Spontaneous Symbols is Brooklyn Rider’s first quartet-only album since 2014’s Brooklyn Rider Almanac. It’s out digitally now. Physical CD due Nov. 3.
from l. Colin Jacobsen, Johnny Gandelsman, Nicholas Cords and Michael Nicolas
The classical music industry is exploding out of control. Windows of opportunity are opening for the industry and the art.
Brooklyn Rider is an example of what can result in such a free-wheeling cultural environment. Everything is a project. They chose what they want to do. They morph across genres, building musical bridges as they go. They play music of the future as soon as the ink’s dry.
Brooklyn Rider consists of violinists Johnny Gandelsman and Colin Jacobsen, violist Nicholas Cords, and cellist Michael Nicolas.
This season’s flurry of four releases includes Spontaneous Symbols as well as upcoming projects including Aspects of Darkness and Light with jazz saxophonist Joshua Redman, bassist Scott Colley, and percussionist Satoshi Takeishi; an album with Irish fiddler Martin Hayes; and Orange Mountain Music’s release of Philip Glass’s two most recent String Quartets plus Brooklyn Rider’s arrangement of his Saxophone Quartet.
Following a Northeast tour Brooklyn Rider will be on the road in November and December in San Francisco, San Diego, and College Park, Maryland. The New Year will see them with Swedish soprano Anne Sofie von Otter for two European concerts, a U.S. tour with banjo superstar Béla Fleck, and a West-Coast reunion with kamancheh virtuoso Kayhan Kalhor.
I talked to Brooklyn Rider about the state of classical music the art and the industry, and whether string quartets will ever be the same. We started with the basics.
What is a string quartet?
“A string quartet is a group made up of two violinists, one violist, and one cellist. We play music from Mozart’s time to 2017. There is no conductor to tell us what to do or even to beat out the time. Rather, we are four conductors, all of whom must unite in vision and execution.” Michael Nicolas, cellist
Whose music does Brooklyn Rider play?
“We mostly play living, breathing composers of our time. We love them because they all wrote authentically and lovingly for Brooklyn Rider.” Nicholas Cords, violist
On their new Spontaneous Sounds CD, Brooklyn Rider plays Tyondai Braxton, Evan Ziporyn, Paula Matthusen, Kyle Sanna, and Colin Jacobsen.
On their first seven CDs Brooklyn Rider played John Adams, Bjork, Kate Bush, Elvis Costello, Ludwig van Beethoven, Anders Hillborg, Brad Mehldau, Nico Muhly, Caroline Shaw, Sting, Rufus Wainwright, Claude Debussy, Dmitri Yanov-Yanovsky, John Cage, Philip Glass, Christopher Tignor, Lev “Ljova” Zhurbin, Béla Bartók, Béla Fleck, Rubin Kodheli, Dana Lyn, Padma Newsome, Daniel Cords, Aoife O'Donovan, Vijay Iyer, Greg Saunier, Ethan Iverson, Gonzalo Grau, Glenn Kotche, and Bill Frisell.
Where do you play?
“Since a string quartet can perform practically anywhere, we have performed in big halls, museums, schools, churches, galleries, coffee shops, and bars. There are venues with great acoustics like Mechanics Hall in Worcester, and venues that have amazing vibes like the Angel Orensanz Foundation on Lower East Side Manhattan. But really an evening’s memorable if the audience comes to share the experience with you. It doesn’t really matter where we are playing, we’re happy. Johnny Gandelsman, violin
Do you play at festivals?
“This year alone: Grand Teton Music Festival, Trasimeno Music Festival, Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival, Vail International Dance Festival, to name a few . Even the Heidelberg String Quartet Festival. For 10 years we produced the Stillwater (Minnesota) Music Festival.” Colin Jacobsen, violinist
Name one cool thing about being Brooklyn Rider.
“After our successful show with dancers Wendy Whelan and Colin Brooks a few years ago at Vail, they asked us to play a live music role in a new project called Some of a Thousand Words. We play Glass, Tyondai Braxton, John Luther Adams, and Jacob Cooper, plus a recent piece I wrote called BTT which pays homage to the 1970’s downtown NY scene when Glass first came to prominence. It’s a joy to watch them bring your music to life through their imagination.” Colin Jacobsen, violinist
How close are you to operating like a conventional string quartet?
I agree intuitively that we are not exactly conventional, but I have trouble describing the difference. I do know that in the not-too-distant past, it has been said that one must specialize as a traditional quartet, a new music quartet, a historically informed string quartet, a so-called eclectic quartet, a rock quartet, and so on. We definitely reject that notion wholeheartedly. We believe you need to know at least something about all of those things in order to be a 21st century musician. Nicholas Cords, violist
What do you do when you’re not Brooklyn Rider?
“I am co-artistic director of The Knights, the orchestra I founded with my brother Eric, based at BRIC in Brooklyn and tours worldwide. I played Schubert at Tanglewood this summer with Emanuel Ax and Yo-Yo Ma who backed the new song I wrote for Jamie Barton. I play in the Silkroad Ensemble which recently released an album on Johnny’s In A Circle label of music featured in Ken Burns' documentary series on the Vietnam War.” Colin Jacobsen, violin
“I am recording and preparing to tour Bach’s music for solo violin. I also play with Silkroad and occasionally produce records. Two years ago I co-produced Silkroad’s latest album, Sing Me Home which went on to win a Grammy for Best World Music album. That was fun.” Johnny Gandelsman, violin
“I play and tour with Third Sound, which debuted at the 2015 Havana Contemporary Music Festival, and the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE). I work and play with John Zorn both in New York and around the world on his Bagatelles Marathon tours.” Michael Nicolas, cellist
“I play in Silkroad and serve as its programing chair. I love teaching at Stony Brook University and participating in period performance projects with folks like the Smithsonian Chamber Players. I am working on my first new solo recording since my Recursions CD.” Nicholas Cords, violist