JACK Quartet Awarded University of Washington's Brain Research Fellowship

The University of Washington has announced the JACK Quartet as its recipients of the 2019 'Creative Fellowship'

The University of Washington, in Seattle, has this week announced the New York-based JACK Quartet as its recipients of the 2019 Creative Fellowship - to be used towards music neuroscience research.

The ensemble has indicated they will use the bursary to experiment with an encephalophone - a musical instrument first developed in the 1970s which can be played be simply thinking.

"It's our research goal to help people who have lost their ability to make music ... by using this instrument they'll hopefully be able to make it again using other parts and process of their brain," the ensemble has said.

"The encephalophone is built on a brain-computer interface that allows people to move screen cursors and robotic arms with just brain signals," they have said.

Comprising violinists Austin Wulliman and John Pickford Richards, violist Christopher Otto and cellist Jay Campbell, the ensemble is known for their experimental contemporary music performances - and they were recently awarded Lincoln Center's Martin E. Segal Award and the New Music USA's Trailblazer Prize.