JOSH MODNEY

Josh Modney is a violinist devoted to creative musicmaking. A “new-music luminary”, “superb violinist” (The New York Times) and “multitasking virtuoso” (The New Yorker) hailed for “brash, energetic performances” (The New York Times), Josh has performed at festivals and concert series across four continents and presented hundreds of premieres.

As violinist and Executive Director of the Wet Ink Ensemble and a member of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), Josh has collaborated closely on new work with composers including Kate Soper, Alex Mincek, Eric Wubbels, Andrew Greenwald and Rick Burkhardt, and worked with major figures including Kaija Saariaho, Mathias Spahlinger, Helmut Lachenmann, George Lewis, Christian Wolff, and Peter Ablinger. Josh performed internationally with the Mivos Quartet for 8 years, a vital new-music string quartet that he co-founded in 2008.

As an improviser, Josh has performed with artists including Sam Pluta, Nate Wooley and Patrick Higgins (ZS), and recently recorded “Engage”, his debut album of original music for solo violin. Josh’s critically acclaimed release of improvised chamber music for violin and guitar on NNA tapes, “EVRLY MVSIC” (with Patrick Higgins) was praised for its “Baroque grandiosity… with a modern tension and heaviness… that resonate with the times we live in” (BBC Radio) and “clairvoyant connection and sheer instrumental prowess” (The Quietus).

Josh has a passion for large-scale performance projects, and has presented evening-length chamber works including Mathias Spahlinger’s “extension”, for violin and piano (with Wet Ink’s Eric Wubbels) and Wolfgang Rihm’s “Musik für Drei Streicher” (with ICE), as well as adventurous interpretations of J.S. Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin informed by his work with Just Intonation. Josh has recorded for Carrier Records, Deutsche Grammophon, Sound American Publications, hat[now]ART, Nonesuch, Ex Cathedra, and Tzadik Records.