Brooklyn Rider Releases Four New Albums This Season; Collaborates with Joshua Redman, Martin Hayes, Béla Fleck, and Anne Sofie von Otter; and More
Brooklyn Rider, the game-changing string quartet whose “superb playing is matched only by the thought, commitment and inspiration its members pour into projects” (NPR Music), releases four new albums in the 2017-18 season, beginning with Spontaneous Symbols on October 20, besides performing music from the album and more on both sides of the Atlantic. They focus on quartet performances in the northeast of the U.S. in October, before revisiting Some of a Thousand Words, their ongoing collaboration with dancers Brian Brooks and Wendy Whelan, for dates in California and Maryland. In the New Year they join Anne Sofie von Otter for two European concerts, and back in the U.S. they tour with banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck. Another transatlantic crossing takes them to Dublin and London’s Barbican with Irish fiddler Martin Hayes, before more performances around the U.S. in the spring. These include May collaborations with jazz saxophonist Joshua Redman in Princeton, Boston, and New York; and a West-Coast reunion with kamancheh virtuoso, three-time Grammy nominee, and longtime collaborator Kayhan Kalhor.
All the music on Spontaneous Symbols was written for Brooklyn Rider, by composers Tyondai Braxton, Colin Jacobsen, Evan Ziporyn, Paula Matthusen, and Kyle Sanna. As quartet violist Nicholas Cords puts it, the project “shows us once again at the core of our artistic mission as a string quartet; bringing new works to life.” Due for release on quartet violinist Johnny Gandelsman’s In a Circle Records, Spontaneous Symbols is Brooklyn Rider’s first quartet-only album since 2014’s Brooklyn Rider Almanac, and follows a series of recordings made in collaboration with artists like Fleck, von Otter and Gabriel Kahane. Later in the season the group will release three more albums. Recorded with jazz saxophonist Joshua Redman, bassist Scott Colley, and percussionist Satoshi Takeishi, Aspects of Darkness and Light is an evening-length work by saxophonist and composer Patrick Zimmerli, commissioned by the Seattle Commissioning Club. Next comes a collaborative album with legendary Irish fiddler Martin Hayes. Finally, on December 8 the Orange Mountain Music label issues the group’s recording of Philip Glass’s String Quartets Nos. 6 and 7 and Saxophone Quartet, as arranged for Brooklyn Rider. This follows the group’s recording of the composer’s first five string quartets, which was named one of NPR’s “50 Favorite Albums of 2011.”
Guggenheim Fellowship-winner Brian Brooks was one of the choreographers who contributed to Brooklyn Rider’s seminal, multidisciplinary Brooklyn Rider Almanac project in 2014. When the quartet premiered Some of a Thousand Words – a collaboration with Brooks and former New York City Ballet prima ballerina Wendy Whelan, in which the quartet’s kinetic onstage performance plays a central role – the project was hailed as a “triumph” (New Haven Independent). After its premiere two seasons ago, the intimate series of duets and solos was performed around the U.S. last spring, and Brooklyn Rider reunites with Brooks and Whelan this season for three more performances, in San Francisco and San Diego and then at the University of Maryland. Some of a Thousand Words again incorporates bespoke works, including those featured on Spontaneous Symbols by Tyondai Braxton and quartet violinist Colin Jacobsen, as well as music by Jacob Cooper, Philip Glass, and Pulitzer Prize-winner John Luther Adams.
When Brooklyn Rider released So Many Things last fall with Grammy Award-winning mezzo Anne Sofie von Otter, the disc was named “Album of the Week” by WQXR’s Q2, which observed: “As such versatile artists seize a kaleidoscope of styles with undaunted aplomb, So Many Things tears down the very concept of genre.” Colin Jacobsen’s music is again represented on So Many Things, alongside that of Caroline Shaw, John Adams, Nico Muhly, Björk, Sting, Kate Bush, Elvis Costello, and others. A live program based on the album also drew raves: the Washington Post admired Brooklyn Rider’s “intense, inspired performance” and von Otter’s “easy virtuosity.” Last season the quartet toured with von Otter in both Europe and the U.S., and they add two more performances this season: in Malmö, Sweden, and Potsdam in Northern Germany.
Brooklyn Rider’s collaboration with 14-time Grammy winner Béla Fleck dates back to Fleck’s 2013 album The Impostor, which features the quartet on his composition Night Flight Over Water. They also appear on the peerless banjoist’s 2017 album Juno Concerto, performing his Griff (G riff) and a movement from Quintet for Banjo and Strings, which he wrote in 1984 with virtuoso bassist Edgar Meyer. The group’s tour with Fleck next January takes in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Colorado, and Montana.
When the quartet plays with Kayhan Kalhor in the spring they will again be reuniting with an old friend and longtime collaborator. Like several of the quartet members, Kalhor has a long-standing relationship with Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble, and Brooklyn Rider was featured on Kalhor’s 2008 recording Silent City – named one of Rhapsody’s best world-music albums of the last decade.
Whether in collaboration or alone, Brooklyn Rider continues to forge new territory in the classical realm and beyond. As the Washington Post put it a few years ago:
“Brooklyn Rider’s blend of keen energy, enthusiasm, curiosity and ease of delivery, combined with the musicians’ tremendous talent, has forged a unique voice, which they skillfully deploy across a dazzling array of styles. Composer Greg Saunier has thanked them for ‘sneaking classical music out of museum jail.’ That pretty much says it all.”
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Brooklyn Rider: 2017-18 season
Oct 13
Pawling, NY
Pawling Concert Series
Oct 19
New York, NY
Roulette
Featuring works from Spontaneous Symbols
Oct 25
Washington, D.C.
Rhizome
Featuring works from Spontaneous Symbols
Oct 26
Baltimore, MD
An die Musik
Featuring works from Spontaneous Symbols
Oct 29
Amherst, MA
UMass Fine Arts Center
Oct 30
Boston, MA
Harvard Ed Portal
Featuring works from Spontaneous Symbols
Nov 29 & 30
San Francisco, CA
Herbst Theatre
San Francisco Performances Inc.
With Wendy Whelan, dancer and Brian Brooks, dancer/choreographer
Dec 2
San Diego, CA
La Jolla Music Society
Balboa Theatre
With Wendy Whelan, dancer and Brian Brooks, dancer/choreographer
Dec 9
College Park, MD
University of Maryland
Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center
With Wendy Whelan, dancer and Brian Brooks, dancer/choreographer
Jan 11
Malmö, Sweden
Malmö Live Konserthus
With Anne Sofie von Otter, mezzo-soprano
Jan 12
Potsdam, Germany
Nikolaisaal
With Anne Sofie von Otter, mezzo-soprano
Jan 14
Dallas, TX
Dallas Center for Performing Arts
With Béla Fleck, banjo
Jan 15
San Angelo, TX
San Angelo Performing Arts Center
With Béla Fleck, banjo
Jan 16
Edmond, OK
Armstrong Auditorium
With Béla Fleck, banjo
Jan 17
Fayetteville, AR
Walton Arts Center
With Béla Fleck, banjo
Jan 19
Beaver Creek, CO
Vilar Performing Arts Center
With Béla Fleck, banjo
Jan 20
Boulder, CO
University of Colorado
With Béla Fleck, banjo
Jan 21
Billings, MT
Alberta Bair Theater
With Béla Fleck, banjo
Jan 24
Dublin, Ireland
National Concert Hall
With Martin Hayes, violin
Jan 25
London, UK
Barbican Theatre
With Martin Hayes, violin
Feb 9
Santa Fe, NM
Lensic Performing Arts Center
Feb 13
Fort Worth, TX
Live Oak Music Hall & Lounge
Feb 15
Greenville, SC
Peace Center for the Performing Arts
Gunter Theater
Feb 17
Columbia, MD
Horowitz Visual and Performing Arts Center
Feb 23
Hamilton, MT
Bitterroot Performing Arts Council
April 28
Sleepy Hollow, NY
Sleepy Hollow High School
May 16
Tallahassee, FL
Florida State University
May 18
Princeton, NJ
McCarter Theatre
With Joshua Redman, saxophone
May 19
Boston, MA
Celebrity Series of Boston
Berklee Performance Center
With Joshua Redman, saxophone
May 20
New York, NY
New York City Town Hall
With Joshua Redman, saxophone
May 24
Corvallis, OR
Austin Auditorium at the LaSells Stewart Center
With Kayhan Kalhor, kamancheh
May 26
Irvine, CA
Irvine Barclay Theatre
With Kayhan Kalhor, kamancheh
June 2
Dresden, Germany
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© 21C Media Group, October 2017
