Yarn/Wire is a New York-based percussion and piano quartet (Sae Hashimoto and Russell Greenberg, percussion; Laura Barger and Julia Den Boer, pianos) dedicated to the promotion of creative, experimental new music. Since its formation in 2005, the ensemble has garnered widespread acclaim for its commitment to adventurous compositions and unique collaborative approach to music making.
Yarn/Wire’s 2024/25 programming exemplifies its expansive reach and musical breadth with residencies at EMPAC, a repeat performance at Donaueschinger Musiktage and appearances at the Biennale di Venezia, Other Minds Festival, ManiFeste, Black Mountain College, McKnight Center and Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum; and returns to Miller Theatre, TIME:SPANS, Long Play and Roulette. Yarn/Wire holds educational and performance residencies this season at Harvard and Columbia Universities, and the Miami University (Ohio).
Through hundreds of commissions over 19 years, Yarn/Wire has championed composers including Annea Lockwood, Enno Poppe, Michael Gordon, George Lewis, Ann Cleare, Catherine Lamb, Tyshawn Sorey, Peter Evans, Alex Mincek, Thomas Meadowcroft, Misato Mochizuki, Sam Pluta, Tyondai Braxton, Kate Soper and Øyvind Torvund. The ensemble enjoys collaborations with genre-bending artists such as Tristan Perich, Ben Vida, Mark Fell, Sufjan Stevens and Pete Swanson. Their ongoing commissioning series “Yarn/Wire Currents” serves as an incubator for new experimental music in partnership with a variety of Brooklyn-based institutions including Roulette, Blank Forms and ISSUE Project Room.
Recent releases of Yarn/Wire include “Tonband”, featuring works by Enno Poppe and Wolfgang Heiniger; Annea Lockwood’s “Becoming Air and Into the Vanishing” with trumpeter Nate Wooley; “Yarn/Wire Currents 7” featuring works by Victoria Cheah, Zeno Baldi and Diana Rodriguez; Marcel Zaes’ “Parallel Prints”; the piano and percussion works of Andrew McIntosh; and many more. The 2024/25 season brings the release of “Yarn/Wire Currents 10”, a portrait album of the works of Thomas Meadowcroft on Mode Records, and a recording of Michael Gordon’s “Material” on Cantaloupe Records.
Since 2014, the ensemble has hosted the annual Yarn/Wire International Institute and Festival for composers and performers interested in exploring the collaborative side of contemporary music, in which they get the opportunity to study with and interact with the ensemble and faculty. The Yarn/Wire International Institute and Festival provides both participants and the public a week of free performances on Long Island and NYC. A strong advocate for education, Yarn/Wire has presented collaborative workshops, masterclasses and residencies at various renowned universities.