AUGUST 6, 2019 @ 7:00 PM

ORPHEUS CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
PASIÓN – A CONCERT OF SPANISH & SOUTH AMERICAN MUSIC —

Joaquin Turina, (1882-1949), La Oración del torero, for string orchestra, Op. 34, (1925) —

Joaquin Rodrigo, (1901-99), Zarabanda lejana y villancico, (1930) —

Juan Pablo Jofre, (1983), Tangodromo 1 for bandoneon and strings, (2016) —

Astor Piazzolla, (1921-92), Adiós Nonino, for bandoneon and strings, (1959) —

INTERMISSION

Heitor Villa-Lobos, (1887–1959), Bachianas Brasilieras No. 9 for string orchestra, (1945) —

Gabriela Lena Frank, (1972-), Chasqui and Coqueteos from Leyendas: An Andean Walkabout, (2001) —

Manuel Ponce, (1882-1948), Estampas Nocturnas, (1923)  —      

La Noche
En tiempos del rey sol
Arrulladora
Scherzo de Puck

Soloist: JP Jofre, bandoneon

WQXR HOST: Terrance McKnight

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

PROGRAM NOTES

“One afternoon of bullfighting in the Madrid arena…I saw my work. I was in the court of horses. Behind a small door, there was a chapel, filled with incense, where toreadors went right before facing death. It was then there appeared, in front of my eyes, in all its plenitude, this subjectively musical and expressive contrast between the hubbub of the arena, the public that awaited the fiesta, and the devotion of those who, in front of this poor altar, filled with touching poetry, prayed to God to protect their lives.” Joaquín Turina

Orpheus Chamber Orchestra

ORPHEUS CHAMBER ORCHESTRA

A standard-bearer of innovation and artistic excellence, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra is one of the world’s foremost chamber orchestras. Julian Fifer and a group of like-minded young musicians determined to combine the intimacy and warmth of a chamber ensemble to the richness of an orchestra founded Orpheus in 1972. Performing without a conductor, Orpheus presents an annual series at Carnegie Hall and tours extensively to major national and international venues.

Orpheus believes in empowering the unique voices of all people to make a valuable contribution. Working together as a collective of leaders, members explore each other’s musical ideas using their signature collaborative method, the Orpheus Process®, and give flight to vibrant, unconventional interpretations. Orpheus performances unfold dynamically, moment-by-moment, creating an energy shared by musicians and audiences alike.

Now in its 46th year, the Grammy Award-winning ensemble was founded by a group of like-minded young musicians determined to combine the intimacy and warmth of a chamber ensemble with the richness of an orchestra and has performed without the use of a conductor since its inception. Musicians rotate leadership roles for all rehearsals and performances as well as organizational capacities such as programming and governance.  Performing without a conductor, Orpheus presents an annual series at Carnegie Hall and tours extensively to major national and international venues.

Orpheus has recorded over 70 albums on all major classical labels, including a February 2019 release on Deutsche Grammophon of Mendelssohn concertos with pianist Jan Lisiecki. The group has commissioned and premiered 49 new works for chamber orchestra. Orpheus presents an annual performance series in New York City featuring collaborations with world-class guest soloists. A touring ensemble, Orpheus has performed in major international venues across 167 cities in 46 countries across four continents and has appeared regularly in Japan for 30 years.

Orpheus is committed to sharing its collaborative Process® with communities worldwide through engagement programs that promote equity and access to classical music for all ages and demographics. These include underwritten concert tickets and in-class visits from musicians for K-12 NYC students, development programs for emerging professionals in the arts, and Orpheus Reflections, a music and wellness program for people living with Alzheimer’s Disease and dementia and their caregivers.

JULY 30, 2019 @ 7:00 PM

Orchestra of St. Luke’s

Anna Clyne, (1980), Prince of Clouds, (2012)

2 Violin soloists, Jesse Mills & Krista Bennion Feeney

Florence Price, (1887-1953), Songs, (1930’s & 40’s)

Soprano– Jasmine Muhammad –

INTERMISSION

Samuel Barber, (1910-81), Adagio for Strings, (1936) –

Aaron Copland, (1900-90), Appalachian Spring, (1943-44) –

Conductor: Tito Muñoz 
Soloists: Jesse Mills & Krista Bennion Feeney – for Anna Clyne piece
Jasmine Muhammad – for Florence Price songs

**The performance of Orchestra of St. Luke’s has been made possible by a generous grant from the Hess & Helyn Kline Foundation**

WQXR HOST: Jeff Spurgeon

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Orchestra of St. Luke’s

Orchestra of St. Luke’s (OSL) began in 1974 as a group of virtuoso musicians performing chamber music concerts at Greenwich Village’s Church of St. Luke in the Fields. Today, the Orchestra performs at New York’s major concert venues across diverse musical styles and genres and has collaborated with artists ranging from Renée Fleming and Joshua Bell to Bono and Metallica. The Orchestra has participated in 118 recordings, four of which have won Grammy Awards, has commissioned more than 50 new works, and has given more than 175 world, U.S., and New York City premieres. In the fall of 2018, internationally celebrated expert in 18th-Century music, Bernard Labadie, will join the Orchestra as Principal Conductor, continuing the Orchestra’s long tradition of working with proponents of historical performance practice.OSL’s signature programming includes a subscription series presented by Carnegie Hall; an annual multi-week collaboration with Paul Taylor American Modern Dance at Lincoln Center; an annual summer residency at Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts; and a chamber music festival featuring appearances at The Morgan Library & Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, and Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Music Center. Nearly half of OSL’s performances each year are presented free of charge through its education and community programs. These include the five-borough Music in Color concert tour championing composers of color; the Free School Concert series of orchestral and cross-genre programs reaching over 10,000 New York City public school students annually; and a range of creative family programs and concerts. Additionally, OSL provides free instrumental coaching and presents student performances though its Youth Orchestra of St. Luke’s and its Mentorship Program for Pre-Professional Musicians.OSL built and operates The DiMenna Center for Classical Music in Hell’s Kitchen, New York City’s only rehearsal, recording, education, and performance space expressly dedicated to classical music. The Center serves more than 500 ensembles and more than 30,000 musicians each year and is an indispensable resource for classical music performance and production in the city. More than 170 studio recordings have been produced at The DiMenna Center since it opened in 2011.

SOLOISTS

TITO MUÑOZ is internationally recognized as one of the most gifted and versatile conductors on the podium today Tito Muñoz recently renewed his post as Music Director of the Phoenix Symphony for a second term. He has appeared with many of the most prominent orchestras in North America, including those of Atlanta, Boston and Cleveland, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s and the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C., and also maintains a strong international conducting presence, leading among others the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Sao Paolo State Symphony, Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, Danish National Chamber Orchestra, Auckland Philharmonia, and Sydney Symphony. As a proponent of new music Tito champions many composers of our time through expanded programming, commissions, premieres, and recordings, including Mauricio Sotelo, Michael Hersch, Adam Schoenberg, and Dai Fujikura.

JASMINE MUHAMMAD is a versatile vocalist, bridging the genre gap at every turn.

Most recently, she appeared as Hattie in Pittsburgh Opera’s world premiere of The Summer King. During her successful three year tenure as a Pittsburgh Opera Resident Artist, Jasmine appeared as Rodelinda in Handel’s Rodelinda and Micaëla in Bizet’s Carmen (2015); the High Priestess in Verdi’s Aida, First Lady in Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Eliza in Muhly’s Dark Sisters and Mimi in the student matinee of Puccini’s La Boheme (2013-2014). In the 2012 season, she appeared as Countess Ceprano in Verdi’s Rigoletto and Elisetta in Il matrimoniosegreto. Other operatic performances include Woman in a Hat and Duchess in The Ghosts of Versailles with Manhattan School of Music Opera Studio and First Lady in Die Zauberflöte with Martina Arroyo’s Prelude to Performance. In Summer 2012, Ms. Muhammad joined the International Vocal Arts Institute in Tel Aviv, Israel under the direction of Joan Dornemann.

Ms. Muhammad has sung background vocals for John Legend with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Marvin Gaye “What’s Going On” Tribute. She has also performed with Warren Haynes on the Jerry Garcia Symphonic Celebration Tour for four years. Most recently, Ms. Muhammad was awarded a 2015-2016 Sullivan Foundation Award and placed first in the 2015 Harlem Opera Theatre Vocal Competition. Ms. Muhammad is a 2014-2015 Metropolitan Opera National Council District winner and received Encouragement Awards from Metropolitan Opera National Council District Level competitions in 2015-2016, 2013-2014 and 2012-2013. She also received a Commendation for Excellence from the 2014 Mildred Miller International Voice Competition.

Ms. Muhammad holds a master’s degree in voice from Manhattan School of Music and a bachelor’s degree in voice from the Chicago College of Performing Arts.

KRISTA BENNION FEENEY has enjoyed an unusually varied career much in demand as a soloist, chamber musician, music director, and concertmaster. Krista has been a member of the St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble (serving for eight years as director of chamber music) and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s since 1983, where she performs frequently in the roles of concertmaster and violin soloist. She is currently involved in rediscovering and reviving a musical sound world from the past as the founding first violinist of the Serenade Orchestra and Quartet, playing music of the late-18th and early-19th centuries on historic instruments with original instrumental configurations. From 1999-2006, she was the music director of the unconducted New Century Chamber Orchestra based in San Francisco.

She has made several solo appearances with the San Francisco Symphony (making her debut in Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in e minor at age 15), with the St. Louis Symphony, the Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra in the world premiere of SolTierraLuna (a concerto written for her by Terry Riley), the Mostly Mozart Festival, and the New York String Orchestra at Carnegie Hall and at the Kennedy Center, in addition to several historic instrument ensembles.

Highlights of the 2016-2017 season included performances of Lou Harrison’s Suite for Violin and American Gamelan, in which The New York Times review stated “…the violinist Krista Bennion Feeney spun out beguiling figurations and subtle melodic twists…” and Nardini’s e minor violin concerto and Paganini’s La Campanella on historic violin with the American Classical Orchestra. Of her performance in Ralph Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, she was described by The Times as “…the superb violin soloist…”

She is the founding first violinist of the DNA Quintet, Loma Mar Quartet, and Ridge String Quartet (1979-1991), which, along with pianist Rudolf Firkusny, won the Diapason d’Or and a Grammy Award nomination in 1992 for its RCA recording of Dvorak’s Piano Quintets. The DNA Quintet, comprised of the Loma Mar Quartet with the addition of bassist John Feeney, has released world-premiere recordings of string quartets and quintets of Domenico Dragonetti on historic instruments to critical and popular acclaim, bringing this uniquely beautiful music to light after being hidden for more than 165 years in the British Library. The Loma Mar Quartet has also recorded original works written for the ensemble by Paul McCartney for EMI, and its members were recently featured as soloists in Arnold Schoenberg’s Concerto for Quartet and Orchestra with the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, and with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s for Paul Taylor’s American Modern Dance performances. Krista studied violin with Anthony Doheny, then Isadore Tinkleman and Stuart Canin at the San Francisco Conservatory, working later at the Curtis Institute with Jaime Laredo, Felix Galimer and Mischa Schneider.

In May 2014, The Times praised Krista’s playing of a violin sonata by Jean-Marie Leclair saying: “Her deep notes were rich and melancholy … there was a tender exuberance in both tumbles of notes and sustained phrases … a dramatic interplay of ferocity and light slyness.”

JESSE MILLS Two-time Grammy nominated violinist Jesse Mills enjoys performing music of many genres, from classical to contemporary, as well as composed and improvised music of his own invention.

Since his concerto debut at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago, Mr. Mills has performed throughout the U.S. and Canada. He has been a soloist with the Phoenix Symphony, the Colorado Symphony, the New Jersey Symphony, the Green Bay Symphony, Juilliard Chamber Orchestra, the Denver Philharmonic, the Teatro Argentino Orchestra (in Buenos Aires, Argentina), and the Aspen Music Festival’s Sinfonia Orchestra.

As a chamber musician Jesse Mills has performed throughout the U.S. and Canada, including concerts at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall, the 92nd Street Y, the Metropolitan Museum, the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, Boston’s Gardener Museum, Chicago’s Ravinia Festival, and the Marlboro Music Festival. He has also appeared at prestigious venues in Europe, such as the Barbican Centre of London, La Cité de la Musique in Paris, Amsterdam’s Royal Carré Theatre, Teatro Arcimboldi in Milan, and the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels. Mills is co-founder of Horszowski Trio and Duo Prism, a violin-piano duo with Rieko Aizawa, which earned 1st Prize at the Zinetti International Competition in Italy in 2006. With Ms. Aizawa, Mills became co-artistic director of the Alpenglow Chamber Music Festival in Colorado in 2010.

Mills is also known as a pioneer of contemporary works, a renowned improvisational artist, as well as a composer. He earned Grammy nominations for his performances of Arnold Schoenberg’s music, released by NAXOS in 2005 and 2010. He can also be heard on the Koch, Centaur, Tzadik, Max Jazz and Verve labels for various compositions of Webern, Schoenberg, Zorn, Wuorinen, and others. As a member of the FLUX Quartet from 2001-2003, Mills performed music composed during the last 50 years, in addition to frequent world premieres. As a composer and arranger, Mills has been commissioned by venues including Columbia University’s Miller Theater, the Chamber Music Northwest festival in Portland, OR and the Bargemusic in NYC.

Jesse Mills began violin studies at the age of three. He graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree from The Juilliard School in 2001. He studied with Dorothy DeLay, Robert Mann and Itzhak Perlman. Mr. Mills lives in New York City, and he is on the faculty at Longy School of Music of Bard College and at New York University. In 2010 the Third Street Music School Settlement in NYC honored him with the ‘Rising Star Award’ for musical achievement.

JULY 18, 2019 @ 7:00 PM

A Far Cry

Georg Muffat, (1653-1704), Concerto Grosso No. 12 “Propitia Sydera”, (1701) —
         Sonata-Grave, Aria-Largo, Gavotta-Alla breve e presto, Grave, Ciacona-Un poco grave, Borea-Allegro —

Caroline Shaw, (1982), Entr’acte, (2011, adapted for String Orchestra by A Far Cry 2014) —

Lembit Beecher, (1980), Conference of the Birds, (2017, Premiered with A Far Cry, 2018)  NEW YORK CITY PREMIERE  —

INTERMISSION

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, (1840-1893), Serenade in C Major, Op. 48, (1880) —

Pezzo in forma di sonatina: Andante non troppo — Allegro moderato
Valse: Moderato — Tempo di valse
Élégie: Larghetto elegiac
Finale (Tema russo): Andante — Allegro con spirito —

**The performance of A Far Cry has been made possible by a generous grant from The Arthur Loeb Foundation.**

WQXR HOST:  Paul Cavalconte

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

PROGRAM NOTES

Georg Muffat (1653-1704) :: Ciacona from Concerto Grosso No. XII, Propitia Sydera (To appease the stars)
The Italian violin virtuoso Arcangelo Corelli was at the center of a musical universe revolving around him, both in interest and influence. His renown stretched across the continent, and over to England, where the Italian music (especially of Corelli) was the rage. You either wanted to meet him, or did—and made sure to let everyone know about it.

Georg Muffat, a French composer of Scottish descent, was introduced to the concerti grossi of Corelli (his exact contemporary) during a sojourn to Rome, and subsequently wrote in the genre as well, completing twelve within his lifetime. An exciting instrumental format in the days prior to symphonies, the concerto grosso displayed the virtuosity of a smaller group of instrumentalists in conversation—at times perhaps argument—with a larger ensemble (the “concertino” and the “ripieno,” respectively). Movements of works were often imitative and inspired by dance. A popular one to riff on was the Ciaconna because of its repetitive base line upon which multiple variants of melodic material could be overlaid. Though traditionally a more fast-paced dance, as it became adapted for instrumental music it also was often slowed down to a more somber, or regal pace, as Muffat does here. Echoes of that earlier, jazzy, Ciaconna can still be found carefully embedded within Muffat’s composition; two contrasting versions of the same form, engaging in brilliant dialogue with each other.

Caroline Shaw (b. 1982) :: Entr’acte
Entr’acte was written in 2011 after hearing the Brentano Quartet play Haydn’s Op. 77 No. 2 — with their spare and soulful shift to the D-flat major trio in the minuet. It is structured like a minuet and trio, riffing on that classical form but taking it a little further. I love the way some music (like the minuets of Op. 77) suddenly takes you to the other side of Alice’s looking glass, in a kind of absurd, subtle, technicolor transition.
-Caroline Shaw

Lembit Beecher (b. 1980) :: The Conference of the Birds
“The Conference of the Birds” is a 12th-century Sufi epic poem by the Persian poet Farid ud-Din Attar. It tells a story about the birds of the world who gather together in a time of strife. Led by the hoopoe bird, they decide to set out on a long journey to find their king. Many birds desert or die along the journey, but after passing through valley after valley, the remaining 30 arrive at a lake at the top of a mountain. Looking in the lake at their own reflection, they finally see their king. I first came across it through an adaptation by the brilliant Czech-American illustrator and author Peter Sís. This was one of the most beautiful books I had ever seen: an adult picture book with an unusual graphic sensibility, a concise and beautifully ambiguous text, and full-page illustrations of mysterious landscapes that carried surprising emotional weight. Numerous adaptations of the original poem, including plays, children’s books and pieces of music, emphasized the story’s simple yet colorful narrative and moral didacticism, but what drew me to Sís’s version, aside from the expressive, textural drawings which so suggested music, was the deep sense of loss in the pages. So many birds are left by the wayside during this journey towards truth and enlightenment. Does progress or attempted progress always come at a cost?

I initially thought about trying to turn the story into an opera – but I realized I was less interested in the narrative scope of the story than in the emotions and visceral energy of specific moments. I also knew I wanted to write music as Sís created his drawings, with strong gestures and lots of small figures combining to form large shapes. A string orchestra seemed perfect for creating solo lines that gathered into clouds of sounds. When I began talking to A Far Cry about writing a piece, I realized this would be a perfect project for the group. Having gotten to know the group, I wanted to write music for individual personalities: each member of the ensemble has his/her own part. These parts join each other in different combinations, but just as quickly split up again. The leadership of the music, and the relationship of individuals to the group is always changing. As I wrote I thought about the power of crowds, and the value of individuality versus unity, but I also thought about the players of A Far Cry, and how much I admire the way they function as an ensemble, share leadership, and make music together. “The Conference of the Birds” is about 20 minutes long and is in three movements. The final two are played without a pause.
—Lembit Beecher

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) :: Serenade for Strings in C major, Op. 48
Tchaikovsky once wrote, “I don’t just like Mozart, I idolize him.” In an era predating recording devices, the only way one could become familiar with hearing the works of a composer was to either attend concerts where the music was being performed, or be wealthy enough to hire people to play it for you at home. So, to broaden public knowledge of his idol, in 1887 Tchaikovsky re-arranged four Mozart pieces into the Suite No. 4 in G Major, Op. 61, (“Mozartiana”). Seven years earlier he wrote the Serenade for Strings in C Major, the first movement of which was meant to be reflective of Mozart whom he thought was “devoid of self-satisfaction and boastfulness…a genius whose childlike innocence, gentleness of spirit…are scarcely of this earth.”

How appropriate that those sentiments found an outlet in a serenade, a genre richly cultivated by Mozart who transformed them from the musical toss-offs they historically were (often serenades were only performed once and enjoyed casually in the evening, like an audible amuse-bouche) into sublime concert works worthy of repeat performances.

The Serenade for Strings is distinctly Tchaikovsky, yet distilled. Here he leaves aside his occasionally bombastic sensibilities and overt desire for virtuosity in order to showcase his extraordinary gift for lyrical melody, which in this setting sparkles like a rare jewel catching and embracing rays of light. In a letter to his patroness and friend Nadezhada von Meck he wrote, “It is a heartfelt piece and so, I dare to think, is not lacking in real qualities.”

Observed as “string quintet in texture,” it begins with a lush descending homophonic motif commencing what will be a tense relationship between gravity and anti-gravity via long descending and ascending lines throughout the larger structure of the first three movements. The effect is a work that breathes with lines working in harmony of movement—which is perhaps why George Balanchine set the work to choreography. The charming Valse of the second movement glimmers all the more next to the noble melancholy of the Élégie, featuring melodies infused with signature Tchaikovsky yearning and striving. The Finale, at least temporarily, appears to break the tug between rising and descending in its suspended hovering like an autumn leaf fluttering in midair right before it is carried away in a flurry of an upward breeze—or, in this case, a whirlwind of Russian folk melodies, which are in turn abruptly brought to an end with the solemn return of the opening material. It returns only briefly, however, before it dissolves effortlessly in a seamless metamorphosis back into vivacity.

Program Notes by Kathryn J Allwine Bacasmot. Kathryn is a pianist/harpsichordist, musicologist, music & cultural critic, and freelance writer. She is a graduate of New England Conservatory, and writes program annotations for ensembles nationwide.

A Far Cry

Called a “world-wide phenomenon” by Boston’s WBUR, A Far Cry has nurtured a distinct approach to music-making since its founding in 2007. The self-conducted orchestra is a democracy in which decisions are made collectively and leadership rotates among the players (“Criers”). This structure has led to consistently thoughtful, innovative, and unpredictable programming — and impactful collaborations with celebrated performers and composers. Over the past year, A Far Cry has risen to the top of Billboard’s Traditional Classical Chart, been named Boston’s best classical ensemble by The Improper Bostonian, and celebrated two Grammy nominations for its Visions and Variations. Boston Musical Intelligencer sums up the group: “In its first decade, this conductor-free ensemble has earned and sustained a reputation for top-drawer playing, engrossing programming, and outstanding guest artists.”

A Far Cry’s omnivorous approach has led to collaborations with artists such as Yo-Yo Ma, Simone Dinnerstein, Roomful of Teeth, the Silk Road Ensemble, Vijay Iyer, and David Krakauer. A Far Cry’s 13th season in 2019-20 includes nine Boston-area concerts as part of the group’s own series, and a celebration of the conclusion of a 10-year residency at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum with three concerts—the last a blowout/collaboration with Boston hip-hop luminary Moe Pope. The orchestra also tours its “Memory” program, with concerts at University of Colorado, Wake Forest University, and a debut performance at the Kennedy Center in March.

Recent tour highlights include two new commissioning projects: Philip Glass’ third piano concerto with soloist Simone Dinnerstein, and The Blue Hour, “a gorgeous and remarkably unified work” (Washington Post) written by a collaborative of five leading female composers – Rachel Grimes, Angélica Negrón, Shara Nova, Caroline Shaw, and Sarah Kirkland Snider; and featuring Grammy-winning singer Luciana Souza.

A Far Cry’s Crier Records launched auspiciously in 2014 with the Grammy-nominated album Dreams and Prayers. The label’s second release, Law of Mosaics, was included on many 2014 Top 10 lists, notably from New Yorker music critic Alex Ross and WQXR’s Q2 Music, which named A Far Cry as one of the “Imagination-Grabbing, Trailblazing Artists of 2014.” In 2018, Crier Records released A Far Cry’s Visions and Variations, featuring variations by Britten and Prokofiev, and Ethan Wood’s re-imagining of Mozart’s “Ah vous-dirai-je Maman.” The album received two Grammy nominations, including one for Best Chamber Music Performance.

The 18 Criers are proud to call Boston home, and maintain strong roots in the city, rehearsing at their storefront music center in Jamaica Plain and fulfilling the role of Chamber-Orchestra-in-Residence at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Collaborating with local students through educational partnerships with the New England Conservatory and Project STEP, A Far Cry aims to pass on the spirit of collaboratively-empowered music to the next generation.

JULY 10, 2019 @ 7:00 PM

Venice Baroque Orchestra

Antonio Vivaldi, (1678-1741) Sinfonia in C Major for strings and basso continuo, from “L’Olimpiade”, RV 725
                  Allegro, Andante, Allegro —

George Frideric Handel, (1685-1759) Concerto grosso in G major, Op.6 n.1, HWV 319
                   A tempo giusto, Allegro, Adagio, Allegro, Allegro  —

Tomaso Albinoni, (1671-1751) Concerto in G major for strings and basso continuo, Op. VII, No. 4
                  Allegro, Largo, Allegro —

Antonio Vivaldi, (1678-1741) Concerto in E minor for violin, strings and basso continuo, RV 273
                   Allegro non molto,  Largo, Allegro,    Gianpiero Zanocco, violin —

INTERMISSION

Benedetto Marcello (1686-1739) Sinfonia in G major for strings and basso continuo
                    Presto, Largo, Prestissimo —

Antonio Vivaldi, (1678-1741) Concerto for cello, strings and basso continuo in A minor, RV 419
                      Allegro, Andante, Allegro,    Massimo Raccanelli – Cello —

Francesco Geminiani, (1687-1762) Concerto grosso in D minor, H.143, “La Follia” (after A. Corelli Op. V n.12), (1729)
                      Adagio, Allegro, Adagio, Vivace, Allegro, Andante, Allegro, Adagio, Adagio, Allegro,Adagio, Allegro  —

Antonio Vivaldi, (1678-1741) Concerto in C major for recorder and strings, RV 443
                    (Allegro), Largo, Allegro molto,    Anna Fusek, Soprano Recorder —

Soloists:  Anna Fusek – Recorder, Gianpiero Zanocco -Violin, Massimo Raccanelli – Cello

**The performance of this evening’s Venice Baroque Orchestra is dedicated to the memory of Ellin N. London, 1923-2019, an ardent, devoted and generous supporter of our concert series.**

WQXR HOST:  Annie Bergen

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

VENICE BAROQUE ORCHESTRA
Founded in 1997 by Baroque scholar and harpsichordist Andrea Marcon, the Venice Baroque Orchestra is recognized as one of the very finest period instrument ensembles. The Orchestra has received wide critical acclaim for its concert and opera performances throughout North America, Europe, South America, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and China, and has appeared in many more cities across the United States than any other Baroque orchestra in history.

Committed to the rediscovery of 17th- and 18th-century masterpieces, under Mr. Marcon’s leadership VBO has given the modern-day premieres of Francesco Cavalli’s L’Orione, Vivaldi’s Atenaide, Andromeda liberata, Benedetto Marcello’s La morte d’Adone and Il trionfo della poesia e della musica, and Boccherini’s La Clementina. With Teatro La Fenice in Venice, the Orchestra has staged Cimarosa’s L’Olimpiade, Handel’s Siroe, and Galuppi’s L’Olimpiade, and reprised Siroe at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York in its first full staging in the United States. The orchestra has been seen worldwide through several television specials, including films by the BBC, ARTE, NTR (Netherlands), and NHK. They are the subject of three recent video recordings, and their performances were also featured on Swiss TV in the documentary film by Richard Dindo, Vivaldi in Venice.

In 2018 VBO embarked on two tours with countertenor Franco Fagioli, with concerts in London, Ljubljana, Versailles, Japan and China. The Orchestra’s annual US tour featured Anna Fusek on recorders. Recent festival appearances included Enescu Festival with mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená, Grafenegg with harpist Xavier de Maistre, and Schleswig Holstein with mandolinist Avi Avital.

Recent seasons included performances of Vivaldi’s Juditha triumphans at Carnegie Hall, London’s Barbican Centre, and Brussels’ Palais des Beaux-Arts, marking the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the oratorio’s premiere in Venice; performances with violinist Viktoria Mullova at Vienna’s Musikverein and in Budapest; an 18-city tour of the US featuring violinist Nicola Benedetti; and a tour of Japan with mandolinist Avi Avital. The orchestra has toured Europe, the United States, and Asia with collaborators such as countertenor Philippe Jaroussky, contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux, Avi Avital, soprano Karina Gauvin, Magdalena Kožená, and violinist Robert McDuffie (in a tour featuring the world premiere of Philip Glass’ violin concerto The American Four Seasons).

The Orchestra’s latest recording, featuring Avi Avital in Vivaldi concertos, was released by Deutsche Grammophon. The previous recording, featuring Philippe Jaroussky in Porpora arias on the Erato label, received a Grammy nomination. The 2012 release on Naïve, a pasticcio of Metastasio’s L’Olimpiade featuring the recording premieres of many 18th-century opera arias, was awarded Choc du Monde de la Musique. The VBO has an extensive discography with Sony and Deutsche Grammophon. Their world-premiere recording of Andromeda liberata for DG was followed by violin concertos with Giuliano Carmignola; Vivaldi sinfonias and concertos for strings; Vivaldi motets and arias with soprano Simone Kermes, two discs with Ms. Kožená—Handel arias and Vivaldi arias; Vivaldi violin concertos with Viktoria Mullova and Mr. Carmignola, and Italian arias with Ms. Petibon. The Orchestra’s earlier discography on Sony with Mr. Carmignola includes The Four Seasons, previously unrecorded Vivaldi concertos, and a collection of Bach arias featuring Angelika Kirchschlager. The Orchestra has also been honored with the Diapason d’Or, Echo Award, and the Edison Award.

The Venice Baroque Orchestra is supported by Fondazione Cassamarca in Treviso.

A sample video: https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?fr=yhs-pty-pty_converter&hsimp=yhs-pty_converter&hspart=pty&p=venice+baroque+orchestra%2C+vivaldi%2C+youtube#id=6&vid=963c1b07e9f4e4434004fe415d59037a&action=click

SOLOISTS

ANNA FUSEK
Anna Fusek is a phenomenon lauded equally by audience and press. Born in Prague and raised in Germany, she crosses musical boundaries as well receiving international acclaim: She has conquered concert halls all over the world playing no less than three different instruments. As a soloist she tours with renowned orchestras such as Venice Baroque Orchestra or Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin. Recorder player Anna Fusek has secured her part in today’s musical life. Much to concert goers’ surprise and delight though she lays aside the recorder while they are applauding in order to pick up the violin to continue her performance on that instrument. She has also appeared numerous times on stage as a concert pianist and so she is pursuing the baroque tradition of the versatile musician.
In Jan Bosse’s much lauded production of “Calisto” by Cavalli her versatility was hailed by audiences both at Theater Basel and the Frankfurt Opera: In the role of Amor she alluringly bowed the strings of her violin, winded love melodies and jinxed the ensemble by playing the piano. Audiences were spellbound.
Her huge range benefits all of her projects: The gracious musician inspires through her joy of playing and deep musicality, as the French Muse Baroque (le magazine de la musique baroque) described a concert: “really incredible performance of Anna Fusek that sent electric shock waves through the evening.“

GIANPIERO ZANOCCO

A member of the Venice Baroque Orchestra since 2003, violinist Gianpiero Zanocco has performed as concertmaster with the orchestra throughout Europe, Asia and the United States. A frequent soloist with VBO, he performs also with I Sonatori della Gioiosa Marca, L’Arte dell’Arco, and Il Pomo d’Oro. Mr. Zanocco has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, Warner Classics, Amadeus, Brilliant, ORT.

A native of Castelfranco Veneto where he studied violin with Michele Lot and graduated with honors from the conservatory Agostino Steffani, Mr. Zanocco won several competitions, including first prize at the Mario Benvenuti Violin Competition in Vittorio Veneto, first prize at the International Chamber Music Competition Città di Minerbio and first prize at the Carlo Soliva International Music Contest. He performs Classical repertoire for violin and fortepiano with Anna Fusek, with whom he recently recorded a CD devoted to Mozart’s sonatas.

MASSIMO RACCANELLI

Born in Treviso, Italy, Massimo Raccanelli was graduated from the Conservatorio di Castelfranco Veneto in the class of Walter Vestidello. Further studies were with Mario Brunello and Antonio Meneses.

He performs in several Baroque ensembles including Sonatori della Gioiosa Marca, Il Pomo d’Oro, Opera Stravagante and Concerto München, and has collaborated with many chamber music groups, collaborating with leading artists including Andrea Marcon, Mario Brunello, Stefano Montanari, Sonig Thakerian, and Piero Toso. Mr. Raccanelli has played with the Venice Baroque Orchestra since 2011, performing as continuo player and soloist in some of the most prestigious concert halls, including Queen Elizabeth Hall (London), Victoria Hall (Genéve), Théåtre des Champs-Elysées, Palais des Beaux-Arts (Brussels), Tokyo Opera Hall, Onassis Center (Athens), Marinskii Theater (St. Petersburg), and Carnegie Hall. He is the cellist of VenEthos Ensemble, a string quartet performing on original instruments.

In 2016 he graduated in Conducting in the class of Bruno Weil at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München. Mr. Raccanelli has conducted productions of Mozart and Pergolesi operas, the world premiere of Das Große Lächeln by Wilfried Hiller, as well as several orchestras and Baroque ensembles.

JUNE 18, 2019 @ 7:00 PM

The Knights
Colin & Eric Jacobsen, Artistic Directors
Eric Jacobsen, conductor

Colin Jacobsen, (1978-), What is the Grass ?
        Kristina Nicole Miller, narrator  —

Benjamin Britten, (1913-76), Lachrymae, Op. 48a, (1950, orch.1976)
        Nicholas Cords, viola  —

Eric Jacobsen, (1982-) Letters from God
         arr. Kyle Sanna/Colin Jacobsen, Kristina Nicole Miller, narrator  —

Kyle Sanna, (1975-) Immense have been the Preparations
         arr. Colin Jacobsen, Kristina Nicole Miller, narrator  —

Lisa Bielawa, (1968-), Fictional Migration, (Solo Flute and Horn with strings)
        (WORLD PREMIERE ARR.), Alex Sopp, flute Michael Atkinson, horn —

INTERMISSION

Felix Mendelssohn, (1809-47), String Octet, Op. 20, (1825)

Allegro moderato ma con fuoco (E-flat major)
Andante (C minor)
Scherzo: Allegro leggierissimo (G minor)
Presto  (E-flat major) —

**The performance of The Knights has been made possible by a generous grant from the MacDonald-Peterson Foundation.**

WQXR HOST:  Elliott Forrest

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

PROGRAM NOTES

What is it then between us?
What is the count of the scores or hundreds of years between us?
— Walt Whitman, Crossing Brooklyn Ferry

Every year we look forward to the summer season, where music can live and breathe in open air and be shared freely with New Yorkers ranging from the lifelong classical music aficionado to those who just happen to be passing by. They hear the strains of Beethoven mingling with birds at dusk, blaring sirens and the general hum of the city, are drawn in and stop to experience a moment of unexpected contemplation amidst the swirl of it all… We thank Naumburg Orchestral Concerts for providing this “Whitmanic” service to New York since 1905, with The Knights participating now eleven years running. Though the ambience of Central Park will be missed, we are thrilled to make music in another NY landmark for the first time, Temple Emanu-El. Today we are celebrating two birthdays in which voices from the past reach across time and continue to resonate with us. One is a human being: Walt Whitman, the American bard whose 200th birthday is being observed this year. The other is an instrument: an Amati viola, four hundred years old, owned by our friend Richard Prins and generously loaned to Nicholas Cords, whose performance of Benjamin Britten’s Lachrymae will give its unique voice a special platform to sing for this occasion.

Whitman’s Song of Myself, radical for its time, composed in a time of great political polarization and divide leading up to the Civil War, is, in the words of Karin Coonrod (Director, Compagnia de’ Colombari) “a radical statement of interdependence.” Whitman’s relationship with music is well-documented, as he was a journalist and music critic familiar with the hymns, folk music and popular ballads of the day alongside Europe’s latest operas, oratorios, orchestra and chamber music. He credited music, and in particular opera, as being the source that unlocked his poetic inspiration, leading to the 1855 version of Leaves of Grass.

Eric Jacobsen, me, Knights flutist Alex Sopp, and frequent Knights guitarist/composer Kyle Sanna wrote music about 10 years ago for More Or Less I Am… a theatrical version of Whitman’s Song of Myself, created and conceived by Coonrod. Coonrod’s theater troupe Compagnia de’ Colombari recently remounted the piece in public spaces, parks and correctional facilities all over New York. We wanted to continue the celebration by expanding the orchestration of a few of these numbers for you tonight. We are grateful to Kristina Nicole Miller for being here to speak-sing Whitman’s words out loud.

Like many of the great composers of the past, English composer Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) was both a violist and a pianist. In the original version of his Lachrymae (written supposedly to induce the great Scottish violist William Primrose to come play with him at his nascent Aldeburgh Festival) he combined the two instruments. Britten was a master of theme and variations, which is the form this piece takes, though with an unusual twist. Instead of the theme being presented at the beginning in the usual manner and then the variations being elaborations, ornamentations and development of that theme; here the variations and development come first, time seems to take place in reverse and the theme is heard in its complete form only at the end as a solemn revelation. Britten was a great champion of music from England’s distant past, particularly the works of Henry Purcell (1659-1695) and lute master/composer John Dowland (1563-1626). It is the latter’s song, If My Complaint Could Passions Move that is revealed at the end of the piece and is the main material that Britten reflects upon, dissects, and uses to invent the series of variations. An additional Dowland song, Flow My Tears, also finds itself briefly quoted here and there. Some years after the premiere of Lachrymae by Primrose and Britten in Aldeburgh, he made the piece a concertante-like piece, orchestrating the piano part for strings. This is the version we’ll be doing tonight.

We love the idea of participating in a living tradition that is part of a continuum of invention: when something really old (Dowland’s music) is able to inspire someone closer to our time (Britten) to create something new. Similarly, the Amati viola leading the dialogue in Nicholas Cords’ hands was born in the time of Dowland and has been changed subtly through the years in order to suit modern players (smaller neck, tighter setup/tension), but the form and essence remains the same. And luckily there are a plethora of great modern instrument makers making small personal innovations on what is basically the same forms which the great old Italian makers created.

Composer Lisa Bielawa (b. 1968) has had a long-standing relationship with The Knights, creating a number of pieces and experiences which we hold dear in our memory. These include site-specific and audience immersive experiences such as Tempelhof Broadcast, which included around two hundred performers led by members of The Knights on the tarmac of the former Tempelhof airport; Chance Encounter, performed in Seward Park on the Lower East Side; and Tempelhof Etude, the concert piece that was the basis of the Tempelhof event. Lisa’s Fictional Migrations, like Britten’s Lachrymae, began its life as a chamber piece with piano that has since been orchestrated. Here are her notes on the original flute, horn and piano piece:

Flutist Alex Sopp and hornist Mike Atkinson have, through the work I’ve done with The Knights over the years, been partnering and inspiring my work for over a decade. It was time to honor them, and to join with The Knights in honoring them, by creating a version of Fictional Migrations for string orchestra and the two soloists. It is in effect a double concerto for two instruments that are seldom if ever featured together, but will always belong together in my mind because of these two remarkably gifted and adventurous players.

Commissioned by the Seattle Chamber Music Society in 2017, I composed Fictional Migrations (originally for flute/piccolo, horn, and piano) in observance of the 25th anniversary of Olivier Messiaen’s death. An ornithologist as well as a composer, Messiaen wove actual birdsongs into many of his works. I do so too in my piece, but – given my own ‘indoorsy’ orientation and lack of any authentic attachment to the birds in nature – they are made-up birds, ‘What if?’ birds, created in the spirit of speculative fiction. The six continuous sections of the piece bear subtitles to suggest possible bird embodiments to the players as they go. These birds exist in a world where prisoners fly out of captivity effortlessly, and we all magically transcend death and suffering.

Fictional Migrations invites you to exist in this world, just for a little while, together.
— Lisa Bielawa

A wunderkind of wunderkinds, Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) wrote his ebullient string octet at the tender age of 16. As many have noted, the synthesis of formal elements (counterpoint/melody/harmony all fully developed) and depth of expression make an argument for Mendelssohn as most precocious composer of the western classical canon. Part of this was made possible by the unique atmosphere of his household, with philosophers, musicians, artists, writers, mathematicians, scientists constantly coming in and out the door. Many of these were part of the incredible Enlightenment education that Mendelssohn and his gifted sister Fanny received. In particular, one poet, none other than Goethe, became a friend and mentor to the young Mendelssohn and affected him greatly. Fanny was quoted as saying that Felix drew direct inspiration from a stanza of the Walpurgis Night Dream from Goethe’s Faust in the Scherzo movement of the Octet.

“The flight of the clouds and the veil of mist / Are lit from above. / A breeze in the leaves, a wind in the reeds, / And all has vanished.”

In addition, Fanny revealed that, “To me alone he told this idea: the whole piece is to be played staccato and pianissimo, the tremolos coming in now and then, the trills passing away with quickness of lightning; everything new and strange, and at the same time most insinuating and pleasing, one feels so near the world of spirits, carried away in the air, half inclined to snatch up a broomstick and follow the aerial procession. At the end the first violin takes a flight with a feather-like lightness, and – all has vanished.”

There’s something emblematic about this piece for us, which formed a soundtrack to early Knights years spent in a living room. It was about as orchestral as we could get in that room, and the idea of many individual voices contributing to a whole still animates us. The piece represents a duality that we strive to embrace: a chamber music experience can be grand and larger than life, and conversely an orchestra can achieve the intimacy and immediacy of chamber music. To quote Whitman one more time, “these tend inward to me and I tend outward to them…”

— Program Notes by Colin Jacobsen

LISA BIELAWA
Composer-vocalist Lisa Bielawa is a 2009 Rome Prize winner in Musical Composition. She takes inspiration for her work from literary sources and close artistic collaborations. The New York Times describes her music as, “ruminative, pointillistic and harmonically slightly tart.” She is the recipient of the 2017 Music Award from the American Academy of Arts & Letters, and she received a 2018 Los Angeles Area Emmy nomination for her unprecedented, made-for-TV-and-online opera Vireo: The Spiritual Biography of a Witch’s Accuser. In 2019, Bielawa became the inaugural Composer-in-Residence and Chief Curator at the new Philip Glass Institute (PGI) at The New School’s Center of the Performing Arts. The PGI is a landmark partnership between The New School, the Philip Glass Ensemble (PGE), and Bielawa, who began touring as the vocalist with the Ensemble in 1992. In 1997, she co-founded the MATA Festival, which celebrates the work of young composers. Bielawa served as Artistic Director of the San Francisco Girls Chorus from 2013-2018 and recently completed her residency at Grand Central Art Center in Santa Ana, California. She was named a William Randolph Hearst Visiting Artist Fellow at the American Antiquarian Society for 2018. Her discography includes albums on the Tzadik, TROY, Innova, BMOP/sound, Orange Mountain Music and Sono Luminus labels. Bielawa’s music is frequently performed throughout the US and Europe, with recent and upcoming highlights including two world premieres at the 2016 NY PHIL BIENNIAL, Drama/Self Pitypremiered by the Orlando Philharmonic, performances as both composer and soloist at The Kennedy Center’s KC Jukebox series, SHIFT Festival, and with violinist Jennifer Koh at National Sawdust. Bielawa’s music can be found outside the concert hall as well: Chance Encounter was premiered by soprano Susan Narucki and The Knights in Lower Manhattan’s Seward Park; andAirfield Broadcasts, a 60-minute work for hundreds of musicians, was premiered on the tarmac of the former Tempelhof Airport in Berlin in May 2013 and at Crissy Field in San Francisco in October 2013. Bielawa’s Vireo was produced as part of Bielawa’s artist residency at Grand Central Art Center in Santa Ana, California and in partnership with KCETLink and Single Cel. The opera was filmed at locations across the country, and featured over 350 musicians in support of its core cast. Vireo was broadcast online and on TV by KCET. The Los Angeles Times called it an opera, “unlike any you have seen before, in content and in form,” and San Francisco Classical Voice described it as, “poetic and fantastical, visually stunning and relentlessly abstract.” In February 2019, Vireo was released as a two CD + DVD box set on Orange Mountain Music, featuring all of the music and episodes. It is coming to the stage as VIREO LIVE, a hybrid film-opera experience in 2020.

SOLOIST BIOS

KRISTINA NICOLE MILLER is a native of Akron, Ohio, and has lived in NYC since 2004. She has been performing since she was three years old, and attended performing arts schools from sixth grade and beyond, where she received classical and musical theatre training. She has performed in many productions both nationally and internationally. She’d like to thank her amazing boyfriend Chuck for being her sanity, and all of you here today for supporting live performance and making this work possible.

For more than two decades, omnivorous violist NICHOLAS CORDS has been on the front line of a growing constellation of projects as performer, educator, and cultural advocate. Nicholas currently serves as violist, Programming Chair, and Co-Artistic Director of the internationally renowned musical collective Silkroad. Founded by Yo-Yo Ma in 2000 with the belief that listening across cultures leads to a more hopeful world, Silkroad’s mission is explored world-wide through countless learning initiatives and a deep commitment to the exploration of new music and partnerships. Recent highlights include the Grammy Award winning album ‘Sing Me Home’ (Best World Music Album 2017), the Oscar-nominated documentary on Silkroad by Morgan Neville ‘The Music of Strangers,’ and music created for Ken Burns’ recent series ‘The Vietnam War.’ Another key aspect of Nicholas’ busy musical life is as founding member of Brooklyn Rider, an intrepid group which NPR credits with “recreating the 300-year-old form of the string quartet as a vital and creative 21st-century ensemble.” Brooklyn Rider’s singular mission and gripping performance style have resulted in an indelible contribution to the world of the string quartet that has brought in legions of fans across the spectrum. Recent collaborators include Irish fiddler Martin Hayes, Swedish mezzo soprano Anne Sofie von Otter, jazz saxophonist Joshua Redman, Persian kemancheh virtuoso Kayhan Kalhor, banjo legend Béla Fleck, and Mexican jazz singer Magos Herrera. A committed teacher, Nicholas joined the viola and chamber music faculty at New England Conservatory this past fall after teaching at Stony Brook University for the past seven years.

ALEX SOPP is a musician and artist living in Brooklyn. As the flutist of yMusic, The Knights, and NOW Ensemble, the New York Times has praised her playing as “exquisite” and “beautifully nuanced.”  Most recently she has been a member of Paul Simon’s band for his Homeward Bound Tour, both singing and playing on stages worldwide. Comfortable in many genres, Alex has commissioned, premiered, and recorded with some of the most exciting composers and song writers of our time. She has appeared as a soloist with the NY Philharmonic and her paintings grace the covers of many records. Alex grew up in St. Croix, Virgin Islands, and trained at the Juilliard School.

MICHAEL P. ATKINSON is a NYC-based hornist, arranger/orchestrator and composer.  In addition to performing as Solo hornist of The Knights, his credits as a performer include the New York Philharmonic, International Contemporary Ensemble, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, American Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.  His orchestrations and arrangements have been performed in venues around the world by a wide range of ensembles including The Knights, A Far Cry, NYC Ballet, Orlando Philharmonic, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Vienna Opera Ballet, Dutch National Ballet, APM’s Live from Here with Chris Thile, and folk/Americana trio I’m With Her.  In 2019, Michael’s piece “Ligeti Split” (after G. Ligeti’s Hungarian Rock) was premiered by The Knights in NYC at Zankel Hall.

THE KNIGHTS

The Grammy-nominated Knights are an orchestral collective, flexible in size and repertory, dedicated to transforming the concert experience. Engaging listeners and defying boundaries with programs that showcase the players’ roots in the classical tradition and passion for artistic discovery, The Knights have “become one of Brooklyn’s sterling cultural products… known far beyond the borough for their relaxed virtuosity and expansive repertory” (New Yorker).

The Knights have had an exciting 2017-18 season, a highlight of which was  a U.S. tour with genre-defying Israeli mandolinist Avi Avital and Syrian clarinetist and composer Kinan Azmeh. Tour repertoire came from around the world, with arrangements and transcriptions by the artists themselves, and features the world premiere of Azmeh’s Triple Concerto for Clarinet, Mandolin, Violin and Orchestra. Thanks in part to the generous support of the Mellon Foundation, The Knights’ will complete their second Home Season in Brooklyn, in partnership with the downtown venue BRIC, presenting family concerts, evening performances, and a characteristically wide-ranging roster of guest artists. Programs include a collaboration with Puerto-Rican composer Angelica Negrón on her drag opera, a night of German lieder with Katja Herbers, as well as an exploration of the pervasive influence of Eastern European folk music. The Knights’ 2017 summer season encompassed a world premiere by composer Judd Greenstein and an East Coast premiere by Vijay Iyer; their tenth consecutive appearance in Central Park’s Naumburg Orchestral Concerts series; their fourth year at Tanglewood, a performance at the Ravinia Festival with mezzo-soprano Susan Graham; and a collaboration with choreographer John Heginbotham at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival.

The 2016-17 season saw the release of the celestial-themed album Azul on Warner Classics with longtime collaborator Yo-Yo Ma; an EP release with Gabriel Kahane of his song cycle Crane Palimpsest; a debut at Washington DC’s Kennedy Center as part of the inaugural “SHIFT: A Festival of American Orchestras;” and the New York premiere of Sarah Kirkland Snider’s song cycle Unremembered, which The Knights also performed at Tennessee’s Big Ears Music Festival. They rounded out the season with a European tour, which took them to the Easter Festival at Aix-en-Provence for six performances with celebrated guest artists pianists Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Bertrand Chamayou, and violinist Renaud Capuçon; along with three concerts across Germany, including one at the new Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg where the ensemble’s performance was lauded as one of the best in the new hall (Hamburg Abendetter).

Counted among the highlights from recent seasons are: a performance with Yo-Yo Ma at Caramoor; the recording of Prokofiev’s Second Violin Concerto on master violinist Gil Shaham’s Grammy-nominated 2016 release, 1930’s Violin Concertos, Vol. 2, as well as a North American tour with Shaham; residencies at Dartmouth, Penn State and Washington DC’s Dumbarton Oaks; and a performance in the NY PHIL BIENNIAL along with the San Francisco Girls Chorus (led by composer Lisa Bielawa) and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, which featured world premieres by Rome Prize-winner Bielawa, Pulitzer Prize-winner Aaron Jay Kernis, and Knights violinist and co-founder Colin Jacobsen. The ensemble made its Carnegie Hall debut in the New York premiere of the Steven Stucky/Jeremy Denk opera The Classical Style, and has toured the U.S. with banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck, and Europe with soprano Dawn Upshaw. In recent years The Knights have also collaborated with Itzhak Perlman, the Mark Morris Dance Group, Joshua Redman, Silk Road virtuoso Siamak Aghaei, and pipa virtuoso Wu Man. Recordings include 2015’s “instinctive and appealing” (The Times, UK) the ground beneath our feet on Warner Classics, featuring the ensemble’s first original group composition; an all-Beethoven disc on Sony Classical (their third project with the label); and 2012’s “smartly programmed” (NPR) A Second of Silence for Ancalagon.

The Knights evolved from late-night chamber music reading parties with friends at the home of violinist Colin Jacobsen and cellist Eric Jacobsen. The Jacobsen brothers, who are also founding members of the string quartet Brooklyn Rider, serve as artistic directors of The Knights, with Eric Jacobsen as conductor. In December 2012, the Jacobsens were selected from among the nation’s top visual, performing, media, and literary artists to receive a prestigious United States Artists Fellowship.

The Knights’ roster boasts remarkably diverse talents, including composers, arrangers, singer-songwriters, and improvisers, who bring a range of cultural influences to the group, from jazz and klezmer to pop and indie rock music. The unique camaraderie within the group retains the intimacy and spontaneity of chamber music in performance.

Colin Jacobsen, Artistic Director
As the Washington Post observes, violinist and composer Colin Jacobsen is “one of the most interesting figures on the classical music scene.” A founding member of two game-changing, audience-expanding ensembles – the string quartet Brooklyn Rider and orchestra The Knights – he is also a touring member of Yo-Yo Ma’s venerated Silk Road Project and an Avery Fisher Career Grant-winning violinist. Jacobsen’s work as a composer developed as a natural outgrowth of his chamber and orchestral collaborations. Jointly inspired by encounters with leading exponents of non-western traditions and by his own classical heritage, his most recent compositions for Brooklyn Rider include Three Miniatures – “vivacious, deftly drawn sketches” (New York Times) – which were written for the reopening of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Islamic art galleries. Jacobsen collaborated with Iran’s Siamak Aghaei to write a Persian folk-inflected composition, Ascending Bird, which he performed as soloist with the YouTube Symphony Orchestra at the Sydney Opera House, in a concert that was streamed live and seen by millions of viewers worldwide. His work for dance and theater includes Chalk and Soot, a collaboration with Dance Heginbotham, and music for Compagnia de’ Colombari’s theatrical production of Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself.

Eric Jacobsen, Artistic Director
Hailed by the New York Times as “an interpretive dynamo,” conductor and cellist Eric Jacobsen has built a reputation for engaging audiences with innovative and collaborative projects. Jacobsen is the founder and Artistic Director of The Knights and a former member of the genre-defying string quartet Brooklyn Rider.  As conductor of The Knights, Jacobsen has led the “consistently inventive, infectiously engaged indie ensemble” (New York Times) at New York venues ranging from Carnegie Hall to Central Park, and at renowned international halls such as the Vienna Musikverein, Cologne Philharmonie and the Elbphilharmonie.  In 2017-18, Jacobsen is set to embark on his third season as Music Director of the Orlando Philharmonic. Also in demand as a guest conductor, Jacobsen has recently led the Camerata Bern, the Detroit Symphony, the Alabama Symphony, ProMusica Chamber Orchestra, Deutsche Philharmonie Merck, and Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble.