The term "orchestration" is rarely used in reference to the string quartet, but when we define it broadly (after Stephen McAdams) as "the choice, combination, and/or juxtaposition of timbres in a musical context," it becomes clear that the quartet is a rich and highly flexible vehicle for the exploration of orchestrational ideas.

Robert Hasegawa and colleagues from McGill, Université de Montréal, the Société des Arts Technologiques (SAT) and local new music ensembles planned an edition of the IRCAM Forum Workshop hors les murs in Montreal (April 2 to 5, 2020). This event brings together diverse Montreal institutions and offers an opportunity for exchanges between researchers and artists from IRCAM and their counterparts in Canada and the United States.