Brooklyn Rider “Makes It New” with five world premieres this fall
Five world premieres crown an action-packed fall season for Brooklyn Rider, the group credited with “recreating the 300-year-old form of string quartet as a vital and creative 21st-century ensemble” (NPR). October and November see the game-changing quartet “Make It New” at the University of North Carolina’s “Rite of Spring at 100” festival, pairing the music of Stravinsky and Bartók with new commissions from John Zorn, Shara Worden, and the group’s own Colin Jacobsen (Nov 16). Brooklyn Rider also premieres new works by Gabriel Kahane at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall (Oct 25) and by Vijay Iyer as part of its residency at the Bach Festival Society in Winter Park, FL (Nov 4); works on a new recording with banjo legend Béla Fleck; and undertakes extensive touring that includes the ensemble’s Hawaii debut (Oct 28 & 30).
As quartet violist Nicholas Cords reflects:
“The next couple of months for us are overflowing with activity, all revolving around new projects; we’re very excited! Along with premieres of works by John Zorn, Vijay Iyer, Shara Worden, Gabriel Kahane, and Colin Jacobsen, we are diving into a new collaboration with choreographer John Heginbotham and spending a few days in the recording studio with Béla Fleck. And last but not least, our first visit to Hawaii! Hard to believe all of this takes us only to Thanksgiving.”
Three of the upcoming premieres take place at the University of North Carolina’s season-long “Rite of Spring at 100” festival, which celebrates the centenary of Stravinsky’s iconic ballet score with the help of such luminaries as Yo-Yo Ma, Yefim Bronfman, and the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. It is there that Brooklyn Rider fulfills the modernist injunction (first issued by American poet Ezra Pound) to “Make It New,” with the launch of a characteristically bold new program of that name. “Make It New” juxtaposes masterpieces by two giants of 20th-century innovation – Stravinsky and Bartók – with new music exemplifying innovation in the present. On November 16, alongside Stravinsky’s Three Pieces for String Quartet and Bartók’s String Quartet No. 2, Brooklyn Rider will give the world premieres of three major new commissions: one from MacArthur Fellow and iconoclastic polymath John Zorn; another by My Brightest Diamond singer/songwriter Shara Worden; and a work by the quartet’s own violinist – “one of the most interesting figures on the classical music scene” (Washington Post) – Colin Jacobsen, whose multidisciplinary new piece features choreography by two-time Jerome Robbins Foundation New Essential Works-recipient John Heginbotham. To round out the program, which crowns the second leg of the group’s three-year residency at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Brooklyn Rider will also reprise The Fiction Issue, a new work from crossover sensation Gabriel Kahane (“one of the most prodigious talents we’ve got” – New York Times). Kahane’s work will receive its world premiere on October 25 at Carnegie Hall (which commissioned the piece) at the composer/singer-songwriter’s Zankel Hall recital. He will be joined by Brooklyn Rider and fellow guest artist Shara Worden at the performance.
On November 4, Brooklyn Rider showcases another premiere, this time from jazz pianist/composer Vijay Iyer, recognized as “among the most daringly original jazz artists of [his] generation” (Chicago Tribune) and honored in an unprecedented five categories by this year’s DownBeat International Critics Poll. The quartet presents Iyer’s new work for string quartet “as the culmination of a four-day residency with the Bach Festival Society of Winter Park in Florida. Iyer’s music, along with the music of Ethan Iverson (pianist of the jazz trio The Bad Plus), is also programmed for the group’s upcoming dates in Fairfield, CT (Nov 9) and Burlington, VT (Nov 10). All three concerts will also include the Bartók and Stravinsky selections from “Make It New,” as well as György Kurtág’s 12 Microludes and Culai by Lev “Ljova” Zhurbin. Similar programs in Beacon, NY (Oct 21) and Northampton, MA (Nov 11) also offer Jacobsen’s Persian Miniatures and the quartet’s Beethoven-inspired group composition, Seven Steps, as heard on Brooklyn Rider’s disc of the same name, which Cleveland Classical calls “an album that should be on everybody’s CD shelf.”
For its first appearances in Hawaii, Brooklyn Rider teams up with the Kurdish-Iranian Grammy-nominated composer/kamancheh-player Kayhan Kalhor. The group’s CD Silent City, also a collaboration with the Persian music-master, proved “a real thrill ride” (Strings), impressing Gramophone magazine as “superbly conceived, organically evolved, and wonderfully rich…proof of both their personal dedication and artistic insights.” The quartet’s concerts in Kahului (Oct 28) and Honolulu (Oct 30) present Kalhor’s composition Silent City alongside quartets by Jacobsen and Bartók.
November sees yet another propitious crossover collaboration, when the quartet heads into the studio with 14-time Grammy Award-winner Béla Fleck to record his music for banjo and string quartet.
Further details of Brooklyn Rider’s upcoming engagements are provided below, and more information is available at the quartet’s web site: www.brooklynrider.com.
Brooklyn Rider: 2012 fall engagements
Oct 21
Beacon, NY
Howland Cultural Center
Howland Chamber Music Circle
Brooklyn Rider: Seven Steps
Mendelssohn: String Quartet, Op.12
Lev “Ljova” Zhurbin: Culai
Stravinsky: Three Pieces for String Quartet
Bartók: String Quartet No. 2
Colin Jacobsen: Persian Miniatures
Oct 25
New York, NY
Carnegie Hall, Zankel Hall
With Gabriel Kahane and Shara Worden
Gabriel Kahane: The Fiction Issue (world premiere; Carnegie Hall commission)
Oct 28
Kahului, HI
Castle Theatre, Maui Arts & Cultural Center
With Kayhan Kalhor
Colin Jacobsen: Three Miniatures for String Quartet
Bartók: String Quartet No. 2
Colin Jacobsen: Atashgah
Kayhan Kalhor: Silent City
Oct 30
Honolulu, HI
Doris Duke Theatre, University of Hawaii at Manoa
Colin Jacobsen: Three Miniatures for String Quartet
Bartók: String Quartet No. 2
Colin Jacobsen: Atashgah
Kayhan Kalhor: Silent City
Nov 1–4
Winter Park, FL
Bach Festival
Bach Festival Society of Winter Park
Residency
Nov 4
Winter Park, FL
Bach Festival – Bach Festival Society of Winter Park
Residency – Performance
Stravinsky: Three Pieces for String Quartet
Bartók: String Quartet No. 2
Brooklyn Rider: Seven Steps
György Kurtág: Twelve Microludes
Lev “Ljova” Zhurbin: Culai
Colin Jacobsen: Persian Miniatures
Vijay Iyer: new work (world premiere)
Nov 9
Fairfield, CT
Fairfield University, Quick Center for the Arts
Stravinsky: Three Pieces for String Quartet
Bartók: String Quartet No. 2
Vijay Iyer: work, TBC
Ethan Iverson: work, TBC
György Kurtág: 12 Microludes
Lev “Ljova” Zhurbin: Culai
Traditional: Music of the Roma
Nov 10
Burlington, VT
FlynnSpace, Flynn Center for the Performing Arts
Stravinsky: Three Pieces for String Quartet
Bartók: String Quartet No. 2
Vijay Iyer: work, TBC
Ethan Iverson: work, TBC
György Kurtág: 12 Microludes
Lev “Ljova” Zhurbin: Culai
Traditional: Music of the Roma
Nov 11
Northampton, MA
Music in Deerfield
Sweeney Concert Hall, Smith College
Stravinsky: Three Pieces for String Quartet
Bartók: String Quartet No. 2
Brooklyn Rider: Seven Steps
György Kurtág: 12 Microludes
Lev “Ljova” Zhurbin: Culai
Colin Jacobsen: Persian Miniatures
Nov 12
Chapel Hill, NC
UNC Residency
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Nov 16
Chapel Hill, NC
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
“Rite of Spring at 100”
“Make It New” with Gabriel Kahane and Shara Worden
Stravinsky: Three Pieces for String Quartet
Bartók: String Quartet No. 2, Op. 17
Shara Worden: new work (2012) (world premiere)
John Zorn: new work (2012) (world premiere)
Gabriel Kahane: The Fiction Issue (2012)
Colin Jacobsen: new work, with choreography by John Heginbotham (2012) (world premiere)
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