Brooklyn Rider, the string quartet based in New York, has earned recognition for programming that remains inviting while pushing against stylistic borders and conventional limits. Their discography encompasses established figures such as Beethoven on the 2012 release Seven Steps and Philip Glass on 2017’s Philip Glass: String Quartets Nos. 6 & 7, yet they also spotlight rising voices and contribute original material of their own. The 2023 album The Wanderer documented a concert captured in Lithuania that featured Schubert together with Osvaldo Golijov and Gonzalo Grau. Among the group’s extensive partnerships are projects with Béla Fleck, Suzanne Vega, Kojiro Umezaki, and Gabriel Kahane.
Colin Jacobsen on violin and Eric Jacobsen on cello established the ensemble in 2005; both had already helped launch the chamber orchestra the Knights. Violinist Johnny Gandelsman and violist Nicholas Cords completed the initial roster. Shortly afterward the quartet launched the Stillwater Music Festival, which ran from 2006 to 2015 and centered on first performances of new pieces. Their first recording appeared on Gandelsman’s In a Circle imprint as 2008’s Passport, containing Komitas settings of Armenian folk melodies. Before the year ended they issued The Silent City alongside Iranian composer and kamancheh player Kayhan Kalhor. Starting in 2010 they participated in Suzanne Vega’s Close-Up Series, while Dominant Curve that same year presented works by Claude Debussy, John Cage, and Colin Jacobsen himself. In 2011 the ensemble brought out Brooklyn Rider Plays Philip Glass and made its initial appearances at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center.
Seven Steps, issued by In a Circle in 2012, combined an original Brooklyn Rider composition, a piece by Christopher Tignor of the Nighty Nite, and Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 14 in C sharp minor. Mercury Classics followed in 2013 with The Impostor, presenting banjo works by Béla Fleck performed with the Nashville Symphony and Brooklyn Rider. Also on Mercury that year, A Walking Fire collected music by Colin Jacobsen, Ljova Zhurbin, and Béla Bartók. The 2014 project The Brooklyn Rider Almanac assembled newly commissioned quartets from jazz, rock, and folk figures including Bill Frisell, Aoife O’Donovan, Deerhoof’s Greg Saunier, and Wilco’s Glenn Kotche. Early in 2016 the group joined indie singer-songwriter-composer Gabriel Kahane for The Fiction Issue, an art-song collection that incorporated My Brightest Diamond and poetry by Matthew Zapruder. By the time of release, Eric Jacobsen had stepped away to concentrate on conducting; cellist Michael Nicolas took his place.
So Many Things, a live recording issued later in 2016 by Naïve, united Brooklyn Rider with opera singer Anne Sofie von Otter for songs by John Adams, Björk, and Rufus Wainwright. Spontaneous Symbols appeared on In a Circle in 2017 and focused on current composers Tyondai Braxton, Paula Matthusen, Kyle Sanna, and Evan Ziporyn. Dreamers, a 2018 collaboration with vocalist Magos Herrera, came next. Additional joint efforts in 2019 comprised The Butterfly with Irish fiddler Martin Hayes and Sun on Sand with saxophonist Joshua Redman and composer Patrick Zimmerli, while Philip Glass: Annunciation gathered several Glass works. Healing Modes arrived in 2020, its thematic thread traced through selections by Beethoven and Pulitzer Prize recipients Caroline Shaw and Du Yun, among others. Captured live in Paliesius, Lithuania, during April 2022 and issued in February 2023, The Wanderer juxtaposed South American pieces by Osvaldo Golijov and Gonzalo Grau with Franz Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden” quartet.
