The Vijay Iyer Quartet

Some performances—especially jazz—invite you to surrender the need to know what’s coming next. You stop trying to predict the next note and simply hold your breath, waiting to discover where the music will lead. That uncertainty is the thrill: performers and audience alike following the sound somewhere unexpected, until you find yourself wondering, How did they do that?

The Vijay Iyer Quartet lives in that space of possibility. Performing compositions by composer-pianist Vijay Iyer, the ensemble reveals new possibilities in the music each time it takes the stage.

Voted DownBeat‘s Jazz Artist of the Year four times and a MacArthur Fellow, Iyer has spent decades expanding the possibilities of the jazz quartet. His celebrated trio with bassist Linda May Han Oh and drummer Tyshawn Sorey was praised by The New York Times as “one of the best bands in jazz.”

Building on three decades of musical collaboration and experimentation, Iyer expanded the ensemble in 2025 with the addition of trumpeter Adam O’Farrill, a longtime collaborator and member of one of Afro-Latin music’s most revered musical families.

Together, the quartet combines acoustic instruments with Fender Rhodes and electronics, creating music that is fearless, unpredictable, and constantly unfolding.

Student tickets always $11. Eligible for CLE. Find out more and buy tickets at: https://carolinaperformingarts.org/events/thevijayiyerquartet/