Brooklyn Rider is one of the most exciting string quartets performing today. Based in Brooklyn, New York City, and named for the visionary artistic movement The Blue Rider (think Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee), the American quartet is renowned for its thrilling programs and rock star performances.

In their first ever visit to Australia, Brooklyn Rider brings to the Utzon Room a diverse program spanning 20th-century masterpieces – Shostakovich’s Eighth String Quartet and Dutilleux’s Ainsi la nuit (Thus the night) – to a work by the quartet’s own violinist, Colin Jacobsen, A short while to be here, based on American folk songs collected by Ruth Crawford Seeger. The concert comes to a close with Osvaldo Golijov’s arresting Tenebrae. Written at the turn of the 21st century, its meditation on innocence and conflict is more powerful than ever.