Turtle Island String Quartet

7:30 p.m.
Saturday, October 13, 2001
Dorothy I. Summers Theatre

This was a very special concert, presented as part of our celebration of October as National Arts and Humanities Month. Following the concert Ada Arts and Humanities Council members were treated to a private reception in the home of Kevin and Anne Davis. Those attending got to visit with members of the quartet and relive the performance.

Turtle Island String Quartet was born in 1986 out of the brainstorming explorations and compositional vision of founding member David Balakrishnan. The group's name is derived from creation mythology found in Native American folklore. Since it's inception, TISQ has been a singular force in the creation of bold, new trends in chamber music for strings. It fuses the classical quartet esthetic with 20th century American popular styles.

TISQ's journey has through forays into folk and bluegrass styles, swing jazz, be-bop, classical Indian forms, funk and R & B, New Age, rock and hip-hop, bossa nova and salsa -- a repertoire consisting of hundreds of ingenious arrangements and originals. The recipe also includes a blending of adventurous ingredients that creates completely new textures and forms, all while maintaining the rhythmic force and groove structure that has always been the foundation of the group's "American Vernacular" style and paying attention to its Euro-Classical roots.

Another unique element of TISQ is its revival of 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 day's saxophonists and keyboard masters of the jazz and pop world -- improvisers, composers and arrangers. Each member of Turtle Island is accomplished in these areas of expertise as well as having extensive conservatory training.

TISQ members refine their skills through unusual and endemic "re-compositions" of works by the old masters, through the development of repertory by some of today's cutting edge young composers, through performances and recordings with major symphonic ensembles and through a determined educational commitment.

Turtle Island String Quartet promises to be a string quartet for the next century.

Members of the Turtle Island String Quartet are David Balakrishnan and Even Price, violin; Danny Seidenberg, viola; and Mark Summer, cello.

The quartet has a number of recordings available from Windham Hill. Its latest album, Art of the Groove, is from Turtle Island Records, Ltd. imprint label with Koch International. Its members have also made a number of appearances on national television and National Public Radio.

For more information, check out the Turtle Island String Quartet's web site, www.tisq.com.