Celebrating 20 years together, the four members of Brooklyn Rider are back at UKARIA with this survey of the string quartet tradition. Built around core works by Haydn, Beethoven, JS Bach and Schoenberg, their thematic programming promises to examine democracy and citizenship, including a visit to the pre-WWI world of Der Blaue Reiter (their namesake) and a healing meditation bookended by John Cage and Philip Glass. They are joined by soprano Ariadne Greif, dancers Melissa Toogood and Fiona Jopp, and a string quartet from ANAM.

Limelight Editor’s Choice

When thinking about how to cap off this edition of Chamberfest, UKARIA’s own Alison Beare suggested the idea of working with a fabulous string quartet from the Australian National Academy of Music. The idea immediately struck us for a couple of reasons. First, a couple of years ago, we did a collaborative program with the Danish String Quartet in Copenhagen which was a real hoot! So we had proof of concept! But second, our dear friend and omnivorous musical creator Osvaldo Golijov has since written a string octet (Ever Yours) inspired by Haydn’s amazing work of extraordinary gravitas, Op. 76 No. 2; we’ve been anxiously seeking opportunities to bring these works together on a program, and lo and behold!