Rite of Summer: The Knights

Rite of Summer

Jun 19, 2021

Nolan Park - Nolan Park - Lawn

The 10^th Anniver­sary Sea­son of the Rite of Sum­mer Music Fes­ti­val takes place Sum­mer 2021 on Gov­er­nors Island! Rite of Sum­mer will present free out­door con­certs in June and Sep­tem­ber. In a locale The New York Times has called a ​“Play­ground for the Arts,” the aim of the Fes­ti­val is sim­ple: to present the high­est qual­i­ty live per­for­mances, and to bring free con­tem­po­rary clas­si­cal music to as many peo­ple as pos­si­ble in a relaxed, fun, out­door setting. 

This season’s spec­tac­u­lar line-up kicks off on Sat­ur­day, June 19^th with The Knights per­form­ing works of Vival­di, Vil­la-Lobos, Rodri­go, arr. Kibbey and The Knights, Rav­el, Boulanger, Mont­gomery, and more. On Sat­ur­day, Sep­tem­ber 18^th, Alarm Will Sound will per­form the NYC pre­mière of John Luther Adams’ Ten Thou­sand Birds, based on the songs of birds that are native to, or migrate through the Amer­i­can north­east and mid­west. It explores the con­nec­tions between nature and music, a top­ic that John Luther Adams has pur­sued over the course of his remark­able career. 

Rite of Sum­mer shows will be pre­sent­ed twice the same day, at 1pm and 3pm, for each respec­tive date in Nolan Park. Audi­ences should feel free to walk by, stop and lis­ten, lay down a pic­nic blan­ket and relax, eat lunch, min­gle, and take in these engag­ing live performances. 

See the full Rite of Sum­mer 2021 Sea­son announce­ment here.

The safe­ty, health, and hap­pi­ness of ROS audi­ences, artists, and crew are of pri­ma­ry con­cern. Social dis­tanc­ing will be required for every­one in atten­dance as well as the wear­ing of masks cov­er­ing both noses and mouths.

Pro­gram for The Knights on Sat­ur­day, June 19^th at 1pm & 3pm (Rain Date: June 20^th)
Anto­nio Vival­di: Il Gardelli­no (10′) — flute, strings
Heitor Vil­la-Lobos: Song of the Black Swan (3′) — harp, cel­lo
Joaquin Rodri­go, arr. Brid­get Kibbey and The Knights: De los álam­os ven­go, madre (3′) — flute, clar­inet, harp, strings
Mau­rice Rav­el: Intro­duc­tion and Alle­gro (10′) — flute, clar­inet, strings
Paco De Lucía arr. C. Jacob­sen: Zyryab (7′) — flute, clar­inet, harp, strings
Lili Boulanger: Noc­turne (3′) — flute, harp
João Gilber­to arr. C. Jacob­sen: Undiu (4′) — flute/​voice, clar­inet, harp, strings
Jessie Mont­gomery: Source Code (8′) — strings
Tom­my Potts arr. C. Jacob­sen: The But­ter­fly (6′) — flute, harp, strings
Amer­i­can Tra­di­tion­al arr. Jacob­sen: Lit­tle Birdie (3′) — flute/​voice, clar­inet, harp, strings 

Per­form­ers:
Col­in Jacob­sen, vio­lin and Knights Artis­tic Direc­tor
Alex Fortes, vio­lin
Celia Hat­ton, vio­la
Alex Sopp, flute and vocals
Nuno Antunes, clar­inet
Brid­get Kibbey, harp
&
Addi­tion­al Musi­cians from The Knights TBA 

The Knights ensem­ble biog­ra­phy:
THE KNIGHTS are a col­lec­tive of adven­tur­ous musi­cians ded­i­cat­ed to trans­form­ing the orches­tral expe­ri­ence and elim­i­nat­ing bar­ri­ers between audi­ences and music. Dri­ven by an open-mind­ed spir­it of cama­raderie and explo­ration, they inspire lis­ten­ers with vibrant pro­grams that encom­pass their roots in the clas­si­cal tra­di­tion and pas­sion for artis­tic dis­cov­ery. The orches­tra has toured and record­ed with renowned soloists includ­ing Yo-Yo Ma, Dawn Upshaw, Béla Fleck, and Gil Sha­ham, and has per­formed at Carnegie Hall, Tan­gle­wood, and the Vien­na Musikvere­in. The Knights evolved from late-night cham­ber music read­ing par­ties with friends at the home of vio­lin­ist Col­in Jacob­sen and cel­list Eric Jacob­sen, who serve as the group’s artis­tic directors. 

The Knights are proud to be known as ​“one of Brooklyn’s ster­ling cul­tur­al products…known far beyond the bor­ough for their relaxed vir­tu­os­i­ty and expan­sive reper­to­ry” (The New York­er). Their ros­ter boasts musi­cians of remark­ably diverse tal­ents, includ­ing com­posers, arrangers, singer-song­writ­ers, and impro­vis­ers, who bring a range of cul­tur­al influ­ences to the group, from jazz and klezmer to pop and indie rock music. The unique cama­raderie with­in the group retains the inti­ma­cy and spon­tane­ity of cham­ber music in per­for­mance. Through the palat­able joy and friend­ship in their music-mak­ing, each musi­cian strives to include new and famil­iar audi­ences to expe­ri­ence this impor­tant art form. 

Count­ed among the high­lights from recent sea­sons are: a ful­ly-staged ver­sion of Leonard Bernstein’s Can­dide in hon­or of his 100^th birth­day at both the Tan­gle­wood Music Fes­ti­val and the Ravinia Fes­ti­val; the pre­mière of The Head and the Load with inter­na­tion­al artist William Ken­tridge at London’s Tate Mod­ern and New York’s Park Avenue Armory; the record­ing of Prokofiev’s Sec­ond Vio­lin Con­cer­to on mas­ter vio­lin­ist Gil Shaham’s Gram­my-nom­i­nat­ed 2016 release, 1930s Vio­lin Con­cer­tos, Vol. 2; and a per­for­mance in the NY PHIL BIEN­NI­AL along with the San Fran­cis­co Girls Cho­rus (led by com­pos­er Lisa Bielawa) and the Brook­lyn Youth Cho­rus, which fea­tured world pre­mieres by Rome Prize-win­ner Bielawa, Pulitzer Prize-win­ner Aaron Jay Ker­nis, and Knights vio­lin­ist and co-founder Col­in Jacob­sen. The ensem­ble made its Carnegie Hall debut in the New York pre­mière of the Steven Stucky/​Jeremy Denk opera The Clas­si­cal Style, and has toured the U.S. with ban­jo vir­tu­oso Béla Fleck and Europe with sopra­no Dawn Upshaw. Oth­er record­ings include the crit­i­cal­ly acclaimed Azul, released in 2016; 2015’s ​“instinc­tive and appeal­ing” (The Times, UK) the ground beneath our feet on Warn­er Clas­sics; an all-Beethoven disc on Sony Clas­si­cal; and 2012’s ​“smart­ly pro­grammed” (NPR) A Sec­ond of Silence for Ancalagon. Ensem­ble pho­to by Shervin Lainez

Col­in Jacob­sen, Vio­lin­ist, Com­pos­er & Artis­tic Direc­tor of The Knights
Vio­lin­ist and com­pos­er Col­in Jacob­sen is ​“one of the most inter­est­ing fig­ures on the clas­si­cal music scene” (The Wash­ing­ton Post). An eclec­tic com­pos­er who draws on a range of influ­ences, he was named one of the top 100 com­posers under 40 by NPR lis­ten­ers. He is also active as an Avery Fish­er Career Grant-win­ning soloist and has toured with the Silk Road Ensem­ble since its incep­tion in 2000. For his work as a found­ing mem­ber of two game-chang­ing, audi­ence-expand­ing ensem­bles – the string quar­tet Brook­lyn Rid­er and orches­tra The Knights – Jacob­sen was select­ed from among the nation’s top visu­al, per­form­ing, media, and lit­er­ary artists to receive a pres­ti­gious and sub­stan­tial Unit­ed States Artists Fel­low­ship. As a fea­tured soloist and com­pos­er with the YouTube Sym­pho­ny Orches­tra, he per­formed at the Syd­ney Opera House in a mem­o­rable con­cert streamed by mil­lions of view­ers world­wide. His com­po­si­tions and arrange­ments for dance and the­ater include The Prin­ci­ples of Uncer­tain­ty, a col­lab­o­ra­tion between writer/​illustrator Maira Kalman and Dance Hegin­both­am; and More Or Less I Am, a the­atri­cal pro­duc­tion of Walt Whit­man’s Song of Myself by Com­pag­nia de’ Colom­bari. Pho­to: Erin Baiano
http://​www​.col​in​ja​cob​sen​.com

Brid­get Kibbey, Harpist
Called the ​“Yo-Yo Ma of the harp,” by Vogue Senior Edi­tor Corey Sey­mour, Brid­get Kibbey is in demand for her inno­v­a­tive, vir­tu­osic per­for­mances that expand the expres­sive range of the harp. Col­lab­o­rat­ing with some of today’s top artists, she cross­es gen­res to empha­size the harp’s role through cen­turies and cul­tures of music. The New York Times has remarked that “…she made it seem as though her instru­ment had been wait­ing all its life to explode with the gor­geous col­ors and ener­getic fig­ures she was get­ting from it.” Kibbey has received a pres­ti­gious Avery Fish­er Career Grant and a Salon de Vir­tu­osi SONY Record­ing Grant. She is the win­ner of the Pre­mière Prix at the Journées de les Harpes Com­pe­ti­tion in Arles, France, the Con­cert Artists Guild com­pe­ti­tion, and the Juil­liard School’s Peter Men­nin Prize for Artis­tic Excel­lence and Lead­er­ship. She is a grad­u­ate of the Cham­ber Music Soci­ety of Lin­coln Center’s Bow­ers Pro­gram (for­mer­ly CMS Two), and is fea­tured annu­al­ly with the CMSLC. With the harp as her muse, Brid­get Kibbey is sought after for her keen cura­to­r­i­al ideas through music. She cur­rent­ly tours sev­er­al projects of her own con­cep­tion rang­ing from French Mas­ter­works of the Belle Époque, to the rich­es of baroque coun­ter­point, to pop­u­lar and famil­iar folk music from South Amer­i­ca to Sephardia which result­ed from some of history’s great­est cross-cul­tur­al pol­li­na­tion sto­ries. She has appeared as a soloist and cham­ber musi­cian in fes­ti­vals across the globe, includ­ing Schloss Elmau, Pelotas Fes­ti­val, Lin­coln Center’s Most­ly Mozart Fes­ti­val, Inter­na­tion­al Fes­ti­val d’Avesnois, Aspen Music Fes­ti­val, Bra­vo! Vail Music Fes­ti­val, San­ta Fe Cham­ber Music Fes­ti­val, Spo­le­to Fes­ti­val, Big Ears Knoxville, Cham­ber Music North­west, Bridge­hamp­ton Cham­ber Music Fes­ti­val, Bay Cham­ber Con­certs, Savan­nah Music Fes­ti­val, and Music@Menlo, among oth­ers. Pho­to: Ronald Smith
https://​www​.brid​getk​ibbey​.com