Newport Classical opens chamber series with prize-winning Poiesis Quartet

Published On: August 27, 2025

The Poiesis Quartet, a young string group that has recently won several national competitions, will perform on September 12 to kick off Newport Classical’s 2025–2026 Chamber Series.

Beethoven’s Op. 59 No. 3 will be performed by the quartet at the Newport Classical Recital Hall at 7:30 p.m., along with more recent pieces by Kevin Lau, Brian Raphael Nabors, and Sky Macklay. Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson’s String Quartet No. 1 and the African American spiritual Calvary will be arranged as the concert comes to a close.

At the 2023 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, the Poiesis Quartet—which included cellist Drew Dansby, violinists Sarah Ma and Max Ball, and violist Jasper de Boor—won the Grand Prize and Gold Medal. After winning the Louis & Susan Meisel Competition in 2024, the quartet was added to the Concert Artists Guild roster and won gold in the 2023 St. Paul String Quartet Competition.

The quartet’s debut album, “As We Are,” was published in 2024 by the Bright Shiny Things label, and they have performed abroad in Uruguay, Italy, and France.

Lau’s String Quartet No. 7, the group’s first commissioned piece, was written by the Chinese-Canadian composer while his newborn son was receiving treatment for a rare liver disease, according to Ma.

“Kevin wrote this work as a surfacing from grief and pain after his newborn son was diagnosed with a rare liver condition that required surgeries and a rigorous recovery process,” Ma added. His family is doing well today, and his quintet closes with joy, defiance, and brilliance.

The quartet will play at the Edward King House the day before their evening performance as part of Newport Classical’s community engagement program.

Through June 2026, there will be 12 performances in the Chamber Series. Violinist Blake Pouliot will perform on October 3, Trio Zimbalist on October 17, and pianist Charlotte Hu on November 7.

NewportClassical.org has information and tickets.