Sextet seems almost superhuman

If the genome code someday becomes the basis for understanding and judging adventurous ensembles, musicians and listeners will pay particular attention to the lines and bars that define Eighth Blackbird. This sextet, which played its local debut Thursday at the Perelman Theater in the Kimmel Center's Fresh Ink series of contemporary music, appears to have coding fit for some future generation of musicians: players with extra fingers, added layers of metrical understanding, and hearing mechanisms that allow understanding of simultaneous differences in pitch.

By S.G.S.
Classical CD Review

Eighth Blackbird has become the "new" new music group, in the tradition of Tashi and Speculum Musicae. It consists of six members, most of whom play more than one instrument, including the über-percussionist, Matthew Duvall. I heard them recently on NPR's St. Paul Sunday Morning. Apparently, Duvall has two vanloads of instruments, each stuffed to the metal. Eighth Blackbird doesn't confine itself to a sliver of the contemporary-music spectrum. On the other hand, I've never heard them perform junk either — astonishing when new-music ensembles, including this one, take chances as a matter of course, practically as their raison d' ętre.

Birds take flight in UR residency

The sextet eighth blackbird launched its residency at the University of Richmond last night with a program that punched all the buttons this group uses to connect listeners with often elusive contemporary art-music.

By John von Rhein
Chicago Tribune Music Critic

This second release by the University of Chicago-based ensemble eighth blackbird for Cedille may cover a narrower range of music than its predecessor but the music is just as consistently absorbing and beautifully performed.

By Robert Coleman

Eighth Blackbird deftly navigates 'Split Horizon' at Deer Valley festival

PARK CITY - Taking flight from the norm, contemporary music ensemble eighth blackbird showed Wednesday night that a little New Age attitude can spice up Old World convention.

By Edward Reichel
Deseret Morning News
Salt Lake City, Utah

Among contemporary music ensembles, eighth blackbird is certainly one of the greatest. Founded in 1996, the sextet consists of imaginative musicians who are obviously eager to raise the bar in performances of 20th and 21st century music.