“In the hands of ETHEL, American music is alive and well.” (Washington Post)
Established in New York City in 1998, ETHEL celebrates 25 years of setting the standard for contemporary concert music: “indefatigable and eclectic” (The New York Times), “vital and brilliant” (The New Yorker), and “infectiously visceral” (Pitchfork). This irrepressible foursome of composer-performers—Ralph Farris (viola), Kip Jones (violin), Dorothy Lawson (cello), and Corin Lee (violin)—blends uptown panache with downtown genre mashup. Since its inception, ETHEL has released nine feature recordings; performed as guests on 50+ albums; won a GRAMMY® with jazz legend Kurt Elling; and toured internationally with rock icons Todd Rundgren & Joe Jackson. The quartet has performed across the United States and worldwide—from the Library of Congress to the Venice Biennale; from the Royal Concertgebouw to the Sydney Opera House.
At the heart of ETHEL is a collaborative ethos—a quest for common creative expression, forged in listening and community. The quartet designs productions that organically inspire engagement—programs such as The River, featuring Taos Pueblo elder, flutist and storyteller, Robert Mirabal (The River [Innova Recordings] was nominated for a Native American Music Award); and Signature Sessions, a hyper-engaging survey of the quartet’s 25 years of inspired music-making.
ETHEL has premiered over 250 works, many of them commissioned by the quartet.
As a collective of composers themselves, the ensemble has received commissions from The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Georgia Tech’s School of Architecture, and the NEA. The group regularly performs music by such celebrated—and active—composers as Julia Wolfe, Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate, Jessie Montgomery, Andy Akiho, and Marcelo Zarvos. ETHEL champions the music of today, forging human connections across sound and style.
ETHEL has worked with luminaries spanning the wide world of arts disciplines. Collaborators from classical, contemporary, jazz and Broadway include Daniel Bernard Roumain, Jason Robert Brown, Bang on a Can All-Stars, Ensemble Modern, Iva Bittová, and Vijay Iyer. Collaborators from indigenous, folk, indie and rock include Sheryl Crow, Jake Shimabukuro, Raven Chacon, Stewart Copeland, Thomas Dolby, and David Byrne. Collaborators from dance, film, theatre, and multi-media design include Jehane Noujaim, Annie-B Parson, Gina Gibney, Grant McDonald, Steve Cosson, and Annie Dorsen.
The 2021/22 season saw the quartet’s return to the Kennedy Center; opening the Charleston Literary Festival; and performing the New York City premiere of Guillermo Galindo’s Remote Control on the famed High Line greenway park; as well as the release of Joe Jackson & Todd Rundgren, Featuring Ethel, the album memorializing the sextet’s celebrated 2005 tour. The season’s collaborations included the premiere of Lebanese violinist Layale Chaker’s Vigil (Dumbarton Oaks); and video shoots in Arizona’s Painted Desert with Navajo rock duo Sihasin. 2022 marked ETHEL’s return to live performances on their celebrated weekly series as Resident Ensemble at The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Petrie Court Café and the Balcony Bar. The season closed with an inspired studio project, recording the music of legendary percussionist Bob Becker (percussion ensemble NEXUS), with Emmalie Tello, bass clarinet (Art Beyond the Ink), and Mark Dover, clarinet (Imani Winds).
The 2022/23 season featured the premiere of the fifth chapter of ETHEL’s HomeBaked project, an initiative showcasing emerging composers Migiwa Miyajima, Xavier Muzik, Sam Wu, and 2022 Pulitzer Prize finalist, Anne Leilehua Lanzilotti. The program also featured the music of the Cleveland Orchestra’s Daniel R. Lewis Composer Fellow, Allison Loggins-Hull, who joined ETHEL in performance of the five works for flute and string quartet at the Brooklyn Public Library. ETHEL returned to the Charleston Literary Festival in Fall ’22; and Spring ‘23 brought a reunion with Robert Mirabal—a featured performance presented by Chamber Music America at National Sawdust, and a Taos Chamber Music Group commission and premiere, of Song for Taos, by ETHEL and Robert Mirabal.
The 2023-24 (the group’s 25th!) sees ETHEL return to Venice, Italy, for a live installation in collaboration with WXY, at the Biennale Architettura 2023; after which the quartet travels to The Netherlands for performances of the music of Bart van Dongen and Jacob TV; they then return to the US for a residency at University of Oklahoma. Late autumn brings a return (with Robert Mirabal) to the National Gallery of Art; and later-season highlights include appearances at the Wexner Center for the Arts (OH) and Denison University’s TUTTI Festival. This season again brings much recording activity, with five albums in production: Persist, featuring flutist Allison Loggins-Hull and the music of HomeBaked V (Sono Luminus); Vigil, featuring the music of Lebanese violinist Layale Chaker (In A Circle); Society’s Child 2.0, featuring the music of singer-songwriter Julia Crafton (independent); Dynasty, ETHEL’s newest collaboration, with Taiwanese supergroup A Moving Sound (ARC Music); and For Eli, a collection of commissioned works written in memory of the son of a dear friend of the quartet, the first album to be released on ETHEL’s new label, Heavy Light Records.
ETHEL has given master classes and workshops at The Juilliard School, Eastman School of Music, Berklee College of Music, and the Tasmanian Youth Orchestra. The quartet was a 2019/20 Creative-in-Residence at Brooklyn Public Library; a 2019 Levi Family Distinguished Visiting Artist at The Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University; and for 10 years, Quartet-in Residence of the Grand Canyon Music Festival’s Native American Composer Apprentice Project. The group is currently Ensemble-in-Residence at Denison University, where, in 2017, the members were awarded Doctorates of Humane Letters, honoris causa.
ETHEL has been featured on Conan O’Brien, ABC Radio Australia, SiriusXM, John Schaefer's New Sounds, Fred Child’s Performance Today, Randy Cohen’s Person Place Thing, NPR’s Weekend Edition, the soundtracks of Dan In Real Life and HBO’s Deadwood, and at several TED conferences. From mid-2020 to early ‘22, ETHEL curated and produced Balcony Bar from Home, a virtual series hosted on The Metropolitan Museum’s Facebook page which has garnered nearly 2 million views.
