CARRIE FREY

VIOLA | PERFORMER, TEACHER, COMPOSER, IMPROVISER

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New video of my solo piece Seagrass/Reed from a live performance at Marelle Audio!

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One of my favorites from Zarabanda Variations, up on scorefollower. The whole album is up for presale, out in August!

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A Song For Friday: Feeble Little Horse

A digitally-detailed blast from Pittsburgh. Also: Emily A. Sprague, Lennie Rayen, Veps, Clutter, My Brother's Keeper, James Wengrow, Eli Sha

Lovely take on LESSER ARCANA from Jeremy Shatan at AnEarful: "Their sense of humor takes literal form in the brief laugh track, which includes samples of Frey’s guffaws turned into counterpoint for her nervy viola playing. Fun and fascinating stuff from two experts generous enough to let us into their little secret."

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Playlist (Light yourself a candle).

A weekly tally of noteworthy things that got stuck in my ears, May 18–24, 2026. Various artists – Save The Waves: People for Public Media (P

Included in Steve Smith's weekly playlist!

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https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/12/arts/music/best-classical-music-albums-march-2026.html

My Mother in Love: The Summer Sessions in the NYT

"Flanked by strings, winds, electric guitars and percussion, Mundy’s voice shifts from the fragile wail of an indie darling to a clean classical soprano with an unstudied air. There are shades of Sprechstimme, dissonant melodies and contemporary classical flourishes, crossed with echoes of St. Vincent and the sweeping folk strings of Fleet Foxes." - Gabrielle Ferrari

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Carrie Frey - Seaglass - PAN M 360

Carrie Frey is a composer and violist based in Brooklyn. Seaglass is Frey’s first album dedicated to her own music. There was Seagrass: Work

A wonderful review from Frédéric Cardin at PANM360!

"In her music, Frey achieves a remarkable feat, that of integrating avant-garde expressive elements into an accessible and dramatically appealing framework. There is no purely conceptual cerebrality in her writing, only the desire to tell a story in an original and unique way."

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The Best Contemporary Classical Music on Bandcamp, November 2025

Our guide to the month‘s crucial contemporary classical work.

We're in this month's Bandcamp Best of Contemporary Classical as well, for Anaïs Maviel's Listen to the rain.

"Sometimes a string quartet is merely the vehicle for the work of a composer to be heard. The quartet is an interpreter, yes; but usually the group is not involved in the creation of the music in a granular or personal manner. New York’s The Rhythm Method diverges from this practice in several ways. For one thing, its members are also composers; violist Carrie Frey was featured in last month’s column on an album of her pieces played by her and the ensemble. The situation offers both parties a special connection, fostering greater vulnerability and understanding. The quartet members can all sing, in non-operatic fashion, too. But The Rhythm Method happily draws outside the lines of string quartet orthodoxy..."

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Dust, Volume 11, Number 11

Glyders It’s dark outside at a little past 4:30, and a chill is coming through the window.  We’ve gotten pretty close to the end of another

Nice review in Dusted Magazine, by Christian Carey!

"Drawing on her experiences as a performer, Frey writes particularly well for strings. 'LATHE' has spiderwebs of counterpoint juxtaposed with icy, dissonant verticals. Frey also puts scalar passages and harmonics in intricate interplay. 'A chorus like distant screaming' culminates with all four members giving full-throated cries. It helps to have such enthusiastic friends, especially when presenting contemporary classical chamber music. 'Gone/Back' emphasizes double-stops and repeated notes. 'Seaglass/pebble' contains whirling glissandos that coruscate in waves of sound. The recording...whets the appetite for more music from Frey."

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The Best Contemporary Classical Music on Bandcamp, October 2025

Our guide to the month’s crucial contemporary classical LPs.

A great review by Peter Margasak in Bandcamp's Best Contemporary Classical today!

"Violist Carrie Frey long ago established herself as one of the finest interpreters of contemporary music in New York, both as a solo artist and, since 2020, as a key member of the string quartet the Rhythm Method. In recent years, her abilities as a composer have started to catch up to her reputation as a player, and on this portrait album by the Rhythm Method her development has never been clearer."

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Link to our radio interview with Dave Lake of WRUU Contemporary Classics about my new album Seaglass: Works for String Quartet.

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culture club October 2025~

this is a place where we share our thoughts and loves...

Thanks to AndPlay for recommending Seaglass in this month's culture club :)

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New video from our recording session for Keir GoGwilt's Zarabanda Variations!

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For the Record: Oct. 17, 2025.

Lea Bertucci, Carrie Frey, Clarice Jensen, Lei Liang, Travis Laplante, Sachiko M, and more new arrivals and coming attractions.

A little mention in Steve Smith's newsletter!

"Today is especially good for string quartets, with fantastic compositions by Carrie Frey, Lei Liang, and Travis Laplante leading the pack."

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Carrie Frey and The Rhythm Method Explore Shared Consciousness on "Seaglass"

Connie Li reviews "Seaglass" from The Rhythm Method, featuring new works by Carrie Frey, out today on Gold Bolus Recordings.

First review of the new album and it's a good one!

"Performed with guts and gusto by this ensemble of performers/composers, Seaglass manages a balancing act of intrigue and revelation with four works by the quartet’s violist Carrie Frey."

"By the time we reach “Seaglass/Pebble,” which feels the most exacting and lean, we have become well accustomed to The Rhythm Method’s ability to switch from full-throttle grime to sheer rippling in a snap."

"The ensemble’s collaboration and performance is the clear highlight.... Each member builds on anotherʻs energy, and Frey’s compositions create space for the quartet to push deeper into each section and for us to get the wheels turning."

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The Best Contemporary Classical Music on Bandcamp, September 2025

Our guide to the month’s crucial classical releases.

"Four of the six pieces are solo, but electronics transform each of them, while two other works feature fellow string players like violist Carrie Frey and cellist Julia Henderson. [...] The album opens with Marcos Balter’s beautiful title piece, a trio work with a series of closely aligned upper register gestures that generate a collective sense of motion—a spectral object drifting through space like a falling leaf."

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Video of the U.S. premiere of Georg Friedrich Haas's ...... (2006) with Ekmeles is up!

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In its twenty-five years in New York City’s new music scene, Wet Ink Ensemble has established a distinctive approach in which members blend

As of today I am officially a graduate of the Grad Center of the City University of New York, with a DMA in Viola Performance. If you're interested in reading my dissertation the full text is available at this link.