We are now learning a brand new piece written for us by our friend, the fantastic composer Steve Mackey. Here’s a video we did where he talks about the piece. Come hear the world premiere in Carnegie Hall on February 12! Other performances in Yellow Barn and the Nasher Center in Dallas in November to mark the 50th anniversary of the assassination of JFK.
Brilliant composer and jazz pianist Vijay Iyer is writing a piano quintet for us to play with him. We’re really excited about this project! Here’s a video we made where Vijay talks about it.
The Brentano Quartet is now on (or at least behind) the silver screen! The critically acclaimed film “A Late Quartet”, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Christopher Walken and Catherine Keener, and directed by Yaron Zilberman, opened on November 2.
Based on Beethoven’s late quartet, opus 131, the film uses our new recording of this work as the basis of its soundtrack. Our cellist Nina, complete with glamorous hairdo, has a walk-on role (appearing as herself, a role she is perfectly suited for), and best of all gets to hear her name said, several times, by some of her favorite actors!
Check out the film’s website here: alatequartet.com
or go to the movies and see it today.
Here’s a live concert recording from Princeton University — a beautiful concert hall and also our school!
Our first violinist Mark Steinberg introduces the Fragments Project: the Quartet has commissioned several composers (Charles Wuorinen, Sofia Gubaidulina, John Harbison, Vijay Iyer, Bruce Adolphe, and Stephen Hartke) to write pieces related to fragmentary works by earlier composers (Dufay, Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, and Shostakovich)