The Knights

ABOUT THE KNIGHTS

'a little orchestra of some of
New York’s best strings-about-town.'
The New Yorker

These are the Knights: A fellowship of young musicians of diverse and accomplished backgrounds who come together for the shared joy of musical exploration. The Knights have brought audiences varied and engaging programs consisting of oddities and favorites from all eras, world premieres, collaborations with jazz artists, singer-songwriters and arrangements of folk music from different world traditions in their quest to bring new light to old works and new works to light. The group is a flexible chamber orchestra, appearing often as a conductorless string orchestra, but expands accordion-like to include some of New York's most sought-after winds and percussion.

Members of the group are graduates of Juilliard, Curtis, Manhattan, Mannes and Eastman, and include members of Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble. They have performed as soloists with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Israel Philharmonic, to name a few, and appeared at the world's most prestigious music festivals, including Marlboro, Tanglewood, Verbier, Stillwater, Lucerne, Salzburg and Moritzburg.

In September of 2006, the Knights gave the world premiere of Mark O'Connor's Harmony for violin and strings with the composer performing the solo in Musicians for Harmony's 5th anniversary Concert for Peace at Merkin Hall. Other exciting collaborations have included flutist Paula Robison in performances of Neapolitan folk and love songs, violinist Mark Peskanov, soprano Susan Narucki, internationally recognized cellist Jan Vogler, Iranian ney (Persian bamboo flute) virtuoso Siamak Jahangiri, jazz violinist and singer Jenny Scheinman, acclaimed (and recognizably red-headed) pianist Steven Beck, and singer-songwriter Christina Courtin (also a valiant Knight violinist).

The Knights (in their one of their guises as champions of music of our time) were the resident chamber orchestra for the 2007 MATA Festival for young composers, held at the Brooklyn Lyceum, where they premiered new works by Yotam Haber and Christopher Tignor and performed numerous other recent works by composers such as Osvaldo Golijov and Jim Mattheson. This past September, the Knights took audiences on a journey through Lisa Bielawa's Chance Encounter at Seward Park in New York's Lower East Side, playing a unique site-specific song-cycle for soprano Susan Narucki and the Knights with text based on conversation overheard in transient public spaces.

The Knights have performed at FOTA's annual Beethoven festival at the Planting Fields Arboretum for the last 2 years, performing Beethoven's 4th and 7th Symphonies with Eric Jacobsen conducting, and in a special evening at the Brooklyn Lyceum paired Beethoven's 7th with Christina Courtin's songs in full orchestral arrangements by various members of the Knights.

Upcoming concerts include a performance at Carnegie's Weill Hall and Bargemusic, a tour of Ireland and a Symphony Space concert that continues the Knights' relationship with Mark O'Connor, featuring the fiddler/composer performing his American Seasons alongside members of the Knights soloing on Piazzola and Vivaldi's Seasons.

‘You had the feeling of being with musicians, not just observing them…’
The New York Times

‘supercharged Romanticism of Schoenberg's "Verklärte Nacht," performed with passion and beauty'
The New York Times

'truly an exhilarating experience'
The New York Sun

'…brought the music to life in a way that was devoid of elitism, awkwardness, and – even on a cold February night – coughing.'
New York Times