The progressive New York City-based string quartet Brooklyn Rider celebrates the release of its new collaborative album with Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie Von Otter in a concert on Thursday, October 13 at 7:30 p.m. in Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall. The album, So Many Things-to be released by Naïve Records on September 30-features new works by the quartet's violinist and founding member Colin Jacobsen ("For 60 Cents") and by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw ("Cant voi l'aube"). Both were commissioned by Carnegie Hall for its 125 Commissions Project and will receive their New York premieres at the October 13 concert.
Ms. von Otter joins the quartet for these works plus new arrangements of songs by
John Adams ("Am I In Your Light," arranged by Evan Ziporyn); Björk ("Cover Me," arranged by Erik Arvinder and "Hunter," arranged by
Rob Mathes);
Kate Bush ("Pi," arranged by Kyle Sanna);
Elvis Costello ("Speak Darkly My Angel," arranged by Mr. Mathes); and
Nico Muhly ("So Many Things," arranged by the composer). The program also includes works for string quartet by
Philip Glass, Leoš Janá?ek, and Tyondai Braxton.
A pre-concert talk will be held prior to the concert at 6:30 p.m. in Zankel Hall with
Brooklyn Rider members Nicholas Cords and Colin Jacobsen and Anne
Sofie Von Otter in conversation with Jeremy Geffen, Director of Artistic Planning,
Carnegie Hall.
About the Artists
Mezzo-soprano Anne
Sofie Von Otter is one of today's most recorded artists with an unrivalled discography built across a career spanning more than three decades at the very top of her profession. A lengthy and exclusive relationship with Deutsche Grammophon has produced a wealth of acclaimed recordings as well as a collaboration with pop legend
Elvis Costello on For the Stars. Her first recording with Naïve Classique, Love Songs, with renowned jazz pianist
Brad Mehldau was released in 2010 followed by Grammy-nominated Sogno Barocco with Leonardo García-Alarcón and Cappella Mediterranea, and her double CD, Douce France, received a Grammy Award in 2015 for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album.
A busy concert schedule takes Ms. von Otter to all corners of the world, while recent guest appearances include the
Berliner Philharmoniker (Rattle),
New York Philharmonic (Gilbert),
Boston Symphony Orchestra (Gatti), Washington's
National Symphony Orchestra (Eschenbach), Swedish Radio
Symphony Orchestra (Minkowski), London Philharmonic Orchestra (Jurowski), and the Royal
Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra (Oramo). She appeared with
Jonas Kaufmann and the
Berliner Philharmoniker conducted by the late Claudio Abbado for a televised performance of Das Lied von der Erde on the one hundredth anniversary of Mahler's death and, last season, she appeared with the Finnish Radio
Symphony Orchestra under Hannu Lintu performing newly commissioned arrangements of Sibelius songs on the 150th anniversary of Sibelius's birth.
Current season highlights include a US and European tour with trailblazing string quartet Brooklyn Rider, presenting their program So Many Things, while on the opera stage Ms. von Otter appears as Countess Geschwitz under
Kent Nagano in Christoph Marthaler's new production of Lulu for Staastoper Hamburg and as Leonora (The Exterminating Angel) at the
Royal Opera House Covent Garden.
Hailed as "the future of chamber music" (Strings),
Brooklyn Rider offers eclectic repertoire in gripping performances that continue to attract legions of fans and draw rave reviews from classical, world music, and rock critics alike.
Last season, the group celebrated its tenth anniversary with the groundbreaking multi-disciplinary project
Brooklyn Rider Almanac, for which it recorded and toured 15 specially commissioned works, each inspired by a different artistic muse. In addition to So Many Things with Anne
Sofie Von Otter, other recent recording projects include 2016's The
Fiction Issue with music by
Gabriel Kahane, 2013's A Walking Fire on
Mercury Classics and The Impostor with Béla Fleck on Deutsche Grammophon/Mercury Classics, plus 2011's much-praised
Brooklyn Rider Plays
Philip Glass on the composer's Orange Mountain Music label. Violinist Johnny Gandelsman launched In A Circle Records in 2008 with the release of Brooklyn Rider's eclectic debut recording, Passport, followed by Dominant Curve in 2010, and Seven Steps in 2012. A long-standing relationship between
Brooklyn Rider and Iranian kamancheh player
Kayhan Kalhor resulted in the much-praised 2008 recording, Silent City.
