eighth blackbird

Eighth Blackbird moves music forward through innovative performance, advocacy for art by living creatives, and its growing legacy of guiding an emerging generation of artists. Hailed as 'one of the smartest, most dynamic ensembles on the planet" (Chicago Tribune), Eighth Blackbird [8BB] began in 1997 as a group of six undergraduate students and has continued on under the leadership of two founding members: Lisa Kaplan and Matthew Duvall. Eighth Blackbird is currently comprised of: Lina Andonovska, flutes | Zachary Good, clarinets | Maiani da Silva, violin | Aaron Wolff, cello | Matthew Duvall, percussion | Lisa Kaplan, piano. Accolades include: Four Grammy Awards for Best Small Ensemble/Chamber Music Performance | The MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions | The Concert Artists Guild Competition Grand Prize | The Musical America Ensemble of the Year | The Chamber Music America Visionary Award | The APRA AMCOS Art Music Awards Performance of the Year. The name "Eighth Blackbird" derives from the eighth stanza of Wallace Stevens's evocative, imagistic poem, Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird: "I know noble accents / And lucid, inescapable rhythms; / But I know, too, / That the blackbird is involved / In what I know."