CODA
How a group of recent conservatory grads is expanding the orchestral concert experience: Colin and Eric Jacobsen tell the story behind the chamber orchestra known as The Knights.
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Brothers Colin (left) and Eric Jacobsen (right), founders and co-artistic directors of The Knights chamber orchestra
idioms that we may not have learned in greater whole. That gives us tremendous school and are excited to be a part of now. freedom in how we perform together. It We love to collaborate with artists who allows for connections from one side of are not just great musicians, but who look the stage to another; audiences pick up on at music with a wide view of its place this connection. To have a truly personal in the world. They are willing to take experience within an orchestra as well as amazing chances to ensure that something with our audience: this is why we founded magical happens on stage. Right now, we The Knights, and we are fortunate that it are preparing for a fall appearance at the remains at the core of what we do. Caramoor festival with Yo-Yo Ma. Originally, when we were a smaller We plan to continue to explore the ensemble, we didn’t have a conductor. unlimited world of music, and to bring as Now Eric does the conducting, and we broad an audience as possible with us on have a managing director: Vanessa RosePridemore, a fine musician and graduate of the Orchestra Management Fellowship Program of the League of American Orchestras. The members of The Knights still carry out many nutsand-bolts functions such as communications, operations, and fundraising. That hands-on approach, and our The Knights in performance at Le Poisson Rouge, the New York flattened hierarchy, makes nightclub that features eclectic programming us well suited to offbeat our journey. And to keep having fun while collaborations and interesting projects. For we’re doing it. instance, our first album for Sony, with cellist Jan Vogler, paired Shostakovich with Jimi Hendrix. We were worried the Colin Jacobsen and Eric Jacobsen, Hendrix might sound watered-down, brothers, founded The Knights and are cobut we have collaborators whose musical artistic directors of the ensemble. Colin serves lives weave in and out of pop, jazz, folk, as concertmaster (a rotating position) and Eric period-performance, and world music. conducts the group, also occasionally performing They are able to bring the rest of us into in its cello section. Supermarche
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he origins of The Knights were about as close to a “garage band” as an orchestra could be. As teenage musicians we would spend all night in our parents’ living room, jamming with our friends. When we were studying at Juilliard we kept doing that and found ourselves with a big circle of people who liked to play, discuss, and interpret music, and experiment with the pieces we were playing. Our informal group started to hold public performances about eight years ago, and it went from being a small group of conservatory students to include composers, arrangers, singers, and people who pursued new directions far afield from their classical training. Now we operate as a per-service orchestra. We have made some exciting recordings and performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Poisson Rouge, the Brooklyn Lyceum, MATA (a festival that promotes the work of young composers), the Dresden Musikfestspiele, and Dublin’s National Gallery. We all believe deeply in dedicating ourselves to whatever music we’re playing, whether it’s by Beethoven, Lisa Bielawa, or one of our own musicians. So we give ourselves unusual amounts of time to rehearse, the way a theater company might approach a great play. One reason for this is our consensus-driven, highly collaborative structure. Everybody in The Knights has a say, and a lot of discussion and exploration goes into figuring out how each musician’s part fits into the
Richard Frank
Creative Collective
symphony
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