About Échappée
Échappée is an ensemble with a string quartet at its core and a taste for exploring the edges of the repertoire. It brings together musicians whose virtuosity is embodied in their ability to move between historical and contemporary instruments and modes of expression.
Échappée is the initiative of violinist Jenna Sherry, previously founder and Artistic Director of Birdfoot Festival, where she developed her fascination with the subtle but powerful ways that perception, awareness, context, and juxtaposition shape how we listen, and therefore understand music. Ensemble Échappée takes these questions further, exploring new ways of hearing and understanding old music and the many layers of music-making that exist beyond written notation. While Western repertoire has been handed down as a written tradition, its most potent qualities have always been passed from performer to performer, generation to generation, as a living and malleable practice. Musical text becomes a departure point for seeking the intangible, while we look to the past to understand what it means to be human today.
As a quartet, Échappée plays on gut strings and historical bows. Four instruments, four voices with their own personalities, but a microcosm of possible relationships. Programmes include Sweet Dissonance and The Art of Fugue.
Échappée expands as needed to take on projects that are more experimental in form and spirit. Projects feature collaborations with philosophers and stage directors. Current projects include Undertones: Listening to John Cage and Beethoven, which places John Cage beside a chamber version of Beethoven's "Pastoral" Symphony.
Échappée was Ensemble in Residence during the inaugural Constellation Symposium: Music and the Land in October 2025, where it was mentored by John Eliot Gardiner. In 2027 the ensemble will release its debut CD Sweet Dissonance with Cobra Records.