ABOUT EQ
EQ is committed to cultivating connection and opportunity through dynamic performances and residencies that empower musicians and foster community.
Unconstrained by geographical boundaries, the flutists of EQ live across the United States and meet for performance and teaching residencies throughout the year. Recent activities have taken EQ to Seattle, Pittsburgh, Boston, Utah, Iowa, New York City, and most recently, Houston. The quartet has presented at the National Flute Association Convention, the Mid-Atlantic Flute Convention, for the New Jersey and Utah flute societies, and has been an Ensemble in Residence at Avaloch Farm Music Institute. In May 2016, EQ competed at the live quarterfinal round of the Fischoff Competition, one of few flute ensembles to do so in the history of the competition. Emissary Quartet has been the recipient of numerous grants and honors, including those from New Music USA, the Friends of Flutes Foundation, the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture, and the Fromm Foundation at Harvard University.
EQ continues to curate a catalog of new works that fully exploit the dynamic expressive capabilities of four flutes together. The ensemble held an International Call for Scores throughout the 2016-2017 season and received over 190 submissions from composers across the globe. Three winning works were performed and recorded in New York City. With the support of a commission from the Fromm Music Foundation, EQ collaborated with composer Annika Socolofsky to premiere a new work for flute quartet in November 2016. Emissary Quartet continues to develop fruitful collaborative relationships with composers to further the music of their generation and make flute quartet music a significant part of the sound landscape of today.
Emissary Quartet’s passion for collaboration extends beyond the bounds of music alone. In November 2023, EQ presented Emissary Artists, an event of live art and music at Box13 ArtSpace in Houston, TX. Four visual artists created works in real time in response to EQ’s program of music inspired by nature. In the same year, EQ commissioned Utility Spaces by Owen Eddy; the world premiere was given at The Blue Building in NYC as part of a performance titled UTILITY in collaboration with Synchronous creative. Emissary Quartet presented a lecture at the 2024 National Flute Association Convention titled Reaching Out: Making Interdisciplinary Connections.
Founded in 2009 by students of Jeanne Baxtresser and Alberto Almarza, Emissary Quartet (then under the name Con Brio Flutes), was featured at a 2010 Convocation at the Carnegie Mellon School of Music, with hundreds of students in attendance. EQ was also invited to perform at the 2010 Festival de Musica de Santa Catarina in Brazil. In the years since, the quartet has continued their serious commitment to expand the flute quartet repertoire, to share this music with new audiences in person and online, and to inspire young musicians and flutists.
