Brooklyn Rider Premieres New Almanac Choreography at Vail Dance Festival, Makes Shakespeare’s Globe Debut, and Joins Anne Sofie von Otter for Farewell Concert at Stillwater Music Festival
Brooklyn Rider – the pathbreaking string quartet named one of Q2’s “10 Imagination-Grabbing, Trailblazing Artists of 2014” – recently scored a critical coup with the release of the Brooklyn Rider Almanac (vinyl album release on August 2). Comprising 15 new commissions from composers best known beyond the classical realm, the album anchors a revolutionary multi-disciplinary project of the same name. This takes the quartet to the Vail International Dance Festival for live accounts of key Almanac compositions by Aoife O’Donovan, Vijay Iyer, Glenn Kotche, Padma Newsome, and Greg Saunier, now accompanying the world premiere performances of newly commissioned choreography from dance luminaries Lil Buck & Damian Woetzel, Rashaun Mitchell & Silas Riener, Matthew Neenan, and Pam Tanowitz (Aug 2–9). Brooklyn Rider showcases further Almanac selections at Maine’s Bay Chamber Concerts (July 16 & 17) and New York’s Concerts at Tannery Pond (July 18), before heading to Ireland and London for a tour with Irish fiddler Martin Hayes, including a candlelit concert at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, the new Jacobean-style addition to Shakespeare’s Globe (Aug 18). The group concludes the summer with a farewell residency at the Stillwater Music Festival; having first founded the Minnesota festival ten years ago, now the quartet draws its final season to a glorious close in a wide-ranging collaboration with star mezzo Anne Sofie von Otter (Aug 27).
Click here to see a short preview of Brooklyn Rider’s collaboration with Lil Buck, in “this thing together” from Vijay Iyer’s Dig The Say.
Over the past decade, Brooklyn Rider has unveiled many musical ventures at the Stillwater Music Festival. Now, to close out this happy era on a high note, the quartet returns to helm the festival’s final edition. At a concert with a champagne toast to celebrate the tenth anniversary season, Brooklyn Rider plays signature favorites in an intimate, salon-style “Stillwateriade” (Aug 25). Then, following its annual Free Family Concert (Aug 26), the quartet joins forces with special guest Anne Sofie von Otter, winner of the International Record Critics’ “Recording Artist of the Year” award, for a Farewell Concert at Stillwater’s Trinity Lutheran Church (Aug 27). The characteristically compelling program juxtaposes new commissions and recent works by John Adams, Nico Muhly, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Caroline Shaw, and quartet member Colin Jacobsen, with arrangements of songs by Björk, Kate Bush, Elvis Costello, Sting, Rufus Wainwright, and others. As Brooklyn Rider’s members put it:
“It is with a heavy heart that we announce that this summer’s festival will be our last festival. We are extremely proud of the work we have done for this past decade, but as Brooklyn Rider moves forward in our musical adventures, it has become too difficult to sustain the responsibilities required to put on a great festival. We know we will be returning as a quartet to Minnesota many, many times in the future – it just won’t be under the umbrella of the Stillwater Music Festival. But, we are going out with a blast!”
For high-resolution photos, click here.
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Brooklyn Rider: summer engagements
July 16 & 17
Rockport, Maine
Bay Chamber Concerts
July 16: Rockport Opera House
Haydn: String Quartet Op. 74 No. 3 in G Minor, “Rider”
Padma Newsome: Gaps and Gorges
Schubert: String Quartet No. 13 in A minor, “Rosamunde”
July 17: Union Hall
Selections from the Brooklyn Rider Almanac
July 18
New Lebanon, NY
Concerts at Tannery Pond
Schubert: String Quartet No. 13 in A minor, “Rosamunde”
Selections from the Brooklyn Rider Almanac
Aug 2–9
Vail, CO
Vail International Dance Festival
Aug 2: “Ballet Blast”
Aug 4: “NOW: Premieres” with Greg Saunier, drums
Aug 7: “International Evenings of Dance I”
Aug 8: “International Evenings of Dance II”
Aug 9: “Balanchine Celebration”
Aug 14 & 15
Kilkenny, Ireland
Kilkenny Arts Festival
Aug 14
Selections from the Brooklyn Rider Almanac
Aug 15
With Martin Hayes, Irish fiddle
Aug 18
London, UK
Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, Shakespeare’s Globe
With Martin Hayes, Irish fiddle
Aug 20
Bantry, Ireland
Masters of Tradition Festival
With Martin Hayes, Irish fiddle
Aug 25–27
Stillwater, MN
Stillwater Music Festival
Aug 25: Washington Historic Courthouse
“Stillwateriade”: festival 10th-anniversary celebration
Aug 26: Washington Historic Courthouse
Free Family Concert
Aug 27: Trinity Lutheran Church
Festival Finale with Anne Sofie von Otter, mezzo-soprano
Includes works by Colin Jacobsen, Caroline Shaw, Esa-Pekka Salonen, John Adams, and Nico Muhly, and arrangements of songs by Björk, Sting, Elvis Costello, Rufus Wainwright, and Brad Mehldau
Sep 5
Skaneateles, NY
Skaneateles Festival; Brook Farm
With Joshua Redman, jazz saxophonist
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© 21C Media Group, July 2015