The Sound Garden Project
The Sound Garden Project’s mission is to plant classical music in unexpected places as we reimagine a 21st-century performance experience. In these ensembles' ambitious hands, a concert becomes an event, and an audience becomes a community of inspiration, understanding and hope.
Concerts
All concerts are free and open to the public — no tickets required unless otherwise noted.
Glen Arbor Arts Center residency - Cerus Quartet
June 9 - 21
Final Concert June 19
Arcadia residency - PULSE Quartet
June 22 - 28
Final Concert June 27th
Traverse City/Interlochen residency - Katarina Quartet
June 29 - July 10
Final Concert July 9
Special appearance at The Little Fleet July 8!
Stay tuned for more details coming soon!
2026 Ensembles
KATARINA STRING QUARTET: A recent Grand Prize winner of the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition, and currently serving as the Graduate Resident String Quartet at The Juilliard School, they explore all chamber music, from contemporary and canonized works to folk tunes.
PULSE: An award-winning saxophone quartet delivering a diverse range of repertoire, seeking to break down barriers between themselves and their audience.
CERUS QUARTET: Founded in 2020, the Cerus Quartet focuses on showcasing the dynamic, versatile sound worlds of the saxophone quartet, programming everything from contemporary compositions to transcriptions of traditional repertoire.
Past Ensembles
Kodak Quartet: This award-winning string quartet is is highly regarded for their work with contemporary composers on new compositions and for presenting traditional works with a contemporary flavor. (2024, 2025)
PULSE: An award-winning saxophone quartet delivering a diverse range of repertoire, seeking to break down barriers between themselves and their audience. (2023, 2024)
Fivemind Reeds: A dynamic, 21st-century reed quintet based in LA and committed to promoting diversity and equity in the arts through community engagement. (2023, 2024)
Blue Quartet: A saxophone quartet seeking to distill music of the highest quality into the everyday lives of people - and to inspire those inclined to do the same. (2023)
Gallery
Kodak Quartet at Black Star Farms
Members of the Fivemind Reed Quintet play oboe and saxophone at Tom's.
The Blue Saxophone Quartet poses with their saxophones outside Dollar General.
(Photo: Susan Tusa — IG: @__sutu__)
Learn more
-
Matthew SchlomerThis week, Mei Stone goes to places where people are faced with choices, like a skate shop and a brewery, and asks them to turn those opinions onto classic music. -
Eyeball to eyeball with world class musicians -
The summertime series, now in its fifth year, plants classical music in unexpected places. -
This summer, wherever you go, you might stumble upon classically trained musicians performing just for you. -
Michigan's Cerus Quartet wins honorable mention at the 2025 Plowman Chamber Music Competition. -
The Kodak Quartet from New York is part of IPR’s Sound Garden Project, which plants music in unexpected places. -
Edgar Donati, Martin Noh, Daniel Spink and Blake Kitayama of the Kodak Quartet are in residence as part of IPR's Sound Garden Project. -
Darren Liou, Matthew Rasmussen, Alex Lee, Thacher Schreiber and Kristine Llanderal of Fivemind Reeds are in residence in Glen Arbor, part of IPR's Sound Garden Project. -
Saxophonists Samuel Hartt, Lauren Troutman, Jonah Kulick and Joshua Elwood have been planting music in unexpected places with IPR's Sound Garden Project. -
Thacher Schreiber, Darren Liou, Alex Lee, Matthew Rasmussen and Jacob Freiman are planting music in unexpected places this summer through IPR's Sound Garden Project.
