Debut Album Shows Owls to Be Rare Birds Indeed

By Greg Cahill | From the May/June 2025 issue of Strings

“I hope that this album uplifts, surprises, and inspires,” says Alexi Kenney, violinist with the talent-laden “inverted” string quartet Owls. “Much of the music will probably be unfamiliar to most listeners, but there truly is something for everyone on here, and I would encourage everyone to sit back and enjoy the good vibes that this album offers.”

Listening to the six pieces on Rare Birds (New Amsterdam), discerning string players will be rewarded, especially those that appreciate the sonority of the unusual lineup: Kenney (violin), Ayane Kozasa (viola), and Gabriel Cabezas and Paul Wiancko (cellos).

Two cellos, one viola, one violin.

“Owls is really centered on people, not instrumentation,” cellist Cabezas says. “The original idea was to have a group of strings . . . and this is the group! It ends up having its own unique sonorities and textural possibilities that move it in a slightly richer sonic direction, which is very fun. But really, it’s about the mix of our four musical perspectives and ideas more than the instruments themselves.”

The ensemble also boasts impressive compositional and arranging skills, which give a lot of cachet to an ensemble committed to promoting 21st-century works for a rare inverted quartet. “We’re fortunate to have Paul as one of our cellists, who, beyond being a great cellist, musician, and human being, is also a phenomenal composer,” Kenney notes. “We’ve included two pieces by Paul on our album, one of which, ‘Vox Petra,’ is maybe my personal favorite track on the record. There’s this deep honesty and intensity of purpose in Paul’s writing that makes you feel like his music has always existed.”

Rare Birds is packed with surprises that include Wiancko’s “When the Night,” a jazz- and soul-influenced lullaby built around the first three notes of the Ben E. King R&B ballad “Stand By Me”; “Les Barricades Mystérieuses,” a string arrangement of Couperin’s 18th-century harpsichord piece; minimalist pioneer Terry Riley’s “Good Medicine”; and “Reqs: Dance for String Quartet,” Azerbaijani composer Franghiz Ali-Zadeh’s whirlwind, virtuosic piece commissioned in 2015 by the Kronos Quartet.

By the way, any similarity to Kronos is to be expected: Wiancko also is that landmark ensemble’s current cellist.

Strings asked Owls about Rare Birds and their newly launched foursome.

How did Owls come into existence?

Cabezas: Owls came about originally for a one-off concert in 2019—the four of us got together several days before the show without a plan and emerged with a concert program. We loved the experience and finally were able to perform again together after a few years of Covid-19 lockdowns. We were drawn together really just because we are all friends who have met in various places over the last 15 years or so and really admire each other as musicians.

Sort of birds of a feather? 

Cabezas: The name emerged as part of a long brainstorming session. It sounded similar to a few other choices we were considering, and had a bonus of accidentally spelling out a sort of relevant acronym: Our Weird Little Side (project).

Kozasa: And it’s been really fun to find all sorts of owl trinkets wherever we travel. We sometimes bring them back for each other. I think that spirit of whimsy, humor, and joy encapsulates what we represent as a group.

How did Owls arrive at the cello-forward format? 

Wiancko: Although we stumbled onto our instrumentation, I do think there is something special about Owls’ two-cello sound. Getting to sink into those lower frequencies with Gabe is oh-so-satisfying. And when one of us ventures into the higher reaches of the fingerboard, we trust the other is there to hold down the fort—play the bass line—if need be. That being said, both Alexi and Ayane have an uncanny ability to sound like a cello at times, and since Gabe and I aren’t necessarily afraid of heights, we’re all essentially sonic shape-shifters—a helpful quality when coming up with fresh adaptations of the music we love.

What were your goals going into the project? 

Cabezas: The album came together as a distillation of the first big round of pieces we had explored as possibilities to adapt and play together. We always knew we wanted to focus on Paul’s music, and from there to find other works that ignited some sense of joy in all of us. In selecting pieces, we focused on works that truly, physically felt good to play as a quartet. I think that the selection, which might seem kind of eclectic, ends up having its own internal logic—maybe a new take on some different traditions and ways that string instruments can play together. Every arrangement we do is collective—someone might have an initial idea, but it’s all workshopped in rehearsal, and then eventually one of us will engrave it if necessary. With the Couperin, we wanted to just keep the original “lute-style” writing of the keyboard part as intact as we could, and in general keep our interpretation of the piece very improvisatory. It ended up being a really rewarding way of turning the four of us into one instrument.

Kozasa: I think after having worked on these pieces for a long time, we wanted to make a permanent home for them. Making a record was another opportunity to stretch and transform our sounds with our mixing engineer Zachary Hanson and producer William Brittelle, in ways that we might not necessarily have a chance to in a live performance. So there’s definitely some “magic dust” sprinkled in there.

What’s the significance of composing in the modern world and recording contemporary works?

Kenney: Technically, the only legit composer out of the four of us is Paul, but our creative process in Owls is extremely collaborative and democratic. We all assist equally in the arrangements we make, and it’s a personal goal of mine to write something original for this group at some point. Commissioning, listening to, and playing music by living composers is important in so many ways. All music was once contemporary, and I think it’s crucial for us to be connected to living, breathing creators who are making art that makes us curious, challenges us, and provides commentary on our world. I always find something new that I love when I approach things with an open mind, and I think that we can all benefit from diversified perspectives and new voices in art.

The album wraps with Terry Riley’s upbeat “Good Medicine.” Why did you select that work? 

Cabezas: Like every piece we play, we’re focused on just how fun it feels to play chamber music together. “Good Medicine” is full of joy and groove, and when we tried reading it through, we realized that a clever arrangement for the four of us was actually pretty achievable. Not always the case for something written for the standard string quartet! It’s become something that we usually end concerts with as well as the album—we feel it really ends the experience on a high note. In this case, literally!