The Café Royal Cultural Foundation NYC has awarded a 2022 Summer Music Grant to Victor Lowrie Tafoya for his album, “Mivos Quartet: Playing With Seeds.”

Victor is the violist, executive director, and one of the founding members of the Mivos Quartet. Since its inception in 2008, Mivos Quartet has been dedicated to advancing and performing new music in all its variety to diverse audiences worldwide. The quartet commissions and premieres new repertoire for string quartet, working closely with composers over extended time periods, treating each new piece as a true collaboration.

Mivos maintains an active international performance schedule, with regular appearances as ensemble-in-residence. Mivos takes part in many educational residencies at universities and summer festivals, working with young performers and composers to develop their skills. The quartet also runs two composition prizes to help discover and promote emerging composers in the US and abroad. Beyond these activities, Mivos is committed to collaborating with guest artists, exploring multimedia projects involving live video and electronics, and performing improvised music. The four members of Mivos Quartet are: Olivia De Prato & Maya Bennardo, violins; Victor Lowrie Tafoya, viola; Tyler Borden, cello.

Mivos Quartet will record and release an album of pieces written for them in the last five years by a diverse, exciting group of living American composers - “Mivos Quartet: Playing With Seeds.” This album will fulfill one of the core missions of Mivos, to commission, premiere and champion new music for string quartet from composers diverse in aesthetic, demographic, identity and career level. The works will include new pieces by two luminaries in the new music field - composers George Lewis with his String Quartet 2.5, “Playing With Seeds” (2017) and Jeffrey Mumford with his ". . . amid still and floating depths" (2019). Alongside these works by these eminent composers, the album will  feature new pieces by young up-and-coming artists - Michaela Catranis' “luminous animal" (2020) and Peter Kramer's "Three Fragments" (2021). Mivos has performed each piece several times in their regular performance and touring schedule, establishing each work as a part of their core repertoire. An album including these four recent works will showcase the kind of thoughtfully curated projects the quartet is known for - showcasing amazing new music from composers diverse in musical style & demographic in a cohesive, complementary way.  Each of these pieces were commissioned and/or written for the quartet, and this album will be the first commercially released recording of each piece. The album has an anticipated release date of June 2, 2023.