Modney (née Josh Modney) is a composer and violinist working at the nexus of composition, improvisation, and interpretation. A “new-music luminary” (The New York Times) hailed as “one of today’s most intrepid experimentalists” (Bandcamp Daily), Modney is a foremost interpreter of adventurous contemporary music, and has cultivated a holistic artistic practice as a composer, solo improviser, bandleader, writer, and collaborator. A highly detailed relationship to sound production on the violin is foundational to Modney’s creative practice, with a particular interest in complex timbres, just intonation, and in exploring the perceptual space between improvisation and notation. Modney’s 2024 release of chamber music, Ascending Primes (Pyroclastic Records), featuring acclaimed creative musicians such as Anna Webber, Nate Wooley, Charmaine Lee, Ben LaMar Gay, and Cory Smythe, has been hailed as “a torrential and stunning record, which sounds like nothing else and serves as a peremptory statement: there is a new school in New York (Blow Up Magazine)”, and as a “detail-packed endeavor that’s as wondrous as it is demanding (Peter Margasak, Bandcamp Daily).” Modney’s debut solo record, Engage (New Focus), was lauded by The New York Times as “…a highlight of 2018…one of the most intriguing programs of the year…radical in its execution”. The triple-disc album features music written for Modney by Kate Soper, Eric Wubbels, Taylor Brook, and Sam Pluta alongside groundbreaking interpretations of works by Anthony Braxton and J.S. Bach. The third disc is devoted to Modney’s own solo works “…where [he] pushes the boundaries of his instrument and his body without any kind of treatments, alternate tunings, or editing… powerful testimony to sound-seeking by one of today’s most intrepid experimentalists (Bandcamp Daily).” Modney’s followup album of quartet compositions in 2022, Near To Each (Carrier Records), featuring Ingrid Laubrock (sax), Cory Smythe (piano), Mariel Roberts (cello), and Modney on violin, was lauded by KLANG as “wonderfully composed… remarkably performed… a quartet that is playing individually and collectively at the height of their powers.” Modney has received awards from The Shifting Foundation. Modney is the violinist and Executive Director of the composer-performer collective Wet Ink Ensemble, and a member of the International Contemporary Ensemble.