Splinter Reeds

Splinter Reeds is an award-winning new music ensemble and the U.S. West Coast's first reed quintet, comprising five innovative musicians with a shared passion for new music. The ensemble is committed to presenting top tier performances of today’s best contemporary composition, showcasing the vast possibilities of the reed quintet, commissioning new works, and collaborating with fellow musicians and artists.

Distinguishing themselves amongst even the relatively small number of professional reed quintets currently active worldwide, the ensemble is explicitly dedicated to cutting-edge composition and expanding the existing reed quintet repertoire through the collaborative development of new works by emerging and established composers. Dozens of new compositions have been written for them, including the well-known Splinter by Marc Mellits, which is now one of the most performed works within the reed quintet canon.

Splinter Reeds formed in 2013 with the coming together of five colleagues highly active in multiple facets new music. The ensemble includes: Kyle Bruckmann (oboe), Bill Kalinkos (clarinet), Nicki Roman (saxophone), Jeff Anderle (bass clarinet), and Dana Jessen (bassoon). The sum of their wide ranges of experience – in settings including free jazz, improvisation, electronic music, pop, punk and metal as well as classical – has enabled them to rapidly zero in on a distinct aesthetic identity.

Their third full-length album, Dark Currents, was released on Cantaloupe Music in August 2024 and met with high praise. "Dark Currents feels like a highwater mark—a recording that finally reveals the fullest diapason of its dazzling versatility and curiosity." (- Peter Margasak, Best Contemporary Classical Music on Bandcamp)

Recent concert engagements have included performances at New York City’s TIME:SPANS Festival, Dublin’s Music Current Festival, Chicago’s Constellation, San Francisco’s Fort Mason Center, Vancouver New Music, the Mondavi Performing Arts Center, Berkeley Art Museum, Festival of New American Music, Other Minds: The Nature of Music Series, and the Presidio Sessions series. Additionally, they have held residencies at universities across the country including Stanford, Northwestern, Wesleyan, Miami University, UC-Berkeley, Boston Conservatory, UC-Davis and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, among several others. The ensemble has received grant awards from Chamber Music America, New Music USA, the Alice M. Ditson Fund at Columbia University, the Zellerbach Family Foundation, and the San Francisco Friends of Chamber Music.