“Para Un Mejor Mundo” (for a better world) is a collaboration between harpist Evelyn Huber and Sirius Quartet. It was released on August 30, 2019 by the GLM label in Germany. Order >>
Rite of Summer Music Festival concludes its ninth stellar season with Sirius Quartet celebrating the release of “New World” on ZOHO Records.
2 Sets: Saturday, September 7, 2019 at 1pm and 3pm.
Program: Beside the Point (Fung Chern Hwei) Knives Out (Radiohead, arr. Gregor Huebner) Cavatina (Stanley Myers, arr. Fung Chern Hwei) New World, Nov 9, 2016 (Gregor Huebner) #STILL (Gregor Huebner) To A New Day (Fung Chern Hwei) More Than We Are (Jeremy Harman)
This event is FREE, outdoors, and family-friendly. More info >>
Sirius Quartet’s most recent album NEWWORLD drops today! It has been a couple of years in the making and we can’t wait to share this music with everyone.
Welcome back to the next season of exciting concerts and new projects.
Sirius Quartet’s most recent album NEW WORLD drops today! It has been a couple of years in the making and we can’t wait to share this music with everyone.
Both a charged reaction to recent political events and a celebration of the perserverance of hope and spirit, New World features 9 new compositions and arrangements from members of the quartet.
On August 23, 2019, Sirius Quartet releases New World on ZOHO Records. Called an ensemble that “works comfortably at the intersection of post-minimalist classical composition and post-bop jazz” by the Detroit Free Press, the quartet’s visceral compositions and arrangements provide ample space for improvisation. The politically-charged and topical album explores themes of immigration, discrimination, and being an agent of change.
The title track “New World, Nov. 9, 2016” was the Grand Prize winner for the New York Philharmonic’s “New World Initiative” composition competition in 2017. Composer/violinist Gregor Huebner balances idyllic and hopeful themes of Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9 (“New World” Symphony) with the fiercer passages found in the Shostakovich String Quartet No.8 that allude to tensions between the composer and the Soviet Union. “With two immigrant violinists, we in the quartet feel that it’s important to create music that speaks to the moment in which we live and gives hope,” says composer Huebner.
Huebner’s “#STILL” is based on the devastating song “Strange Fruit,” first recorded by Billie Holiday in 1939. Eighty years later and institutionalized racism remains endemic. Composer/violinist Fung Chern Hwei describes the opening work, “Beside the Point” as his “declaration of struggle against discrimination.” Cellist/composer Jeremy Harman’s “Currents” maintains an often vague sense of menace throughout, prodding the listener out of any complacency. The Beatles’ iconic “Eleanor Rigby” and Radiohead’s “Knives Out,” both arranged by Huebner, showcase the group’s fierce improvisational acumen. Recorded in Germany over two years, New World is the quartet’s first full-length since 2016’s Paths Become Lines. The album is both an impassioned lament for the state of a nation and beyond, and a beautiful and hopeful call to action.
New Album by Evelyn Huber and Sirius Quartet Para Un Mejor Mundo (for a better world)
Here is the next exciting project, “Para Un Mejor Mundo,” a collaboration with harpist Evelyn Huber and Sirius Quartet. It will be released on August 30, 2019 by the GLM label in Germany. PREORDER >>
El Violin Latino at 2019 Chestertown Jazz Festival
“His album begins with Equinox, which is a through-and-through groove tune, arranged in a Cuban style, the famous John Coltrane number. It’s an opening salvo for how we can listen and learn from each other. The piece quickly opens into a solo section in which Huebner’s violin does the proverbial talking, cascading colorful lines and double-stopped notes …” — Kabir Sehgal, liner notes from the album
Musicians: Gregor Huebner – electric and acoustic violin, octave Violin, vocals Yumarya – voice Klaus Mueller – piano John Benitez – bass Louie Bauzo – congas, bongos, quinto and caja Jerome Goldschmidt – congas, bata, cachimbo and vocals Ludwig Alfonso – drums
Recorded and filmed at Spin Recording Studio, Long Island City, NY October 10, 2017
