PRISM Quartet

The Fischoff Competition was an integral part of PRISM Quartet’s early development, and helped to launch the group on a national trajectory, although not in ways we might have imagined. Fischoff inspired us to work toward the best version of ourselves more than 30 years ago, which led to a repeating cycle of re-imagining our medium altogether. Fischoff gave us greater context for PRISM’s place in the field, and was vital to understanding the inherent limitations of the saxophone quartet repertoire, given the youth of our instrument. We realized that the best works for sax quartet were yet to be written. So we set out to commission hundreds of new compositions, develop collaborations across cultural and stylistic boundaries, and explore new possibilities of orchestration by combining our saxophones with a plethora of solo instruments, ensembles, voices, and electronics. For us, Fischoff was more than a competition, it played a vital role in illuminating a path forward, and continues to do so for young ensembles working to define their own artistic identities.