5 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Brooklyn Rider Still Has More to Say With the String Quartet
There are many ways in which Brooklyn Rider isn't a typical string quartet: its joyous disregard of traditional genre boundaries, its effortless cool in a centuries-old art form, its engagement with the broader world and politics. Even its calendar is extremely unusual.
'I often get the question, 'How much do you guys rehearse a day as a quartet?'' said Johnny Gandelsman, a violinist with the group. 'We're different from how a lot of quartets operate, because we do a lot of work when we're on the road. We don't live in the same places anymore, and so the time that we spend together ends up being very precious.'
If you look at the performances, recordings and projects that Brooklyn Rider puts out, you would think its members were working around the clock. Most quartets keep a full-time rehearsal schedule and are, more often than not, operating out of the same city, even the same room. But Brooklyn Rider maintains its high profile mostly on the go, and apart: In between their few sessions together, they practice on their own, tend to old and new relationships with collaborators, discuss programming and, like everyone in the arts, try to gather enough support to bring their ambitious ideas to the stage.
'There's not a day when I'm not working on some aspect of Brooklyn Rider,' said Colin Jacobsen, the quartet's other violinist.
It's been this way since Brooklyn Rider's founding, 20 years ago, an anniversary the group is celebrating in the coming months. It will cover a lot of musical ground, true to the quartet's spirit of combining an all-embracing aesthetic with the kind of vibrant, freewheeling folk style that is only possible through technical excellence.
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