ASU's Visiting Quartet Residency Program announces Brooklyn Rider as resident artists

Arizona State University's School of Music, Dance and Theatre welcomes the members of the critically acclaimed Brooklyn Rider as the 2022–23 resident artists in the school’s prestigious Visiting Quartet Residency Program.

Known for playing both eclectic and contemporary repertoire and for collaborating with musicians from outside the classical music sphere, Brooklyn Rider has been hailed as “the future of chamber music” by Strings magazine.

Each year the School of Music, Dance and Theatre chooses a different major professional string quartet for the Visiting Quartet Residency Program.

“The opportunity to study with a professional ensemble allows students to see the collaborative process from the inside out — including the way the quartet communicates, rehearses, performs, manages and prioritizes its schedule,” said Jonathan Swartz, professor of violin and artistic director and founder of the program.

Unique among music schools nationwide, ASU’s resident artists serve as teachers and work with students through master classes, coaching and on projects designed to form the basis of the chamber music curriculum. Over the course of a four-year undergraduate degree, students will have had the opportunity to study with four different professional string quartets, while covering all the major pillars of chamber music literature.

Brooklyn Rider members are Johnny Gandelsman, violin; Colin Jacobsen, violin; Nicholas Cords, viola; and Michael Nicolas, cello.

Brooklyn Rider will perform three unique concerts centered around the four elements — earth, air, fire and water — as a musical expression to bring awareness to the beauty of our world, while reminding us of current challenges regarding climate and sustainability.

The quartet assembled a program of works created or collected within the last century of unprecedented planetary change. Anchored by four works symbolically representing each element, the quartet asked four composers to write new works that reflect current realities and serve as a musical call to action.

Air is represented with Henri Dutilleux’s “Ainsi la nuit;” fire is Dmitri Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 8; water is Osvaldo Golijov’s “Tenebrae;” and earth is a suite of American folk songs collected by Ruth Crawford Seeger, arranged by Colin Jacobsen.

Brooklyn Rider “Four Elements” concerts

7:30 p.m. Nov. 18
“Fire and Water”
Katzin Concert Hall 
Tickets

Akshaya Tucker: “Hollow Flame”
Dmitri Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 8 (fire)
Conrad Tao: “Undone”
Osvaldo Golijov: “Tenebrae” (water)

7:30 p.m. Feb. 1
“Earth”
Katzin Concert Hall
Tickets

Dan Trueman: “Under My Feet”
Osvaldo Golijov: “Um Dia Bom”
Schubert: String Quartet in D Minor, D.810 “Death and the Maiden”

7:30 p.m. April 5
“Earth on Fire”
ASU Symphony Orchestra and Brooklyn Rider
ASU Gammage
Tickets

Ruth Crawford Seeger: “Rissolty Rossolty”
Ruth Crawford Seeger: Songs (world-premiere arrangements by Colin Jacobson)
Michael Abels: “Global Warming”
Osvaldo Golijov: “Tenebrae” for string quartet
Gabriela Lena Frank: “Contested Eden”
“Ascending Bird” (traditional Persian song)

7:30 p.m. April 6
“Air”
Katzin Concert Hall
Tickets will soon be available here

Philip Glass: String Quartet No. 2
Andreia Pinto Correia: “Aere senza stelle”
Henri Dutilleux: “Ainsi La Nuit” (air)
Kyle Sanna: “Sequence for Minor White”

Collaboration with the ASU Symphony Orchestra.

For the April 5 concert, tickets are available for $12 at the ASU Gammage Box Office or can be purchased online at Ticketmaster (fees apply). All students with ASU, college or school ID receive one complimentary ticket, and all Hergberger Institute for Design and the Arts faculty and staff receive two complimentary tickets. Complimentary tickets can be picked up at the box office prior to the event and during all normal business hours.

All Herberger Institute students, faculty and staff and Mirabella residents are eligible for complimentary tickets to most events ticketed through the Herberger Institute box office. Click buy tickets to obtain your complimentary tickets using your 10-digit ASU ID as the promo code.