Sarah Bernstein

Over the course of ten albums and countless eclectic collaborations, Sarah Bernstein has time and again taken the violin into unexpected territory, with multidisciplinary projects weaving in and out of new and experimental music, electronica, synth-pop, noise music and avant-garde jazz. With the self-titled debut of her adventurous VEER Quartet, Bernstein places her instrument in a much more familiar context – the string quartet – while still yielding inventive and stunningly original results.

Due out September 2, 2022, via New Focus Recordings, VEER Quartet brings together four singular string players, each an imaginative and distinctive performer, composer and bandleader in their own right. Bernstein is joined by violinist Sana Nagano, violist Leonor Falcon and cellist Nick Jozwiak, making for an ensemble with a unique ability to navigate within and between genres and approaches with vibrant agility. The group’s music combines intricate composition and free improvisation, harmonic density and minimalist gestures, stark beauty and harsh aggression.

Growing up amidst the fertile Bay Area arts scene, Bernstein learned the violin under fairly traditional circumstances – classical training and school ensembles – but always cast her creative gaze far beyond the expected. “I was curious about everything,” she says. “Chamber music and jazz, playing in rock bands and dabbling in the improv scene, singing pop and writing poetry; since I was interested in all of it, it made sense to me to do all of it.”