Ruckus is a shapeshifting, collaborative baroque band with a visceral and playful approach to early music. The ensemble debuted in Handel’s Aci, Galatea e Polifemo in a production directed by Christopher Alden featuring Anthony Roth Costanzo, Ambur Braid and Davóne Tines at National Sawdust. The band’s playing earned widespread critical acclaim: “achingly delicate one moment, incisive and punchy the next” (New York Times); “superb” (Opera News).
Ruckus’s core is a continuo group, the baroque equivalent of a jazz rhythm section: guitars, keyboards, cello, bassoon and bass. Other members include soloists of the violin, flute and oboe. The ensemble aims to fuse the early-music movement’s questing, creative spirit with the grit, groove and jangle of American roots music, creating a unique sound of “rough-edged intensity” (New Yorker). Its members are assembled from among the most creative and virtuosic performers in North American early music, and is based in New York City.
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Ruckus’ debut album, Fly the Coop, a collaboration with flutist Emi Ferguson, was Billboard’s #2 Classical album upon its release. Live performances of Fly the Coop in Cambridge, MA was described as “a fizzing, daring display of personality and imagination” (New York Times).
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"Ruckus refuses to take themselves too seriously... Ruckus’ intention to upend the notion of what classical ensembles are supposed to sound like; namely, that the stance between them and progressive roots-music groups like the Punch Brothers is shockingly small." (Houston Chronicle)
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2022 found Ruckus making many auspicious debuts, including as baroque band in residence at The Ojai Festival - their many performances garnered wide-spread acclaim:
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"the world’s only period-instrument rock band" (San Francisco Classical Voice)
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"It was an all-Bach program Saturday morning — featuring the period-instrument ensemble Ruckus and AMOC’s star flutist, Emi Ferguson — that shifted the mood of the festival 180-degrees. Suddenly, there was a tangible sense of joy as the musicians infused Bach’s sonatas, partitas, and preludes with a combination of period precision and jazz-like energy. It inspired the audience and was echoed by a chorus of birds in the trees that surround Libbey Bowl." (Jim Farber, San Francisco Classical Voice)
With Holy Manna, a participatory introduction to early American hymns from the New England school through to the shape-note tradition, Ruckus has begun a multi-project exploration of histories of American music. Other upcoming projects include a co-commission of a large-scale work by pioneering artist and NEA Jazz Master Roscoe Mitchell as part of a Bach / Bird Festival (with The Metropolis Ensemble and the Immanuel Wilkins Quartet), a recital of George Frederic Handel & Ignatius Sancho featuring Rachell Ellen Wong and Emi Ferguson, and dances of Neil Gow with violinist Keir GoGwilt.
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Ruckus is represented by Alliance Artist Management.