Bang on a Can co-founder Julia Wolfe has turned the string quartet world upside down with these hip and innovative quartets. Her ferociously fresh works, played by three of America's finest young groups, have been exciting audiences and critics for the last 10 years. Heard on the stages of the Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, the Other Minds Festival, and in the repertoires of the Kronos, Smith, and Mondrian quartets (among others), her quartets are some of the most celebrated and performed in the world. Wolfe's music conveys an intensity and intimacy, a virtuosity and joy of sound that turns the string quartet into a relentless high-voltage vehicle of expression. 

The recording features performances by the Lark Quartet, Cassatt String Quartet, and Ethel, one of New York's most talked about quartets.

Recorded and produced by Michael Riesman.