Rinde Eckert

Rinde Eckert
soloist

Rinde Eckert, the 2009 recipient of The Alpert Award in the Arts for Theatre and finalist for the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in Drama, is a writer, composer, performer, and director. A classically trained singer celebrated for his remarkably flexible and inventive singing voice combined with an electric physical presence, Mr. Eckert's Opera/New Music Theatre productions tour throughout America and to major festivals in Europe and Asia. A multi-instrumentalist, he has performed in his own multi-media theater pieces and with the Paul Dresher Ensemble and the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company, among others.

In the last ten years, Rinde Eckert has written and composed four new music/theater plays, three of which successfully ran off-Broadway, winning numerous awards and Drama Desk nominations: And God Created Great Whales (Foundry Theater in New York), Highway Ulysses (American Repertory Theater in Cambridge), Horizon for a consortium of University Arts Centers (New York Theatre Workshop), and Orpheus X (ART, Theatre for a New Audience).

Writing and directing projects with new music ensembles include SLIDE with composer/guitarist Steven Mackey and eighth blackbird; Imaginary City with So Percussion; and The Schick Machine with virtuoso percussionist Steven Schick in a solo-theater work composed and produced by Paul Dresher. His one-act play An Idiot Divine received rave reviews from the New York press following a Zankel Hall performance. Mr. Eckert wrote the text for and sang in Steve Mackey’s oratorio Dreamhouse and wrote the libretto for Jerry Granelli’s recording Sandhills Reunion. Rinde Eckert received the American Academy of Arts and Letters 2005 Marc Blitzstein Award and was a 2007 Guggenheim Fellow.

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Performances

Dreamhouse
Sanders Theater | May 19, 2007
Concert Details

News and Press

[CD Review] Gramophone reviews Steven Mackey: Dreamhouse
Musical works are often analysed and described in architectural terms, but how many are actually about architecture? Steven Mackey’s Dreamhouse takes up the subject with explosive and ethereal imagination. Scored for vocal quartet, electric guitar quartet and orchestra, the piece is a rumination on the design and construction of the eponymous house, complete with Architect as speaking and singing narrator. Mackey’s mastery of musical styles, from oldest to the most recent, allowed him to fill his three-part extravaganza with a cavalcade of disarming and jolting sonic ideas.
Gramophone Full review
[News Coverage] Modern Orchesta blooms with Rose
Gil Rose and his Boston Modern Orchestra Project are nothing if not adventurous, playing all sorts of new music and bringing classical music to pubs and bars. Tonight they take that spirit even further by performing Anthony De Ritis’ Devolution: A Concerto for DJ and Orchestra featuring DJ Spooky the Subliminal Kid; Steven Mackey’s Dreamhouse featuring electric guitars and vocalists; and the world premiere of Evan Ziporyn’s Hard Drive. The program, at Sanders Theatre, is part of the Celebrity Series Boston Marquee performances.
Full coverage
[News Coverage] Roll over, Beethoven
In the basement of the Masonic Hall in Porter Square, conductor Gil Rose is giving members of the Boston Modern Orchestra Project fair warning. “This is going to get pretty loud,” he says.
The Boston Globe Full coverage
[Press Release] BMOP premieres rock-and-roll inspired works by Evan Ziporyn, Steven Mackey, and Anthony DeRitis
Presented by the Bank of America Celebrity Series, and its President and Executive Director, Martha H. Jones, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) celebrates the final concert of its 10th anniversary season with a Boston Marquee performance May 19th @ 8:00pm, at Harvard University's Sanders Theatre (45 Quincy Street, Cambridge). As the nation's only orchestra dedicated exclusively to performing, commissioning, and recording new music of the 21st century, BMOP turns its focus to American composers inspired by rock and roll.
Full release
[Press Release] BMOP announces 10th anniversary season
BMOP announces that its 10th anniversary season will open on November 3, 2006 at Jordan Hall. For 10 years BMOP has been Boston's only orchestra dedicated exclusively to performing and recording new music. Led by founding Artistic Director Gil Rose, BMOP is considered to be the premier orchestra for new music in the country.
Full release

 

The recording features Gil Rose, BMOP, Synergy Vocals, Catch Electric Guitar Quartet, and Eckert in a performance of volatile and luminous beauty.
— Gramophone Full review