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When talking about the Caramoor Music Festival a couple of months ago, we made a much, much, much too brief statement/introduction to the quartet "ETHEL." So today, we wanted to remedy that by devoting an entire blog to this group in order to tell you about them, and why we're currently obsessed with them!
One of the things we like about ETHEL is how they describe themselves — postclassical — which might be our new favorite term for new classical music (we've voiced our hatred to the term "alt-classical" enough). ETHEL focuses solely on NEW Music, and does it extremely successfully. They are a model of how performing new music brings in new audiences and gains good and meaningful attention.
To quote from their website
"ETHEL performs adventurous music of the past four decades, with emphasis on works composed since 1995. Their repertoire includes self-composed works, as well as works by such luminaries as Julia Wolfe, Phil Kline, John Zorn, Steve Reich, John King, JacobTV, David Lang, Scott Johnson, Don Byron, Marcelo Zarvos, Evan Ziporyn, and Mary Ellen Childs." They are also very good at using technology/electronics in their music.
But they don't stop there. They have also launched a foundation and a project called "TruckStop":
The TruckStop project examines, unites, and honors indigenous communities, cultures, and music. TruckStop® takes ETHEL on the road and around the globe to create innovative new work through rich collaborations with established and emerging artists from a vast array of genres, traditions, and geographic regions by means of community-driven residencies and locally hosted performances. Their Foundation for the Arts has a mission of "Inspiring and creating music for the 21st Century." Seriously, we're in love.
 The fruits of this project can be seen in their recent release "Oshtali: Music for String Quartet ." This project is a collection of sting works by student composers from the Chickasaw Summer Arts Academy where all of the composers are full or part Chickasaw and are high school or college students. We love this because not only does it show American music, and Native American music from a classical music perspective, it encourages classical music in youth! Plus, it's all new music!
They are also not afraid to go out of the classical music boundaries and bring in even more audiences. At a recent concert at Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Ethel included collaborations with guitarists and a blues singer. They even did classical arrangements of pop music such as George Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." They are pushing classical boundaries and causing many classical music and arts writers for local papers to do a double-take when they roll into town, garnering headlines like "From Basic Bach to Edgy Ethel" and "Where Classical, Rock, Pop, and Folk Meet."
 They don't only succeed onstage. Their albums also do well, and their debut album Ethel was on 2003's "Billboard: Best Albums" list. Their next recording, Light was #3 on Amazon.com's "Best of 2006: Top Classical Editor's Picks." We are very glad their albums are successful because they prove our post from a long time ago about one-of-a-kind albums correct. These are "one-of-a-kind" albums for sure. By not only doing new works, but also including self-composed works, they cement the fact that you have to buy these albums because you won't find the music anywhere else.
So support ETHEL, and check out their albums, and go see them in concert if they ever come near your town!
We'd love to hear your thoughts on Facebook and Twitter (@RbClassical) 
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