A Soulful Nexus
Akropolis Reed Quintet
FOR YOUR
GRAMMY® CONSIDERATION
Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance
Best Instrumental Composition
Derrick Skye: A Soulful Nexus, V. A Soulful Nexus
Producer of the Year, Classical
Elaine Martone
ABOUT
LISTEN
The Akropolis Reed Quintet’s 7th release, A Soulful Nexus by Derrick Skye, is an album-length transcultural work shaped by deep listening across musical traditions. Persian classical music, Balkan vocal lines, and electronic dance rhythms intersect through intricate ornamentation and microtonal color. Across five movements, a kaleidoscope of geographies and sonic languages—rhythmic, polyphonic, groove-based, and meditative—interweave to reveal a shared purpose: music that listens to the world.
ABOUT AKROPOLIS REED QUINTET:
Photo Credit: Jason Walker
Founded in 2009, the GRAMMY® Award-winning Akropolis Reed Quintet is “a sonically daring ensemble who specializes in performing new works with charisma and integrity” (BBC Music Magazine). Comprising five reed players and entrepreneurs unbounded by limits or categorization, Akropolis has graced the Classical Billboard Charts with each of their last three albums, including #2 in April, 2024, and has won seven national chamber music prizes including the 2014 Fischoff Gold Medal. Having premiered and commissioned more than 200 works by living artists and composers, they are pioneers and champions of a new genre of classical music—the reed quintet.
Composed of the same five members that brought about its founding at the University of Michigan, they are the first ensemble to receive the University's Paul M. Boylan Alumni Award. Akropolis delivers 120 concerts and educational events worldwide each year at luminary series including Tanglewood, Bravo! Vail, University Musical Society, Chamber Music Northwest, and more. Akropolis became the first ever GRAMMY® winning reed quintet with their 2024 album, Are We Dreaming the Same Dream?, in collaboration with Pascal Le Boeuf and drummer Christian Euman, taking home Best Instrumental Composition for the track “Strands” at the 67th Grammy Awards held in February, 2025.
Following this 2025 GRAMMY®win for Strands by Pascal Le Boeuf, Akropolis will release their 7th album on September 25, 2026, entitled A Soulful Nexus, which features an album-length transcultural work by composer Derrick Skye. Shaped by deep listening across musical traditions, the project blends Persian, Balkan, Indian, and electronic music across five movements that feature rhythmic, polyphonic, groove-based, and meditative elements in dialogue, emphasizing connection rather than contrast.
Utilizing their “sheer musical imagination” (Gramophone), the quintet is also known for powerful collaborations with youth and others within its Southeast Michigan community. Certified as a 510(c)(3) nonprofit organization, Akropolis runs a Detroit-based summer festival called Together We Sound, holds an annual, school year-long music composition residencies at Cass Tech, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Detroit School of Arts high schools, and produces a week-long Chamber Music Institute focused on artist training and mentorship in partnership with Interlochen Center for the Arts.
Described as “pure gold” by the San Francisco Chronicle, Akropolis Reed Quintet performs worldwide and is represented exclusively by Ariel Artists.
