April 17: Jupiter String Quartet Releases Undreamed Shores – New Album on Orchid Classics Coinciding with Earth Day 2026
The Jupiter String Quartet Releases Undreamed Shores on April 17
Highly Anticipated New Album and Orchid Classics Debut
Coinciding with Earth Day 2026
Featuring the Music of Michi Wiancko, Stephen Andrew Taylor, and Kati Agócs
Downloads and CDs available to press on request
“Tonal refinement and precision” – The Strad
www.jupiterquartet.com | www.orchidclassics.com
On April 17, 2026, the Jupiter String Quartet releases Undreamed Shores, the ensemble’s ninth studio album and first on Orchid Classics. On Undreamed Shores, the Jupiter Quartet turns to old friends with new inspiration. The album features the world premiere recordings of new string quartets written for the Jupiter by composers who are also longtime friends of the ensemble — Michi Wiancko (To Unpathed Waters, Undreamed Shores), Stephen Andrew Taylor (Chaconne/Labyrinth), and Kati Agócs (Imprimatur, String Quartet No. 2) — exploring themes including the climate crisis, the pandemic, memory, and re-imagination. This highly anticipated recording is the Jupiter’s final album with violinist Nelson Lee, who departed from the group’s lineup in September 2025, succeeded by violinist Mélanie Clapiès.
The Jupiter writes of this project:
“We are excited to share these three wonderful works, which were written for us, all of which find space for hope and light in challenging times. Commissioning and programming new musical works has always been a core part of our mission and we believe these contemporary works are able to speak to our current times in unique ways. We have lived and performed these works dozens of times over the last decade, in concert halls, schools, symposia, and virtual spaces. We are delighted to now present them in one album. While each compositional voice represented on this album is distinct and original, the three quartets find common ground in their desire to reach for something that transcends our often difficult and fraught modern-day society. Each work offers space for us to consider our collective humanity.”
Of her piece, Michi Wiancko writes, “To Unpathed Waters, Undreamed Shores is a multi-movement work for string quartet that celebrates the power of the natural world while carving out space to explore the notions of regeneration, hope, and wildness in relationship to ecological grief. Central to the piece is the idea of kinship and collective humanity, and the need to help protect each other and our most vulnerable places and populations.” Appropriately, the new album is being released in close proximity to Earth Day, April 22, 2026. To Unpathed Waters, Undreamed Shores was commissioned jointly by the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts (Urbana, IL) and Bay Chamber Concerts (Rockport, ME).
Stephen Andrew Taylor writes in his program notes for Chaconne/Labyrinth: “‘Chaconne’ is an old-fashioned word for a repeating chord progression, like the 12-bar blues. My chords are a little weirder, using just intonation to find notes that don’t exist on the piano keyboard. The quartet plays a chaconne, but at the same time they are lost in a labyrinth. The chords keep returning, only to point in new directions. This is how I felt during the pandemic: stuck in a loop, but at the same time lost in a maze, desperately seeking the way out. At the center of this maze, like the Minotaur of Greek myth, lies a depiction of the coronavirus that has so profoundly changed our world. After this encounter – marked by strange, percussive sounds – the quartet traces their way, like following Ariadne’s thread, back through the labyrinth.” Chaconne/Labyrinth was commissioned by the Arizona Friends of Chamber Music, sponsored by Drs. Margot and JD Garcia, and is dedicated to Harold Weaver and Cecile Weaver.
In her program notes, Kati Agócs writes, “Imprimatur (String Quartet No. 2) is a rhapsodic suite in five movements framed by an introduction and coda. A meditation on spiritual lightness that is celebratory in tone, the piece explores how a single idea imprints itself upon the memory through rapturous re-imagination. The movements flow into one another without pause to create a fifteen-minute trajectory. The opening chords and their answer, a rhapsodic melody, develop into tropes which re-appear transmuted, even sublimated throughout, embracing a dialectic of darkness and light. The work culminates in a serene quodlibet, merging the tropes. The word imprimatur, from Roman Catholic tradition, signifies approval to print a text – an affirmation or sanctioning. Most saliently, it can also mean a mark of distinction or an imprint.” Imprimatur (String Quartet #2) was commissioned jointly by the Aspen Music Festival and School (Robert Spano, Music Director); the Harvard Musical Association; and the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts/University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign in honor of the Fifteenth Anniversary of the Jupiter String Quartet.
The Jupiter String Quartet is a particularly intimate group, consisting of violinists Mélanie Clapiès and Meg Freivogel, violist Liz Freivogel (Meg’s older sister), and cellist Daniel McDonough (Meg’s husband, Liz’s brother-in-law). Founded in 2001, the ensemble is firmly established as an important voice in the world of chamber music, and exudes an energy that is at once friendly, knowledgeable, and adventurous. The New Yorker states, “The Jupiter String Quartet, an ensemble of eloquent intensity, has matured into one of the mainstays of the American chamber-music scene.”
The quartet has performed in some of the world’s finest halls, including New York City’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, London’s Wigmore Hall, Boston’s Jordan Hall, Mexico City's Palacio de Bellas Artes, Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center and Library of Congress, Austria’s Esterhazy Palace, and Seoul’s Sejong Chamber Hall. Their major music festival appearances include the Aspen Music Festival and School, Bowdoin International Music Festival, Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival, Rockport Music Festival, Taos School of Music Summer Festival, Caramoor International Music Festival, Music at Menlo, Tucson Winter Chamber Music Festival, the Banff Centre, the Seoul Spring Festival, and many others. In addition to their performing career, they have been artists-in-residence at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign since 2012, where they maintain private studios and direct the chamber music program.
Their chamber music honors and awards include the grand prizes in the Banff International String Quartet Competition and the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition; the Young Concert Artists International auditions in New York City; the Cleveland Quartet Award from Chamber Music America; an Avery Fisher Career Grant; and a grant from the Fromm Foundation. From 2007-2010, they were in residence at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Chamber Music Two.
The Jupiter String Quartet feels a strong connection to the core string quartet repertoire; they have presented the complete Bartok and Beethoven string quartets on numerous occasions. Also deeply committed to new music, they have commissioned string quartets from Nathan Shields, Stephen Andrew Taylor, Michi Wiancko, Syd Hodkinson, Hannah Lash, Dan Visconti, and Kati Agócs; a quintet with baritone voice by Mark Adamo; and a piano quintet by Pierre Jalbert.
The quartet’s discography includes numerous recordings on labels including Azica Records and Deutsche Grammophon. In fall 2024, the Jupiter Quartet recorded their new album with GRAMMY-winner Judith Sherman, featuring the world premiere recordings of Michi Wiancko’s To Unpathed Waters, Undreamed Shores, Stephen Taylor’s Chaconne/Labyrinth, and Kati Agócs's Imprimatur, which were all composed for the Jupiters. In 2021, the quartet recorded a collaborative album with the Jasper String Quartet (Marquis Classics), also produced by Judith Sherman. This album features the world premiere recording of Dan Visconti’s Eternal Breath, Felix Mendelssohn’s Octet in E-flat, Op. 20, and Osvaldo Golijov’s Last Round. The Arts Fuse acclaimed, “This joint album from the Jupiter String Quartet and Jasper String Quartet is striking for its backstory but really memorable for its smart program and fine execution.”
The quartet chose its name because Jupiter was the most prominent planet in the night sky at the time of its formation and the astrological symbol for Jupiter resembles the number four.
For more information, visit www.jupiterquartet.com.
Undreamed Shores | Jupiter Quartet | Orchid Classics
Release Date: April 17, 2026 (Worldwide)
Recorded September 9-11, 2024 in Foellinger Great Hall, Krannert Center, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Michi Wiancko
To Unpathed Waters, Undreamed Shores
1. I. Pelagic Within [5:20]
2. II. Dream of the Xerces Blue [2:58]
3. III. Central Park Microbial [1:48]
4. IV. Invisible Eviction [0:57]
5. V. Crying, Together [2:33]
6. VI. Follow the Water [2:38]
7. VII. Rise Up [4:16]
Stephen Andrew Taylor
8. Chaconne/Labyrinth [19:03]
Kati Agócs
9. Imprimatur (String Quartet No. 2) [15:15]
Recitative
I. Ostinato
II. Enraptured Troping
III. Meditation – Crystal Chains
IV. Wild Dance
V. Quodlibet
Coda
Total time [54:48]
Producer: Judith Sherman
Engineer: Graham Duncan
Editing assistant: Jeanne Velonis
Mastering: Jeanne Velonis and Judith Sherman
Cover Art: Black Sun by Hua Nian
Booklet photography: Todd Rosenberg