An “ensemble to watch” (Hyde Park Herald), the Poiesis Quartet is the 1st Prize and Commission Prize winners of the 2025 Banff International String Quartet Competition. Derived from ancient Greek (ποιεῖν), the word Poiesis means “to make”; specifically, to create something that has never existed before. With a focus on expanding the string quartet repertoire with vibrant new works by emerging composers by LGBTQ+ composers of color. Following world premieres of works by composers such as Brian Raphael Nabors, Kitty Brazelton and Cara Haxo, the commissioned work ‘String Quartet No. 7 Surfacing’ by Chinese-Canadian composer Kevin Lau premiered at the Chautauqua Institution in 2025. The debut album ‘as we are’ (Bright Shiny Things label, 2024) was praised for the quartet’s ‘immense depth’ (Cleveland Classical). As part of their Banff competition prize the young quartet will perform at the Amsterdam Biennale, the Lucerne Festival, London’s Wigmore Hall, Esterházy Castle and DeutschlandRadio in Cologne, among others.