BROOKLYN RIDER @brooklyn-rider - Tumblr Blog

Rounding out our weekly series of video releases featuring the music of our Grammy-nominated album "Healing Modes", Gabriela Lena Frank's Kanto Kechua #2 is everything we look forward to being in 2021: a return to movement and nimbleness, feeling new strength after a creatively-muted period of difficulty and pain. This piece has always been a joy to perform on stage, even sans audience at WGBH's Fraser Performance Studio this past October. Please enjoy!

Wishing everyone a safe and happy New Year; we'll see you all very soon!

From Brooklyn Rider's Grammy-nominated album "Healing Modes", Zeher (meaning "poison" in the Hindustani language) is a beautiful and moving rumination on the...

From Brooklyn Rider's Grammy-nominated album "Healing Modes", Zeher (meaning "poison" in the Hindustani language) is a beautiful and moving rumination on the process of healing.

In the words of composer Reena Esmail: "In September 2018, I developed an infection in my throat that wouldn't subside. For two weeks, it became increasingly difficult to swallow, to breathe, and especially to speak. During this time of intense, painful silence, I thought about what this loss of voice represented for me. Of how many times in my life I had been rendered voiceless—either by others or by my own doing. Healing, in this case, was not about enduring the pain, but about releasing the poison I have always swallowed—that didn't belong to me. It was only when I felt myself begin to release that poisonous energy that I felt the physical infection begin to subside.

"The piece is constructed using two incredibly beautiful Hindustani raags: the dark and mysterious Todi, and the mournful Bhimpalas. While working on the piece, I was also working on a setting of a beautiful Hafiz poem which ends:

When the violin can forgive every hurt caused by others the heart starts singing.

That is very much the spirit of this piece, too."

From Brooklyn Rider's Grammy-nominated album "Healing Modes", Schisma is a reference to the phrase "in the cleft of the rock," which appears in many scriptures including the Song of Solomon and Isaiah. In the Book of Exodus (33:22), there is a beautiful line which reads: "I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by." It is essentially a promise of safety, of a makeshift refuge within a crack in something as hard and unforgiving as mountain rock, until the danger has passed. It is a kind of nest, a home. The choice to title this piece with the modern Greek word "schisma" (a translation of the Hebrew for "cleft") is a reference to the islands in today's Greece which have become harsh refugee camps for Syrians seeking asylum from war. It also points to the nature of war, the break between peoples, and of the search for hope and new growth within the breaks and crevices. Recorded at the Tanglewood Music Center in Lenox, MA.

Album available on In A Circle Records.

Brooklyn Rider returns to its roots with “Healing Modes,” an eclectic concert featuring works by Ludwig van Beethoven, Caroline Shaw, and Gabriela Lena Frank. The program is based on the idea of healing, shedding light on beloved and new repertoire.

Catch our livestream concert on idagio! Saturday, October 3, we’ll be playing live from Boston’s WGBH studio, click on the link for tickets! 8am Hawaii / 11am Los Angeles / 2pm Brooklyn / 7pm London / 8pm Berlin / 2am Beijing (Oct 4) / 3am Tokyo (Oct 4)

Brooklyn Rider is featured in a new film, The Bowmakers, the story of the most important instrument you've never heard of. The film explores the world of the bow and the extraordinary masters who make them.See the film now through September 20th!

Healing Modes is out now!

Celebrating our album release with a little Beethoven opus 132. In these difficult times of social distancing, let us look forward to the time we can all be together again.

With love, Johnny, Colin, Nick, and Michael (from New Hampshire, Brooklyn, Boston, and Manhattan)

Find our album here: brooklynrider.bandcamp.com

Healing Modes, our latest album, is out now! Centered around Beethoven’s String Quartet opus 132, and featuring five new pieces by Reena Esmail, Gabriela Lena Frank, Matana Roberts, Caroline Shaw, and Du Yun, we invite you to order your copy here: brooklynrider.bandcamp.com

The fulfillment of a dream project for us! Brand new album with Irish fiddle hero Martin Hayes drops August 9th! Get your pre-orders here: brooklynrider.bandcamp.com

Check out this live performance video of Undiu from Mexico City with Magos Herrera and Mathias Kunzli, with dancing and choreography by Lico!

Over 10 years, this open-minded music festival in Knoxville, Tenn., has never spelled out its aesthetic guidelines, and by now it doesn’t

Honored to be included on this (by no means exhaustive) New York Times list of performances from the 2019 Big Ears Festival!

A fantastic tour week: residency at ASU with Magos Herrera, stops in San Antonio and Knoxville with Kayhan Kalhor, dancing to Mathias Kunzli’s drumbeat!

Next up: April 7 at the Kennedy Center in DC, a mini-Midwest tour, and a residency at San Diego State University!

March 14 at National Sawdust in Brooklyn, with Magos Herrera and Mathias Kunzli!

Spring tour dates! Hope to see you all somewhere soon!

Fond memories of our January trip to China for Youth Music Culture Guangdong!

Had a great time working with Philip Glass! We go back into the studio in early 2019 to record some of his most recent chamber music - Quartet no. 8, Quartettsatz, and the Piano Quintet!

The collaboration between Magos Herrera and Brooklyn Rider just released a 360-degree video of the song "Balderrama" shot in studio.

Check out this 360-video of Balderrama, from our Dreamers album with Magos Herrera!

Last night in Mexico City!

So thankful we get to share the power and beauty of music with audiences all across the world! Happy Thanksgiving, from all of us at Brooklyn Rider!

Trending Blogs

Recently Viewed Blogs

BROOKLYN RIDER