"Quarks" exists in two versions, this one for viola, and also one for solo violin - composed for violinist Jeanne Benson, these six pieces are named after the fabled subatomic particles, and are by turn fun, playful, quirky, prickly, and acerbic.

Quarks for solo viola

Michael Hall has performed and taught across Europe, Asia and the United States. Described by the New Music Connoisseur as “utterly masterful,” and Chamber Music Today as having “superb technique,” he recently made his Chicago Orchestra Hall solo debut and concluded a recital tour to Vienna, Austria and Udine and Tolmezzo, Italy. Hall has been a featured performer at the Thailand International Composition Festival in Bangkok, the Positano Chamber Music Festival in Italy, the Vianden International Chamber Music Festival in Luxembourg and the Composer’s Concordance Series in New York City. 

Twice he has presented world premieres at International Viola Congresses at Minneapolis and Reykjavik, Iceland, performed at the 2014 Primrose International Festival in Los Angeles, and presented to critical acclaim the North American premiere of Chen Yi’s, Xian Shi, the first viola concerto written by a Chinese composer, with the Chicago Composers Orchestra, and earlier with the Chiang Mai Philharmonic in Thailand. 

Upcoming performances include the inaugural Ear Taxi Festival in Chicago, 2016 New Music Gathering, Bandung String Festival in Indonesia, Northwest Symphony, 2016 UMKC Summer Composition Workshop, 2016 Thailand Int. Composition Festival in Bangkok. 

Additional works written for Hall by renowned composers include Jim Mobberley, Mara Gibson, Narong Prangcharoen, Eric Moe, Mary Kouyoumdjian, Adam Greene, Matthew Burtner, Marta Ptaszynska, Yu Pengfei, Christian Ellenwood, Seth Boustead, Michelle McQuade Dewhirst, Eric Malmquist and David Kirtley. 

Composers currently writing for Michael Hall include Katherine Bergman, Amy Williams, Rob Deemer and Ilya Levinson. 

Michael loves hiking in the Grand Tetons and Wind River Ranges, chocolate ice cream, great literature, collaborating with friends and working with students in outreach settings in underfunded schools on Chicago's South Side. 

I am an eclectic composer who writes with a postmodern mischievousness: my pieces can be comedic/ironic, simple/complex, or humble/reverent. My recent projects have taken a turn toward turn towards the sweeter side, exploring a consonant adiatonicism.

Quarks for solo viola

FRANK FELICE, composer