Akropolis Reed Quintet

Five musicians each with a different color background

Celebrating their 11th year and hailed by Fanfare Magazine for their “imagination, infallible musicality, and huge vitality,” the Akropolis Reed Quintet was founded in 2009 at the University of Michigan and has won seven national chamber music prizes including the Fischoff Gold Medal and Fischoff Educator Award. The San Francisco Chronicle dubbed Akropolis’ recent third album release, The Space Between Us, “pure gold.”

A nonprofit organization supported by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and numerous foundations and individuals nationwide, Akropolis delivers more than 120 annual performances and workshops. Akropolis has given collaborative concerts with David Shifrin, Jennifer Frautschi, the Dover Quartet, BodyVox Dance, YAK, New Music Detroit, HarperCollins-published author and scientist Vic Strecher, Arabic language poets Abdulrahman Alhumairy and Saeed AlMehrzi, and others.

In the 2019-20 season, Akropolis will premiere 10 commissions including Storm Warning, the first concerto for reed quintet and wind band by Roshanne Etezady; CANE, by Jenni Brandon with guest bassoonist Monica Ellis of Imani Winds; Homage to Paradise Valley by Jeff Scott with support from the Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Fund, celebrating the history of Detroit’s displaced Black Bottom neighborhood; and Sprocket, for reed quintet and rideable percussion bicycle by Steven Snowden.

Akropolis has premiered more than 70 new works and was selected to adjudicate and premiere the 2018 Barlow Prize funded by the Barlow Endowment, the first time the prize was given for a reed quintet work. Akropolis’ members are the first of any reed quintet to judge major chamber music competitions including the Fischoff Junior (2018) and Chamber Music Yellow Springs (2019) competitions.

Each June in Detroit, Akropolis presents its own 16-event festival, Togeter We Sound, featuring multidisciplinary collaborators, a workplace concert series, and educational outreach. Akropolis reaches more than 5,000 K-12 students annually, including a school year-long residency with students at three Detroit high schools.