At ACO On The Pier this August, Attacca Quartet brings a program that moves fluidly between musical worlds, from Beethoven to Radiohead, from Haydn to Caroline Shaw, inviting audiences to experience both the familiar and the fresh.
For the quartet, these juxtapositions are not about contrast for contrast’s sake, but about following a shared thread across humanity.
“We always aim to present an emotional flow that resonates both forwards and backwards,” they explain, “collapsing musical time to underline the shared traits of the human experience through music, across generations.” In this way, contemporary works illuminate the classics, just as the classics continue to shape the musical landscape of today. Radiohead, they note, can be heard in dialogue with centuries-old traditions, just as composers like Caroline Shaw build on the legacy of Beethoven and Haydn. The result is a performance that feels like an evolving musical conversation, rather than a sequence of separate pieces.
That underlying sense of connection extends to Attacca’s approach to performance itself, which they see as innately physical. “We exist, and invite you to join us, in a theatrical space,” they say. To them, music is motion, inextricable from movement, and far more than the sum of its parts. “The physical act of performing music is as important as the expression encoded in the score,” they believe, and shaped by not only the repertoire, but the movement and the people in the room.
"I want a piece of music to make me either dance, or cry, or both."Attacca Quartet Cello, Andrew Yee
Nearly fifteen years have passed since their last visit to Australia, and in that time Attacca Quartet has developed a distinctive voice, earning two Grammy Awards, collaborating on film projects, and premiering a rich body of contemporary work. Alongside foundational classical repertoire, they have championed composers including Caroline Shaw, Paul Wiancko, Michael Ippolito and Gabriela Ortiz, while also stepping into roles as curators and composers themselves.
At their ACO On The Pier debut this August, Sydney audiences are reintroduced to this compelling foursome, their evolved sound and dynamic musical identity.
The Attacca Quartet perform at ACO On The Pier on 8 August, 2026.
