'Rising Tide: The Crossroads Project'

“Rising Tide: The Crossroads Project” incorporates large-screen projections of original works by painter Rebecca Allan, stunning images by internationally recognized environmental photographer Garth Lenz, excellent graphics, and the new quartet by American composer Laura Kaminsky, titled “Rising Tide” — “some very intense music… each movement was a sonic picture” (ConcertoNet.com) — as well as segments of Haydn and Janáček.

Fry Street Quartet

The Fry Street Quartet (FSQ) is a trailblazing ensemble known for its “blend of technical precision and scorching spontaneity” (The Strad) and for performances that merge artistic excellence with deep environmental and social consciousness. The FSQ has performed at venues from Carnegie Hall to London, Sarajevo, Jerusalem, and across the United States.

Winners of the Grand Prize at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, the quartet’s repertoire spans the classical canon—Beethoven, Bartók, Schubert, Haydn—as well as bold new works by living composers. Their recent seasons featured the world premiere of “Living Memory | Sundarbans” by Aakash Mittal and the video release of Gabriela Lena Frank’s “A Psalm of Disquiet.”

In 2025, the quartet debuted a new documentary, “LEK: Listening at the Edge of Erasure,” exploring both the wonder and the fragility of the endangered sage grouse through the ensemble’s music-making at the intersection of art, science, and place. In Spring 2026, the quartet was featured performing original music by composer Laura Kaminsky in an episode about poet May Swensen on the PBS series “Poetry in America.”

The FSQ’s discography includes “The Crossroads Project” (Navona), “As One” by Laura Kaminsky (Albany), and Clarice Assad’s “Canções da América” (Guarneri Hall). A string of recent commissions reflects the ensemble’s long-standing commitment to ecological themes, including works by Laura Kaminsky, Libby Larsen, Gabriela Lena Frank, Aida Shirazi, Akshaya Tucker, Nicolás Lell Benavides, and Hitomi Oba.

Based at Utah State University, where they hold the Dan C. and Manon Caine Russell Endowed String Quartet Residency, the Fry Street Quartet performs on a rare collection of Italian instruments and continues to cultivate deep roots—musical, ecological, and communal—in the place they call home.