keeping on

Dear Friends,

It’s hard to believe that a year has passed since the first lockdowns began in NY. The musicians of The Knights, like cultural workers around the country and world, have of course been dramatically affected, each with their own set of circumstances that they are dealing with, but united by a common sense of longing for the thing that is mostly not possible now- live performance. In the face of this extended period of silence from concert halls, we asked ourselves the question: How do we keep a sense of momentum in our own lives and in the sense of community that The Knights usually can help provide?

Keeping On, our collaboratively created musical statement of solidarity and forward motion is one answer. This piece, based on a motif of Beethoven's (yes, that one!), is also our belated birthday offering to the master for his 250th, which was another side note/casualty of the pandemic. As ever, our intention is to figure out ways to keep the fire of great music (epitomized by Beethoven) burning for our time and future times, and one way to do that is through creation. With Keeping On, that creation bubbles up directly from the rigorous process-oriented rehearsals and collaborative environment of The Knights…

Several years ago, we were rehearsing Beethoven's 5th Symphony and attempting to get a more seamless transfer of the famous 4-note motif from one section to another. Knights' violinist Christina Courtin suggested that we "loop" or repeat the transfer, which we did for several minutes. While listening to the improvement taking place through conscious repetition, I also started to hear the module in a different light, as something that could be the seed of a new piece of music. Like many during this pandemic, I've taken longer and more walks than ever before, perhaps physicalizing a need to keep moving, keep marching into the future even as so much of our world stands still. The seed that was planted in my head at that rehearsal began to germinate. I sat down and wrote a sketch and sent it around to a team of Knights who I thought would be interested in responding. Eight musicians from The Knights sent in beautiful and very personal responses: Mike Atkinson, Christina Courtin, Logan Coale, Zach Cohen, Yaira Matyakubova, Dave Nelson, and Alex Sopp, representing a cross-section of the orchestra's instruments. The challenge then was to figure out a way to stitch these contributions together, and Mike Atkinson, The Knights' versatile hornist and composer/arranger, did a masterful job of pulling together the elements and coming up with the rich and colorful orchestration. Finally, Christina Courtin contributed the song and lyrics which she sings in harmony with Alex Sopp towards the end of the piece, further clarifying and elevating the music. In case anyone is wondering; no, this isn't a common thing for orchestras to do, to collaboratively create a new piece to play together! It could only happen because of the unique collection of voices and the adventurous spirit of The Knights. Some of you may recall that it is also our second such piece, following up on The Ground Beneath Our Feet..., a collaborative composition we wrote in 2015.

With this, we send to you and yours our love and sincere hope for a light at the end of this tunnel that will soon lead us into a post-pandemic world. We indeed will be Keeping On, and can't wait to be back together with you for the shared joy of communal music-making. 

Yours,

Colin, and The Knights

music video

KEEPING ON

Music: Michael P. Atkinson, Logan Coale, Zachary Cohen, Christina Courtin, Colin Jacobsen, Dave Nelson, Yaira Matyakubova, Alex Sopp
Song and Lyrics: Christina Courtin and Alex Sopp
Arrangement and Orchestration: Michael P. Atkinson Engineering,
Mixing and Mastering: Michael P. Atkinson
Video Editor: Adrien H. Tillmann

THE KNIGHTS - Colin and Eric Jacobsen, Artistic Directors
VIOLIN Christina Courtin, Emily Daggett Smith, Kristi Helberg, Nanae Iwata, Colin Jacobsen, Ariana Kim, Yaira Matyakubova, Guillaume Pirard, Amie Weiss
VIOLA Kyle Armbrust, Nicholas Cords, Margaret Dyer, Mario Gotoh, Miranda Sielaff
CELLO Jane Cords-O'Hara, Alex Greenbaum, Karen Ouzounian, Caitlin Sullivan
BASS Logan Coale, Zachary Cohen, Shawn Conley
HARP Megan Conley
FLUTE Alex Sopp
OBOE Gus Highstein
CLARINET Agnes Marchione
BASSOON Edward Burns, Martin Garcia, Erik Höltje
HORN Michael P. Atkinson, David Byrd-Marrow
TRUMPET Sycil Mathai
TROMBONE Dave Nelson
PERCUSSION Joseph Gramley
PIANO Steven Beck
VOCALS Christina Courtin, Alex Sopp

Annotated score