With just two albums released during their 20-year history The Knights are a mercurial ensemble which features a fluid line-up of musicians and collaborators. The orchestra is the brainchild of brothers Eric and Colin Jacobsen who came up with the idea in the late 1990s of forming an orchestra which invited composers, arrangers, singer-songwriters and improvisers to bring along their own cultural ideas and put them into a melting pot. The talent pool within the orchestra is impressive and includes artists such as the Grammy Award-winning soprano Dawn Upshaw, the renowned violinist Gil Shaham and the singer and violinist Christina Coutin.
The ensemble has become the de facto chamber orchestra for New York's annual celebration of contemporary classical music, The MATA Festival. The festival acts as a valuable springboard for new talent within the field of classical composition and has been influential in promoting emerging new composers. Although the orchestra has previously recorded on the Sony label, in recent years they signed an exclusive deal with Warner Classics.
