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  Program Also Includes Beethoven's String Quartet, Op. 131,and
Contemporary Works byChristopher Tignor, Philip Glass, and John Zorn 

CarnegieHall presents the adventurous and innovative string quartet Brooklyn Rider on Monday, October 31 at7:30 p.m. in Zankel Hall. The group will perform the New York premiere of aself-composed work entitled SevenSteps, inspired by Beethoven’s String Quartet in C-sharp Minor, Op.131, which is also on the program. Rounding out this concert is ChristopherTignor’s together into thisunknowable night (featuring Mr. Tignor on electronics); PhilipGlass’s String Quartet No. 3, "Mishima"; and John Zorn’s Kol Nidre. To see a videoof the group playing an excerpt of Glass’s “Mishima,” click here.

Recently, Brooklyn Rider violist Nicholas Cords spoke about the group's newcomposition Seven Steps:“We decided to dedicate much of our 2011–12 season to Beethoven's StringQuartet in C-sharp Minor, op 131. This is a work that we have long admired andin fact is our first journey as a quartet into the world of Beethoven… For us,playing Beethoven is an inspiring journey into a supremely creative mind.What's more is that his music speaks as currently as just about anything beingwritten today… Seven Stepsplays with the number seven—not just because it suggests the spiritual worldthat Beethoven explores in his late works (in addition to all of the Biblicalreferences to seven, the Buddha was said to have taken seven steps atbirth)—but also because our piece is also divided into seven very shortfragments, just as op. 131 is written in seven movements. More important thanthe link to Beethoven, we think about (the work) as seven steps forward for usas a string quartet… We certainly don't intend for our piece to rise to thesame heights as Beethoven, but what is extremely important to us is toconstantly push our boundaries outwards.”

About the Artists
Born out of a desire to use the rich medium of the string quartet as a vehiclefor communication across a large cross section of history and geography, Brooklyn Rider isequally devoted to the interpretation of existing quartet literature and to thecreation of new works. Highlights of the group’s 2011–2012 season, includetheir Carnegie Hall debut at Zankel Hall, two U.S. tours, and its first trip toChina, with concerts in Beijing and Hong Kong. This past season Brooklyn Riderappeared at Lincoln Center for the first time as part of the inaugural TullyScope Festival. Additional highlights included a European tour with Persian kamancheh virtuoso KayhanKalhor and North American tours in the fall and winter culminating in apresentation by the Washington Performing Arts Society. The musicians performedat the U.S. Open Tennis Tournament and enjoyed the release of Brooklyn Rider Plays Philip Glasson the composer’s Orange Mountain Music label, which was selected as one of theBest Albums of the Year(So Far) by NPR Classical. In recent seasons, Brooklyn Rider has appeared atthe Cologne Philharmonie, American Academy in Rome, Malmö Festival in Sweden,Spoleto Festival USA, the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, and at the SXSWFestival (as the only classical group invited to play there). The quartet'sname is inspired in part by the cross disciplinary vision of Der Blaue Reiter(The Blue Rider), a pre-World War I Munich-based artistic collective whosemembers included Vassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc, Arnold Schoenberg, andAlexander Scriabin.


Program Information
Monday, October 31at 7:30 p.m.
Zankel Hall
BROOKLYN RIDER
•• Johnny Gandelsman, Violin
•• Colin Jacobsen, Violin
•• Nicholas Cords, Viola
•• Eric Jacobsen, Cello
with Christopher Tignor, Electronics

BROOKLYN RIDER Seven Steps(NY Premiere)
CHRISTOPHER TIGNOR togetherinto this unknowable night
PHILIP GLASS String Quartet No. 3, "Mishima"
JOHN ZORN Kol Nidre
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN String Quartet in C-sharp Minor, Op. 131

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