Third Stream

Third Stream is a term used to refer to music that is neither classical nor jazz, or both classical and jazz, or music that doesn’t try to fit one label or the other. The term Third Stream was coined by Gunther Schuller. 

These first performances bring together the music of Gunther Schuller’s 4th string Quartet, written in 2002 and premiered by the Juilliard Quartet, and an out-of-print score of AACM founding and Bronzeville native Leroy Jenkins, Theme and Improvisation on the Blues, originally premiered by the Kronos quartet in 1986. 

Third Stream Quartets were performed at First Presbyterian Church in Woodlawn on November 11, 2023, and at the International Museum of Surgical Science in Lincoln Park on November 12, 2023. For live videos of these performances, see the links below.

Third Stream music represents an integrated approach to music that combines the "streams" of both classical and jazz, notated music and improvised music, and offers opportunities for new relationships between performers, composers, and genres. Third Stream is an ongoing project of curation, commissioning, and performance with Missing Piece and collaborators.