ZRI take their name from Zum Roten Igel, the legendary Viennese venue in the times when Brahms and Schubert were alive; a serious classical concert hall on one side, and a space where composers drank and caroused on the other. Born out of a passion for the great classics, each ZRI performance feeds off the intensity of the music when it was new and shouting to make itself heard. ZRI began with their radical re-scoring of the Brahms Clarinet Quintet to include accordion and santouri (dulcimer), as heard on their first album, ‘Brahms and the Gypsy’. This developed into captivating programs re-imagining Schubert’s great C major quintet, heard on ‘Schubert at the Red Hedgehog Tavern’, adventuring with Charlie Chaplin, and dancing with Bach and Taylor Swift on their third album, ‘Cellar Sessions’, drawing the audience into a world where they are free to let go of genre distinctions and simply experience the concert story. ZRI are five world-class musicians drawing together a wealth of collective experience with international orchestras, improvising, and cross-cultural collaborations into a single focus. Recent festivals include Rosendal in Norway and collaborations with Simon Crawford-Philips and the Vásterås Sinfonietta in Sweden. Their fourth album ‘Café Danube’ explores the roots of the Viennese classics in the traditions east along the river. In an interconnected world, classical becomes radical.