Turtle Island Quartet Program

lied.ku.edu Performing Arts

SATURdAy, OCT. 9 — 7:30 p.m.

This program is presented in part by the Kansas Arts Commission, a state agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal

agency, which believes that a great nation deserves great art.

This event is sponsored, in part, by the Lied Performance Fund.

This performance was made possible through the generous support of the Eugene A. and C. Florence Stephenson Chamber Music Fund.

Audio description services and recorded program notes are provided through a partnership between the Lied Center and Audio-Reader Network.

Please turn off or silence cellular phones and other electronic devices during performances. Food and drink are not allowed inside the hall. Cameras and

recording devices are strictly prohibited in the auditorium.

TurTle Island QuarTeT

with SPECiAL GUEStS Cyrus Chestnut and Mike Marshall

TurTle Island QuarTeT with special guests cyrus chestnut and Mike Marshall

Silver Anniversary Celebration!

david Balakrishnan, violin, baritone violinMark summer, celloMads tolling, violinJeremy kittel, viola

cyrus chestnut, pianoMike Marshall, mandolin

in keeping with the jazz tradition, tonight’s program will be announced from the stage during the course of the concert by the musicians. there will be one 20-minute intermission.

turtle island Quartet is represented by:

with special guests

cyrus chestnut and Mike Marshall

Maria Camillo Booking and Photo/Graphics PO Box 1500 | Columbia, Ca 95310 | 828-712-3325

cyrus chestnut is represented by:

Mike Marshall is represented by:

196 West Ashland Street Suite 201 Doylestown, PA 18901 p. 267-880-3750 f. 267-880-3757 www.baylinartists.com


turtle island Quartet Featuring cyrus chestnut and Mike Marshall

aBOut the artists

One evening in november 1985 four young and adventurous string players sat down together at a friend’s home for a nice meal and some string quartet music. One would normally expect the standard fare of Mozart, Beethoven and maybe some Mendelssohn, but these early intrepid explorers of the alternative string-music world had entirely something else in mind. starting off with Oliver nelson’s classic jazz ballad Stolen Moments, proceeding into dizzy gillespie’s A Night In Tunisia and culminat-ing in violinist/composer david Balakrishnan’s seminal four-movement cross-genre opus, Balapadam, they began a journey that would shake the very foundation of the 250-year-old string quartet tradition, and play a central role in redefining the stylistic boundaries of american classical chamber music. twenty-five years later, having accumu-lated a mountain of well-deserved accolades

including two grammy awards for its last two albums, the turtle island Quartet—original mem-bers Balakrishnan and cellist extraordinaire Mark summer, now paired with two blazing stars of the latest generation of alt. string musi-cians, violinist Mads tolling and violist Jeremy kittel—has enlisted the prodigious services of jazz piano master cyrus chestnut and virtuoso mandolinist Mike Marshall to celebrate its silver anniversary in grand style. chestnut and Mar-shall, having both previously collaborated with turtle island individually, bring a dazzling array of possibilities to the Quartet’s quarter-century offering, grounded in the classic jazz canon they all share, and from there spinning out into myriad worlds of genre-bending musical tapes-tries that sing the eternal tale of perfection and beauty encapsulated by the string quartet form. Quite a party indeed!

“it must have been like this when Beethoven was taking Vienna by storm – the exhilaration of seeing the future of classical music unfold before your eyes and ears.” —St. Louis Post-Dispatch its name derived from creation mythology found in native american Folklore, the turtle island Quartet, since its inception in 1985, has been a singular force in the creation of bold, new trends in chamber music for strings. win-ner of the 2006 and 2008 grammy awards for best classical crossover category, turtle island fuses the classical quartet esthetic with contemporary american musical styles, and by devising a performance practice that honors both, the state of the art has inevitably been redefined. cellist nonpareil yo-yo Ma has proclaimed tiQ to be “a unified voice that truly breaks new ground – authentic and passion-ate – a reflection of some of the most creative music-making today.” the Quartet’s birth was the result of violin-ist david Balakrishnan’s brainstorming explora-tions and compositional vision while writing his master’s thesis at antioch university west. the journey has taken turtle island through forays into folk, bluegrass, swing, be-bop, funk, r&B, new age, rock, hip-hop, as well as music of

latin america and india …a repertoire consist-ing of hundreds of ingenious arrangements and originals. it has included more than a dozen recordings on labels such as windham hill, chandos, koch and telarc, soundtracks for ma-jor motion pictures, television and radio credits such as the Today Show, All Things Consid-ered, A Prairie Home Companion and Morning Edition. the Quartet has been featured in articles in People and Newsweek magazines and has collaborated with famed artists such as clarinetist paquito d’rivera, vibraphonist stefon harris, guitar legends leo kottke and the assad Brothers, the Manhattan transfer, pia-nists Billy taylor, kenny Barron, cyrus chestnut and ramsey lewis, the ying Quartet and the parsons and luna negra dance companies. another unique element of turtle island is its revival of venerable improvisational and compositional chamber traditions that have not been explored by string players for nearly 200 years. at the time of haydn’s apocryphal creation of the string quartet form, musicians were more akin to today’s saxophonists and keyboard masters of the jazz and pop world, i.e., improvisers, composers and arrangers. each turtle island member is accomplished in these areas of expertise as well as having


extensive conservatory training. Original mem-bers Balakrishnan and Mark summer, arguably the finest cross-genre cellist of the modern age, are joined by the elite of the current crop of young alternative string players, danish jazz violin phenom Mads tolling and violist Jeremy kittel, who holds the title of u.s. national scot-tish Fiddle champion. as turtle island members continue to refine their skills through the development of repertory by some of today’s cutting edge composers, through performances and record-ings with major symphonic ensembles, and through a determined educational commitment, the turtle island Quartet stakes its claim as the quintessential american string quartet of the 21st century.

david Balakrishnan (violin, baritone violin) graduated from ucla with a bachelor’s degree in music composition and violin, and earned a master’s degree in music composi-tion at antioch university west. the turtle island founder developed the template for the tiQ revolutionary compositional style—based on the principle of stylistic integration applied to bowed string instruments—that in addition to the group awards has earned him grammy award nominations in the arranging/compos-ing categories and led to numerous grants, both from private sources such as conductor Marin alsop, who commissioned his piece for violin and orchestra, Little Mouse Jumps, as well as national service organizations such as the national endowment for the arts and Meet the composer foundations. in 2005 he received a Mtc/asOl “Mu-sic alive” three-year extended residency with the nashville chamber Orchestra, for which he composed six orchestral works. the ncO also commissioned Balakrishnan’s composi-tion Darkness Dreaming, which premiered in april 2004 with guitarists sharon isbin and John Jorgenson. his piece, Spider Dreams (1992), has been widely performed and recorded throughout the world by a diverse array of musical organizations, including a live recording by turtle island with the detroit symphony conducted by neeme Järvi on chandos records. a 2002 commission, awarded by a consortium of presenters headed by the lied center of kansas resulted in a string octet entitled Mara’s Garden Of False Delights,

which is featured on turtle island’s grammy award-winning telarc release, 4+Four. his most recent commission was again from the lied center, for which Balakrishnan com-posed a full-length work involving theatre, dance, poetry, video and turtle island with the ku wind ensemble that is an artistic response to the socio/political issues concerning the various theories of evolution, both scientific and cultural, titled The Tree Of Life.

Mark summer (cello) is a founding member of turtle island, and is widely regarded, thanks not least to his phenomenal percussion and pizzicato techniques, as one of the outstanding cellists of our time. a graduate of the cleveland institute of Music and recipient of their 2008 distinguished alumnae award, summer was a tenured member of the winnipeg symphony from 1981 to 1984, before leaving the orches-tra to perform in several canadian contempo-rary and Baroque ensembles, as well as his own group, the west-end string Band. asked to perform at the winnipeg Folk Festival in 1985, the group went on to record summer’s original music for cBc radio. that same year, summer visited the Bay area where he was invited by david Balakrishnan to help form the quartet. he continued to touch base with his classical roots, performing with the chamber symphony of san Francisco, the Oakland sym-phony, Oakland Ballet and the contemporary music ensemble, earplay. in the 25 years since embarking on an improvisational musical odyssey, summer has continued to develop a unique and multi-timbered style, which incorporates virtuoso jazz soloing, distinctive bass lines, and extensive percussive techniques adapted from the guitar, bass and drums. he has been the subject of feature articles in Strings and Bass Player magazines, and has published two pieces for solo cello, one of which, Julie-O, has been performed by cellists all over the world. in addition to composing and perform-ing with turtle island, summer performed for several years in a trio with clarinet virtuoso pa-quito d’rivera, participating in the trio’s 2005 grammy-nominated recording, The Jazz Cham-ber Trio. he has been recorded for numerous motion picture soundtracks and has performed and appeared on albums with singers linda ronstadt, toni childs, guitarist Jeff tamelier of tower of power, saxophonist kirk whalum and


guitarist will ackerman. his more notable cello exploits include performing the Brahms clarinet trio in a sandstone grotto by the banks of the colorado river in Moab, utah, and a perfor-mance on taos Mountain at 11,000 feet on a cello made of ice.

Mads Tolling (violin) has received den-mark’s sankt annae’s award for musical excellence as well as grants from Queen Margaret, the sonning Foundation and the Berklee elvin Jones award. he has performed as a soloist with stanley clarke, Joe lovano, al diMeola, lenny white and gerry Brown, and regularly tours and records with his own band, Mads tolling Quartet. tolling grew up in copenhagen, denmark and moved to the u.s. at the age of 20 to pursue jazz studies. he studied under violinist Matt glaser, and graduated summa cum laude from Berklee college of Music in Boston in 2003. while tolling was still attending Berklee, the renowned jazz violinist Jean-luc ponty recommended him to join bass legend stanley clarke’s band. since then, he has performed more than 100 concerts with clarke worldwide, including the newport Jazz Festival and hol-lywood Bowl. Besides his activities as a performer, tolling is an accomplished composer, bandleader and recording artist. in 2006 he founded Mads tolling Quartet; its most recent album The Playmaker, was released in October 2009 and features pianist stanley clarke, yellow Jackets founder russell Fer-rante and vibist stefon harris. On the album, tolling seeks to draw the connection be-tween sports and music, which are both “art forms” that heavily rely on team efforts. Out of his three previous recordings of original material, one features former Jazz Messenger pianist Joanne Brackeen. tolling has recorded with vibraphonist dave samuels, appears on rMB singer teena Marie’s album La Dona and plays an integral part of clarke’s recording Toys of Men. a thriving force in the educational aspects of jazz and improvisation, tolling has been active as a yamaha clinician and has been involved in workshops, coaching and master classes throughout canada and the u.s. in his spare time tolling enjoys golfing, tennis and hiking. in 1999, together with his father, he climbed Mt. kilimanjaro in tanzania.

Jeremy Kittel (viola) is the newest member of turtle island and is rapidly earning a reputa-tion as one of the nation’s most creative young musicians. kittel was the 2000 u.s. national scottish Fiddle champion and Junior national champion of 1998 and 1999. he also qualified for international competition in irish fiddle for four consecutive years. in 2003 he competed in the first asta alternative styles competition, winning the alfred award for best improvisa-tion, the Mark O’connor award of Merit and the iaJe award for best jazz performance. since then, kittel has been awarded the daniel pearl Memorial Violin, the 2004 detroit Music award for outstanding acoustic instrumentalist, 2005 and 2006 detroit Music awards for out-standing folk artist, 2006 detroit Music awards for outstanding jazz album and outstanding jazz composer, and the asta alternative strings award for music traditions. kittel graduated from the university of Michigan at age 20, earning their highest musical honor, the stanley Medal. he has a master’s degree in music from Manhattan school of Music. kittel has performed at more than 1,000 concerts and festivals including the kennedy center, A Prairie Home Com-panion, the ryder cup opening ceremony and carnegie hall. he has appeared as guest art-ist with the Vancouver symphony, the detroit symphony, the rochester philharmonic and the republic of strings, and has taught at camps and schools such as the international Music academy in the czech republic and Mark O’connor Fiddle camps. his first album, Celtic Fiddle, was called “one of the top 20 celtic albums of 2000” by the Celtic Connection radio show. his second album, Roaming, took second place for best celtic instrumental album in a competition of 10,000 entries. his most recent recording, Jazz Violin, won the 2006 detroit Music award for outstanding jazz recording.

Cyrus Chestnut (piano) started his musi-cal career at the age of 6 playing piano at the Mount calvary star Baptist church in his hometown of Baltimore, Md. in the fall of 1981, chestnut began his jazz education at the Berklee college of Music, where he was awarded the eubie Blake Fellowship, the Oscar peterson, Quincy Jones and count Basie awards for exceptional performance standards at the college. after graduating from Berklee


in 1985, chestnut began further honing his craft as a sideman with some of the legendary and leading musicians in the business, such as terence Blanchard, wynton Marsalis, Branford Marsalis, chick corea, Jimmy heath, James Moody, isaac hayes and dizzy gillespie. as a bandleader, chestnut has released more than 10 albums, starting with the self-released, There’s a Brighter Day Coming. he has received numerous awards and praises for his recordings, including Japan’s prestigious gold disk award and Down Beat’s list of best records for 2001’s Soul Food. Many notable artists have collaborated with him in his recordings, such as anita Baker, James carter, Joe lovano, ron carter, Billy higgins, Vince guaraldi and lewis nash. chestnut’s reputation as one of the definitive jazz pianists of his generation has been firmly established. his new album, Cyrus Plays Elvis, is both conceptually audacious and solidly in the pocket: a pure jazz exploration of songs made famous by the rock ‘n’ roll immortal, elvis presley. From the first note, it’s obvious that their shared influences of blues and gospel link these two very different artists at the bedrock level. chestnut’s treatments of these classic tunes run the full range of jazz moods: playful, virtuosic, lyrical and always deeply soulful.

Mike Marshall (mandolin) is one of the worlds most accomplished and versatile acoustic musicians, a master of mandolin, guitar and violin whose playing is as imagina-tive and adventurous as it is technically thrilling. able to swing gracefully from jazz to classical to bluegrass to latin styles, he puts his stamp on everything he plays with an unusually potent blend of intellect and emotion, a combination of musical skill and instinct rare in the world of american vernacular instrumentalists. now living in Oakland, calif., Marshall grew up in central Florida, where he played and taught bluegrass mandolin, fiddle and guitar throughout his teen years. in 1979, at the age of 19, Marshall was invited to join the original david grisman Quintet. he has since been at the forefront of the acoustic music scene, play-ing on hundreds of acoustic-music recordings both as lead artist and ensemble performer. his 1982 album, Gator Strut, is a classic example of a new generation of bluegrass virtuoso instrumentalists forging new directions in this vital musical style.

throughout his career, Marshall has performed and recorded with some of the top acoustic string instrumentalists in the world, including jazz violinist stephane grappelli, fiddle virtuoso Mark O’connor, five-string banjo phenom Bela Fleck, bassist and Macarthur Fel-lowship winner edgar Meyer, and classical vio-linist Joshua Bell. Marshall has also performed with violinist darol anger, and together, they have released six albums as a duo on compass and windham hill records. the duo has also recorded under the moniker psychograss with guitarist david grier, banjo player tony trischka and bassist todd phillips. Marshall has two holiday recordings to his credit. in 1998 he released Midnight Clear, a solo guitar recording, and in 2000 he recorded A Christmas Heritage with banjo player alison Brown, darol anger, mandolinist tim O’Brien, todd phillips and pianist-composer phil aa-berg. that band, new grange, also released an eponymous album on compass records. in the past several years, Marshall has also been collaborating with chris thile, formerly of nickel creek. the two mandolinists began playing together at festivals, and their collaboration eventually evolved into a duo, recording their first album in 2003. the album, titled Into the Cauldron, is a duet project per-formed entirely on mandolin and mandocello. Into the Cauldron was released on sugar hill records, and was listed in the top 10 of ama-zon.com’s favorite recordings for 2003. Marshall is currently working on further collaborations with darol anger, performing intermittently with edgar Meyer and chris thile, and has just released an album project with pianist Jovino santos neto, titled Ser-enata featuring the music of hermeto pascoal, Brazil’s most important musician/composer living today. the album has been released on Marshall’s own label, appropriately called adventure Music.


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Turtle Island Quartet Program