JACK Quartet to Perform at Festival CulturaUNAM 2026 in Mexico City

The JACK Quartet will perform on Saturday, October 3 at the Sala Carlos Chávez in the Centro Cultural Universitario, Mexico City, as part of Festival CulturaUNAM 2026. The quartet—violinists Austin Wulliman and Christopher Otto, violist John Pickford Richards, and cellist Jay Campbell—has built a reputation for interpreting complex contemporary works, with a lineage rooted in studies with German composer Helmut Lachenmann. Their 2014 album Complete String Quartets (Mode) includes Lachenmann's Gran Torso, a piece they say sounds different with each hearing. Wulliman describes the ensemble's mission as helping audiences and themselves listen better, noting that the most interesting works are those that leave him able to hear more. The quartet has premiered or recorded works by Catherine Lamb (Divisio spiralis), Cenk Ergün, Felipe Lara, John Zorn, Clara Iannotta (Earthing), Liza Lim, Rand Steiger, and Trevor Bača, whose Stirring Stills—their ECM debut with texts by Samuel Beckett—Wulliman calls unsettling. They also cite influences from jazz, electronic music, and popular genres, including Autechre, The Chemical Brothers, Beck, and John Coltrane. The program is part of the university's cultural festival.