Rode Hard And Put Up Wet

Just because I love it, here's a clip of Brooklyn Rider, a great (and more than slightly unconventional) New York-based string quartet playing an arrangement of the classic Mexican folk song, La Muerte Chiquita. The arrangement is by Osvaldo Golijov, the Argentinian-born Israeli composer who now makes his home outside of Boston, and may well make the history books as the preeminent composer of this era.



Brooklyn Rider, by the way, is made up of brothers Colin and Eric Jacobsen on violin and cello, respectively, with violinist Johnny Gandelsman and violist Nicholas Cords. The ensemble grew out of Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble, and has been making some serious noise in various locales in the Northeast. They also inaugurated a recital series in Stillwater, Minnesota two summers back, and this summer, they'll be in residence at Minneapolis's MacPhail Center for Music for a couple of weeks in June.

There seems to be an ever-growing number of small ensembles like this one out there in the music world these days, seamlessly blending the worlds of classical, folk, rock, and who knows how many other genres. It may seem far removed from what those of us who make our living in the big granddaddy ensembles do, but the reality is that some fusion of what we do and what they do could well represent the most likely future of the professional music world. At least we can hope so.

Want more? I thought so...