Brooklyn Rider: Spontaneous Symbols

About

Johnny Gandelsman – Violin
Colin Jacobsen – Violin
Nicholas Cords – Viola
Michael Nicolas – Cello

Veteran string quartet Brooklyn Rider presents Spontaneous Symbols, an evening of new works composed for the intrepid ensemble. Often noted for their global collaborations and provocative readings of the standard repertoire, the performance shows the quartet at the core of their mission — bringing new works to life. The evening will feature works by Battles veteran Tyondai Braxton, Brooklyn Rider’s own Colin Jacobsen, Bang On A Can founderEvan Ziporyn, electro-acoustic composer Paula Matthusen, and Brooklyn-based Kyle Sanna.

Brooklyn Rider combines an eclectic repertoire with a gripping performance style that is attracting legions of fans and drawing critical acclaim from classical, world and rock critics. NPR credits Brooklyn Rider with “recreating the 300-year-old form of string quartet as a vital and creative 21st-century ensemble.” The group has performed in venues as varied as Carnegie Hall, San Francisco Jazz Festival, Telluride Bluegrass Festival, London’s Wigmore Hall and the South By Southwest. In 2015, the group celebrated its tenth anniversary with the groundbreaking multi-disciplinary project Brooklyn Rider Almanac, for which it recorded and toured 15 specially commissioned works. Other recording projects include the quartet’s debut recording in 2008, Passport, followed by Dominant Curve in 2010, Seven Steps in 2012, and A Walking Fire in 2013. The ensemble has appeared on two albums with banjo legend Bela Fleck and in 2016 released The Fiction Issue with singer- songwriter Gabriel Kahane, andso many things with celebrated mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter.