Tanglewood: The Knights, on a Stormy Night, a Fresh Breeze in Ozawa Hall
“Genre-bending (it used to be called crossover) is all the thing in music these days.... At its best, it’s the kind of thing The Knights (and the ladies among them) do.... As important as the repertoire...was the joy in the music-making. You could see it in the players’ lithe swaying to the music and hear it in the lithe sounds that emerged.”
— The Berkshire Eagle
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The Knights and Timo Andres Fill Out Mozart's 'Coronation'
“As played by the Knights, an excellent chamber orchestra, on Tuesday at the Naumburg Bandshell in Central Park, the composer and pianist Timo Andres’s take on the “Coronation” (otherwise known as the Piano Concerto No. 26 in D) felt necessary — not a lark but a surprisingly moving dazzler.”
— The New York Times
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The Knights Display Deeply Committed Musicmaking Skills
“It is a joy to see such deeply committed musicmaking. The Knights have no conductor; only the bassoonist and cellists play seated; every player is viscerally caught up in the shape of every phrase. That they suggest a rock band is not accidental, but the precision of balance and ensemble bespeaks the highest level of musicianship and preparation.”
— The Washington Post
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Chasing Clouds on the Way to 'Jupiter'
“Camaraderie and shared enthusiasm for playing music are what drive the ensemble, and those qualities came through on Tuesday in an adventurous program.”
— The New York Times
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Optimum Plucking, Surrounded by Friends
“Thursday evening’s concert by Wu Man and The Knights at Asia Society was a refreshing reminder of how much music gains when it is performed by friends who delight as much in their art as in one another’s company.”
— The New York Times
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Planes, Buses, Fumes, Brakes, Gnats and Melody
“It is a measure of the young orchestra’s accomplishment that even in this program of decidedly non-outdoor-ready music, it held the attention of a hefty audience through the entire program.”
— The New York Times
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New Models From Indie Orchestras
“…The best part of this handsomely packaged and persuasively performed disk is that you don’t have to know anything about themes or trends in orchestral economics to appreciate it.”
— San Francisco Classical Voice
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Chamber Players' Variations in the Key of John Cage
“The Knights, too, played snippets of old music, much of it with an Americana vibe, but their performance took Cage one step further, positing his experiments, which are now decades old, as one more classical element to be reinterpreted in our time.”
— The New York Times
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