Brooklyn Rider's winter road trip leads to Alice Tully Hall on March 9 for the adventurous, cutting-edge string quartet's Lincoln Center debut in the new Tully Scope Festival. The musicians are joined by Kayhan Kalhor on the kamancheh (Persian spike fiddle). They have collaborated frequently with Kalhor, including the stunning 2008 Harmonia Mundi/World Village recording Silent City.

"Kalhor's sophistication and tonal beauty are astonishing, as is the versatility of Brooklyn Rider," says Berkshire Review in its Tully Scope Festival preview. "Their command of tone color is amazing, from imitative pricking and glassy sounds to the downright sumptuous, so the collaboration with Mr. Kalhor should prove at the very least a feast for the ear, but the musical imagination of the players and the composers should go far beyond that."

Among the March 9 concert's highlights is the world premiere of Suite from "Bent" by Philip Glass, a live preview of the group's brand new recording, Brooklyn Rider Plays Philip Glass. Hear an excerpt.  Lucid Culture penned the first review of the disc, released on Glass's own label, Orange Mountain Music: "It's absolutely impossible to think of an ensemble better suited to these attractive, often absolutely beautiful pieces ... To have this much beauty in one place is a treat in itself. To hear it played as seamlessly and spiritedly as Brooklyn Rider have done here is even more of one."

For more information, visit BrooklynRider.com, the group's YouTube channel, or the Opus 3 Artists Web site.  

Stefan Jackiw's globetrotting in 2011 is about to yield a significant chunk of frequent flier miles.  The young violinist has been invited by conductor Michael Tilson Thomas to be a soloist with the YouTube Symphony Orchestra at the Sydney Opera House in Australia. Jackiw  [pronounced Jack-EEV] will participate in the weeklong summit of rehearsals, master classes and concerts from March 14-21 and perform Mendelssohn at the March 20 concert, streamed live worldwide on YouTube.com/symphony. The YTSO's debut concert at Carnegie Hall in 2009 has been viewed more than two million times, and the YTSO channel is nearing 25 million views.  Read more

"I'm so excited to be part of such an innovative project, and honored that MTT invited me," said Jackiw as he unpacked his bags from a tour playing Mozart in London and Madrid with the London Philharmonic under Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and Mendelssohn in Seoul with the KBS Symphony. Independent critic Edward Seckerson singled out "the playful interaction of their performance" in London as well as "the rarefied beauty of those almost spectrally withdrawn solo moments."  On U.S. soil in recent weeks, Jackiw soloed with the Nashville Symphony, participated in the Seattle Chamber Music Festival and played solo recitals in Sarasota, St. Cloud, MN and San Diego. 

In other news, The Strad awarded an editor's pick in its February issue for Jackiw's debut recording of the Brahms Sonatas (Sony). "Young American violinist Stefan Jackiw hits such a high level of inspiration ... His obvious identification with the music is mesmeric from the start ... This disc should be heard by all violin fanciers."

For more information, visit StefanJackiw.com, his YouTube channel or the Opus 3 Artists web site.   

Following her Cleveland Orchestra debut on March 10-12 as soloist in Dvorak's Te Deum and Mahler's Symphony No. 4 under the baton of Franz Welser-Möst, soprano Jessica Rivera heads to New York for her March 29 recital at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall with pianist Molly Morkoski, Ensemble Meme and conductor Donato Cabrera.  Songs by Schumann and Debussy precede the world premiere of Ātash Sorushān (Fire Angels), written for Rivera by composer Mark Grey and co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall, Cal Performances and Meet The Composer.

With an original libretto by theater artist and writer Niloufar Talebi, Ātash Sorushān interweaves elements of Persian culture and mythology, and invites reflection on a world transformed a decade after 9/11. Ātash is the Persian word for fire, an element essential to both destruction and renovation. Sorush is a messenger angel who presides over the beginning and end of the world, fighting against demons that threaten to extinguish the world's fire. View video of Rivera on the genesis of Fire Angels. 

The California native sings the West Coast premiere of Ātash Sorushān on April 3.  Her Cal Performances recital in Berkeley is among San Francisco Classical Voice's Top Recitals and Special Events for Winter/Spring: "In a string of brilliant appearances with the San Francisco and, most recently, Berkeley Symphony orchestras, soprano Jessica Rivera has established herself as a singer of uncommon vocal luster and musical intelligence."

For more information, visit JessicaRivera.com, her YouTube channel, or the IMG Artists web site.    

Talk about endurance. Pianist Alessio Bax has just completed eleven concerts in twelve days on the third and final leg of his Prairie Debut Tour in the Canadian provinces with his pianist wife, Lucille Chung.  Bax summed up the tour in his latest blog entry: "An Amazing Journey, and gut feelings..." Following two whole days at home, he's off to perform in Italy and France, and then to Michigan as concerto soloist in Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.  

Appearing this month with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Bax is featured in the CMS March Artist Profile, where he reveals some of his musical influences and interests. Now in the second year of his CMS Two residency, he's playing a trio of "Chamber Music Beginnings" concerts in the boroughs March 22-24, and music by Mahler and Berg at Alice Tully Hall on March 25.  A special recent treat was performing on one of Horowitz's pianos for concerts in the intimate Rose Studio at Lincoln Center in February.    

"A sold-out audience heard sensational performances by pianists Alessio Bax, Anne-Marie McDermott and Wu Han," noted the San Jose Mercury News, calling the inaugural concert  of the new winter series "a brilliant show of digital dexterity at Music@Menlo."  Also in January, the Sarasota Herald Tribune praised the "gifted Italian pianist" for a "deeply satisfying" performance of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 24.   

For more information, visit AlessioBax.com, his YouTube channel or the Barrett Vantage Artists web site.    

Photos: Sarah Small (Brooklyn Rider), Lisa-Marie Mazzucco (Jackiw, Bax)