The Brooklyn Rail

Highly Selective Listings

Brooklyn Rail Highly Selective Music Events

A thoughtful, discerning, and carefully compiled list of the most notable, promising and unique musical events for the month of April in New York City.

Masters of Their Own Reality

By George Grella

Which came first, the string quartet or the String Quartet? There’s semantic and historical interest in the answer. It’s fair to say that the String Quartet, as a compositional genre, began with Haydn.

Shapeshifter Star

By Yvonne Juris

His death came as a blindsiding blow. Only a select few knew that he was battling cancer, and in the first hours after the world learned of David Bowie’s death on January 10, social media exploded with shock and tributes.

The Amateur Sound: nonkeen

By Marshall Yarbrough

Society doesn’t have much respect for amateurs. With the possible—problematic—exception of college athletes, our general attitude is that, if you’re not making a living off something, you’re not really doing it.

Outtakes

By Steve Dalachinsky

“If it’s something I like I have to write it myself […] I like that legendary string …” claims the narrator of Robert Ashley’s three-plus-hour non-opera Quicksand based on his novel of the same name.