String Quartet Competition. In May 2024, Poiesis joined the Concert Artists Guild roster for North American management as winners of the Louis & Susan Meisel Competition.
Derived from ancient Greek (ποιεῖν), the word Poiesis means “to make”; specifically, to create something that has not existed before. With an emphasis on expanding the string quartet repertoire with vibrant new works by emerging composers, the Poiesis Quartet infuses each performance with unique moments of synchronicity and verve.
Their 2024 debut album ‘as we are’ on the Bright Shiny Things label, which features world premiere recordings with mezzo-soprano Nancy Maultsby, was celebrated for the quartet’s ability to “paint vivid pictures” (Cleveland Classical). In addition to a recent commission of Chinese-Canadian composer Kevin Lau’s seventh string quartet, an exciting new endeavor spearheaded by Poiesis - the Oberlin Commission Project (TOCP) - presents world premieres of five newly commissioned works by LGBTQ+ composers of color from Oberlin Conservatory in March 2026. Poiesis is also honored to serve as the 2025-26 Ernst Stiefel Quartet-in-Residence at the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts.
Recent and upcoming engagements include the St. Lawrence Emerging String Quartet residency at Stanford University, Newport Classical, Chamber Music Raleigh, Austin Chamber Music Center, and Absolute Jest with the Dayton Philharmonic and with the Oberlin Orchestra in Cleveland’s renowned Severance Hall. Poiesis has performed internationally, including in Uruguay (2023), Italy at the 2024 Emilia Romagna Festival, and France at 2025 Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. Additionally, they were selected as the only North American ensemble to compete in the prestigious 2025 Banff International String Quartet Competition.
The Poiesis Quartet is the current Graduate Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music studying with the Ariel Quartet. As graduates of Oberlin Conservatory, they were previously mentored by Sibbi Bernhardsson of the Pacifica Quartet and the Verona Quartet.
• Sarah Ying Ma (they/she) is pursuing an A.D. at the University of Cincinnati's CCM where she studies with Kristin Lee and is mentored in chamber music by the Ariel Quartet. Sarah was named a 2024 Performance Today Young Artist in Residence with host Fred Childs, and is the recent 2nd Prizewinner of the 2023 Dallas International Violin Competition: "Her impassioned account was gripping from start to finish. She commanded that rarest of effects, pianissimos at the threshold of audibility that still radiated intensity" (The Dallas Morning News).
• Max Ball (they/he) is a current A.D. student at the University of Cincinnati's CCM, studying with Kristin Lee and quartet with the Ariel Quartet. He has a particular passion for chamber music, putting together a number of recitals, and attending summer programs such as the BUTI String Quartet Intensive, Encore Chamber Music Institute, and Madeline Island Fellowship Program. Alongside classical music, he is also pursuing a minor in jazz studies, studying under Gerald Cannon and Jay Ashby, and joining several ensembles at Oberlin.
• Jasper de Boor (any pronouns) is a recent graduate of Oberlin Conservatory where they double majored in violin and viola with David Bowlin and Kirsten Docter. Currently, they study viola and chamber music at the University of Cincinnati's CCM with Ayane Kozasa and the Ariel Quartet. Aside from quartet, they love to sight read music, play piano and Baroque violin, and sleep.
• Drew Dansby (he/him) is a recent double-degree graduate of Oberlin College and Conservatory, with degrees in cello performance under Darrett Adkins and chemistry with minors in Comparative American Studies and sociology. Drew joined the cello section of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra full-time beginning in the 2023-24 season, becoming the youngest member of the orchestra at 22. He has served as an acting cellist in the Charlotte Symphony, associate principal cellist of the New York String Orchestra, and principal cellist of the Verbier Festival Orchestra.
The Colorado College Summer Music Festival provides the highest caliber and inclusive educational experience for pre-professional musicians, connecting them with preeminent performance faculty as they prepare to launch rewarding careers, while simultaneously providing vibrant and diverse concerts celebrating legacy, contemporary, and underrepresented classical music — thereby enriching the community of the Pikes Peak region.
Intermezzo Season "keeps the music alive" for Colorado Springs chamber music lovers in between the Festival's full season held every summer in June.
The concert program opens with the first movement of Beethoven's String Quartet, Op. 59, No. 3, followed by Sky Macklay's Many Many Cadences and Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson's String Quartet No. 1, Calvary. The quartet will close by performing the Colorado premiere of two compositions: Brian Raphael Nabors's String Quartet and Kevin Lau's String Quartet No. 7 Surfacing, commissioned by the Poiesis Quartet.
Lauded as an “ensemble to watch” (Hyde Park Herald), the Poiesis Quartet is the winner of the Grand Prize, Gold Medal, and Lift Every Voice prize at the 2023 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, as well as the Gold Medal and BIPOC Prize at the 2023 St. Paul String Quartet Competition. In May 2024, Poiesis joined the Concert Artists Guild roster for North American management as winners of the Louis & Susan Meisel Competition.
Derived from ancient Greek (ποιεῖν), the word Poiesis means “to make”; specifically, to create something that has not existed before. With an emphasis on expanding the string quartet repertoire with vibrant new works by emerging composers, the Poiesis Quartet infuses each performance with unique moments of synchronicity and verve.
Their 2024 debut album ‘as we are’ on the Bright Shiny Things label, which features world premiere recordings with mezzo-soprano Nancy Maultsby, was celebrated for the quartet’s ability to “paint vivid pictures” (Cleveland Classical). In addition to a recent commission of Chinese-Canadian composer Kevin Lau’s seventh string quartet, an exciting new endeavor spearheaded by Poiesis - the Oberlin Commission Project (TOCP) - presents world premieres of five newly commissioned works by LGBTQ+ composers of color from Oberlin Conservatory in March 2026. Poiesis is also honored to serve as the 2025-26 Ernst Stiefel Quartet-in-Residence at the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts.
Recent and upcoming engagements include the St. Lawrence Emerging String Quartet residency at Stanford University, Newport Classical, Chamber Music Raleigh, Austin Chamber Music Center, and Absolute Jest with the Dayton Philharmonic and with the Oberlin Orchestra in Cleveland’s renowned Severance Hall. Poiesis has performed internationally, including in Uruguay (2023), Italy at the 2024 Emilia Romagna Festival, and France at 2025 Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. Additionally, they were selected as the only North American ensemble to compete in the prestigious 2025 Banff International String Quartet Competition.
The Poiesis Quartet is the current Graduate Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music studying with the Ariel Quartet. As graduates of Oberlin Conservatory, they were previously mentored by Sibbi Bernhardsson of the Pacifica Quartet and the Verona Quartet.
• Sarah Ying Ma (they/she) is pursuing an A.D. at the University of Cincinnati's CCM where she studies with Kristin Lee and is mentored in chamber music by the Ariel Quartet. Sarah was named a 2024 Performance Today Young Artist in Residence with host Fred Childs, and is the recent 2nd Prizewinner of the 2023 Dallas International Violin Competition: "Her impassioned account was gripping from start to finish. She commanded that rarest of effects, pianissimos at the threshold of audibility that still radiated intensity" (The Dallas Morning News).
• Max Ball (they/he) is a current A.D. student at the University of Cincinnati's CCM, studying with Kristin Lee and quartet with the Ariel Quartet. He has a particular passion for chamber music, putting together a number of recitals, and attending summer programs such as the BUTI String Quartet Intensive, Encore Chamber Music Institute, and Madeline Island Fellowship Program. Alongside classical music, he is also pursuing a minor in jazz studies, studying under Gerald Cannon and Jay Ashby, and joining several ensembles at Oberlin.
• Jasper de Boor (any pronouns) is a recent graduate of Oberlin Conservatory where they double majored in violin and viola with David Bowlin and Kirsten Docter. Currently, they study viola and chamber music at the University of Cincinnati's CCM with Ayane Kozasa and the Ariel Quartet. Aside from quartet, they love to sight read music, play piano and Baroque violin, and sleep.
• Drew Dansby (he/him) is a recent double-degree graduate of Oberlin College and Conservatory, with degrees in cello performance under Darrett Adkins and chemistry with minors in Comparative American Studies and sociology. Drew joined the cello section of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra full-time beginning in the 2023-24 season, becoming the youngest member of the orchestra at 22. He has served as an acting cellist in the Charlotte Symphony, associate principal cellist of the New York String Orchestra, and principal cellist of the Verbier Festival Orchestra.
The Colorado College Summer Music Festival provides the highest caliber and inclusive educational experience for pre-professional musicians, connecting them with preeminent performance faculty as they prepare to launch rewarding careers, while simultaneously providing vibrant and diverse concerts celebrating legacy, contemporary, and underrepresented classical music — thereby enriching the community of the Pikes Peak region.
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Also Occurs On
- Thursday, October 9
