ABOUT UNHEARD-OF
Ford Fourqurean (clarinet), Matheus Souza (violin), Iva Casian-Lakoš (cello), and Daniel Anastasio (piano) are Unheard-of, a Brooklyn-based clarinet, violin, cello, and piano quartet redefining how new music connects with communities. Through adventurous programs blending technology, multimedia, and bold artistic voices, Unheard-of brings contemporary music to life across New York and the United States.
Founded in 2014, the ensemble has grown into a national network of collaborators across artistic disciplines. With an open, inclusive approach, Unheard-of champions both emerging and established composers — bridging experimental and traditional styles, and transforming concerts into immersive experiences. Its work extends beyond the stage through educational workshops, residencies, and a summer program for emerging composers, the Collaborative Composition Initiative (CCI).
Unheard-of presents two New York series, Unheard-of//Dialogues, which invites audiences behind the creative process, and Cultural Ecologies, an on-the-water partnership with the Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club that stages four multimedia concerts each year on Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal.
HIGHLIGHTS
The 2025–2026 season features premieres by Leila Adu, David Bird, Christian Quiñones, Annika Socolofsky, and Matt McBane, celebrating more than a decade of composer collaborations. This season’s Dialogues series presented the beginning our Dahl Retrospective on February 6th. The retrospective presented the rarely-heard “Dahl” instrumentation clarinet, violin, and cello highlighting the iconic Concerto a Tre alongside a new work by Meg Okura. In on December 5th, the ensemble teamed up with Tribeca New Music, and partnered with NYU’s composition department for a residency collaboration on the Dialogues series.
The 2026 Cultural Ecologies summer series continues Unheard-of’s commitment to exploring new sounds, spaces, and modes of engagement with the Brooklyn community. On May 23, Discocactus opens with a set inspired by video game music, jazz, and pop, followed by the premiere of a multimedia commission from Annika Socolofsky. In June, Ford creates a new site-specific work performed from canoes, tracing the flow of the Gowanus Canal from the Flushing Tunnel to the 2nd Street Boathouse. The performance will also feature a collaboration with laptop ensemble FLAPO and composer technologist Brian Ellis. On September 19th, we will present a new premiere for ensemble, electronics, and video by David Bird exploring the topographies of ocean and air, a recent premiere groundswell by composer Susanna Hancock and video artist Xuan exploring changing shorelines. The season concludes on September 19th with an expansive electroacoustic commission by Matt McBane exploring underwater topographies in acoustic and synth forms paired with a set by Mehrnam Rastegari and her trio. Rastegari is a prominent Persian musician, award-winning film score composer, and master Kamancheh player bringing Persian music in new directions with inflections of rock, jazz, and modern fusion.
In 2026-2027, Unheard-of will tour California and Texas with additional residences at Louisiana State University and University of Virginia. On tour in 2025-2026, Unheard-of visited Oberlin Conservatory, Ohio State University, Ohio University, and the Johnstone Fund in November; the University of Missouri–Kansas City in February; and a Florida tour in March, performing at the University of Central Florida, Florida State University, and the University of Florida.
SUPPORT
Unheard-of’s work has been supported by the New York State Council on the Arts, the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, New Music USA, the Johnstone Fund for New Music, the Dwight and Ursula Mamlok Foundation, the Tennessee Arts Commission, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, the Barlow Endowment, the Amphion Foundation, the Alice M. Ditson Fund, the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, the New York Women Composers Organization, the Brooklyn Arts Council, and the Puffin Foundation. The ensemble was a recipient of a Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Grant to commission Rome Prize–winner Christopher Stark, the 2023 Artistic Projects Grant for its Cultural Ecologies series, and a 2020 Chamber Music America Ensemble Forward Grant made possible by the New York Community Trust.
EDUCATION
Now in its eighth year, Unheard-of’s annual Collaborative Composition Initiative continues to engage composers in immersive, community-based projects. Their newest iteration takes place in St. Louis at Christ Church Cathedral, High Low, Dissonant Works, and the Kemper Art Museum. Recent festivals in San Antonio and across Brooklyn, including performances on canoes in the Gowanus Canal, at Mise-en_Place, and at Scholes Street Studio. Earlier years were hosted online and at Stony Brook University.
The ensemble has presented educational residencies, workshops, and performances at Oberlin Conservatory, Northwestern University, the Manhattan School of Music, CCM, Kent State University, Washington University in St. Louis, Illinois State University, West Virginia University, the University of Texas at San Antonio, Texas State University, Southeastern Louisiana University, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Emory University, Chattanooga State Community College, the University of Georgia, Florida State University, the University of Florida, and the University of Central Florida. Unheard-of served as the 2021–22 KEAR Ensemble-in-Residence at Bowling Green State University and has performed at venues including Constellation Chicago, Crosstown Arts in Memphis, and the Ukrainian Contemporary Music Festival at Merkin Hall. To date, the ensemble has premiered more than 250 works for its instrumentation.