Fresh off its win at the Banff International String Quartet Competition, the American quartet has joined the artist management agency
It was announced on 1 October that the Cincinnati-based Poiesis Quartet had signed with management agency MKI Artists.
On social media, the management said of the signing:
’Fresh off their Grand Prize win at the 2025 Banff International String Quartet Competition, we’re thrilled to welcome the Poiesis Quartet to the MKI Artists roster! Recognized for their artistry, vision, and electric performances, they now join a legendary lineage of BISQC laureates ready to take the global stage.’
The Poiesis Quartet comprises violinist Sarah Ying Ma and Max Ball, violist Jasper de Boor and cellist Drew Dansby. The group most recently won first prize and the commission prize at the 2025 Banff International String Quartet Competition. Other competition success includes the Grand Prize and Lift Every Voice Prize at the 2023 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, as well as the Gold Medal and BIPOC Prize at the 2023 St. Paul String Quartet Competition. In May 2024, the ensemble joined the Concert Artists Guild roster for North American management as winners of the Louis and Susan Meisel Competition.
The group formed in autumn of 2022 as part of the Oberlin Conservatory’s advanced string quartet seminar. The quartet has a strong focus on expanding the string quartet repertoire with new works by emerging composers. Its debut album, released in 2024, features several world premiere recordings, and the group has regularly commissioned works from leading composers. The Oberlin Commission Project, spearheaded by the quartet, will present world premieres of five newly commissioned works by LGBTQ+ composers of colour from the Oberlin Conservatory in March 2026.
The group is currently the graduate quartet-in-residence at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, studying with the Ariel Quartet. As graduates of the Oberlin Conservatory, the quartet was previously mentored by Sibbi Bernhardsson of the Pacifica Quartet and the Verona Quartet.
Read: Poiesis Quartet wins the 2025 Banff International String Quartet Competition
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