To survive in a strained classical music marketplace, this borough-based quartet expanded its repertoire to include jazz, world, and rock

by tia kim • photo by Sarah Small

Hailed as nothing less than “the future of chamber music” by Strings magazine, Brooklyn Rider has as its considerable mission to present a synergized repertoire using classical, world, and rock music influences.

Formed in 2006, the quartet’s first recording, Passport, was released in 2008, and was promptly selected by NPR as one of its best classical albums of the year. Then came Dominant Curve in 2010, which was featured on NPR’s show All Songs Considered, then in the network’s “Best Music of 2010 So Far” list. Arguably the foursome’s biggest break, however, was being chosen by famed American composer Philip Glass to record his complete list of string quartets in 2011.

Comprising Johnny Gandelsman and Colin Jacobsen on violin, Nicholas Cords on viola, and Michael Nicolas on cello, Brooklyn Rider also founded the Stillwater Music Festival in 2006 to serve as platform for new pieces and collaborations. They also teach, with past residencies at Dartmouth College, Denison University, Williams College, MacPhail Center for the Arts, and Texas A&M University.

Last season, the group celebrated its tenth anniversary with the multi-disciplinary project Brooklyn Rider Almanac, for which it recorded 15 specially commissioned works, each inspired by a different artistic muse. This season brought an album with Anne Sofie von Otter, entitled So Many Things (on Naïve Records), which includes music by Colin Jacobsen, Caroline Shaw, John Adams, Nico Muhly, Björk, Sting, Kate Bush, and Elvis Costello, among others. The quartet will tour material from the album in the U.S. and Europe, including stops at Carnegie Hall and the Opernhaus Zurich.

After performances at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Massachusetts in July, the foursome expanded its tour with choreographer Brian Brooks and former New York City Ballet prima ballerina Wendy Whelan, performing Some of a Thousand Words, which incorporates dance and music from composers John Luther Adams, Tyondai Braxton, Philip Glass, and Evan Ziporyn. The work will be featured in appearances at Michigan State University in East Lansing on December 1 and a February 21 show at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

Brooklyn Rider
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