Kaufman Center Press Releases
Merkin Concert Hall Presents Translating ‘Trane: A Love Supreme (Nov. 8, 2008)
Kaufman Center’s Musically Speaking series continues with Translating ‘Trane: A Love Supreme featuring the Grammy Award-winning Turtle Island String Quartet: David Balakrishnan, violin, baritone violin; Mark Summer, cello; Mads Tolling, violin and Jeremy Kittel, viola. In 1964, when John Coltrane released his groundbreaking album A Love Supreme, he took jazz to a whole new plane. With its recent Grammy Award-winning version of the work translating it into the sonorities of the string quartet, Turtle Island String Quartet created its own page of musical history. Bridging the gap between concert halls and jazz clubs, this iconoclastic quartet has redefined the boundaries of chamber music.
The program will feature arrangements by the group for John Coltrane classics Moment’s Notice, Naima, Countdown, A Love Supreme and Stanley Clarke’s Song for John. Turtle Island String Quartet’s name derives from creation mythology in Native American folklore. Since its inception in 1985, the quartet has been a singular force in the creation of bold, new trends in chamber music for strings. Winner of the 2006 and most recently the 2008 Grammy Award for Best Classical Crossover Album, Turtle Island String Quartet fuses the classical quartet aesthetic with contemporary American musical styles, redefining the state of the art by honoring both.
The quartet’s birth was the result of violinist David Balakrishnan’s brainstorming explorations and compositional vision while completing his master’s degree program at Antioch University West. The journey has taken Turtle Island through forays into folk, bluegrass, swing, be-bop, funk, R&B, new age, rock and hip-hop as well as music of Latin America and India, a repertoire consisting of hundreds of ingenious arrangements and originals. It has included over a dozen recordings on labels such as Windham Hill, Chandos, Koch and Telarc; soundtracks for major motion pictures; TV and radio credits such as the Today Show, All Things Considered, Prairie Home Companion and Morning Edition; feature articles in People and Newsweek magazines and collaborations with famed artists such as clarinetist Paquito D’Rivera, vibraphonist Stefon Harris, guitar legends such as Leo Kottke and the Assad brothers, The Manhattan Transfer, pianists Billy Taylor, Kenny Barron and Ramsey Lewis, the Ying Quartet and the Parsons Dance Company. Another unique element of Turtle Island is their 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 as instrumentalists.
David Balakrishnan (violin, baritone violin) graduated from UCLA with a B.A. in music composition and violin and earned a master’s degree in music composition at Antioch University West. The Turtle Island String Quartet founder developed a revolutionary compositional style—based on the principle of stylistic integration applied to bowed string instruments—that has earned him two Grammy Awards as well as numerous composing grants. In 2005 he received a MTC/ASOL “Music Alive” three year extended residency with the Nashville Chamber Orchestra, for which he is composing six orchestral works. His most recent commission is again from the Lied Center, for which he is composing a full length work involving theater, dance, poetry, video and the Turtle Island String Quartet with the KU wind ensemble.
Mark Summer (cello) is a founding member of Turtle Island String Quartet 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 1981-1984, before leaving the orchestra to perform in several Canadian contemporary 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. In addition to composing and performing with Turtle Island, Summer performed for several years in a trio with clarinet virtuoso Paquito D’Rivera, participating in the trio’s 2005 Grammy-nominated recording The Jazz Chamber Trio. He has been recorded for numerous motion picture soundtracks and 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 performance on Taos Mountain at 11,000 feet on a cello made of ice.
Mads Tolling (violin) has received Denmark’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 regularly tours and records with the acclaimed bassist Stanley Clarke and has performed with Joe Lovano, Al DiMeola, Lenny White and Gerry Brown. 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 still attending Berklee, the renowned jazz violinist Jean-Luc Ponty recommended that Tolling join Stanley Clarke’s band. Since then, he has performed more than 100 concerts with Clarke worldwide, including the Newport Jazz Festival and Hollywood Bowl. Besides his activities as a performer, Tolling is an accomplished composer, bandleader and recording artist. In 2006 he founded Mads Tolling Trio, and his most recent album, Speed of Light, features six original compositions recorded with top jazz musicians in his hometown of San Francisco. 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 latest recording, Toys of Men. Tolling has been a thriving force in the educational aspects of jazz and improvisation. He has been active as a Yamaha clinician and has been involved in workshops, coaching and master classes throughout Canada and the U.S.
Jeremy Kittel (viola), the newest member of Turtle Island String Quartet, is rapidly earning a reputation as one of the nation’s most creative young musicians. The 2000 U.S. National Scottish Fiddle Champion and Junior National Champion of 1998 and 1999, Kittel also qualified for international competition in Irish fiddle four consecutive years. In 2003 he competed in the first ASTA Alternative Styles Competition, winning the Alfred Award for Best Improvisation, the Mark O’Connor Award of Merit and 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 Outstanding Folk Artist, 2006 Detroit Music Awards for Outstanding Jazz Album and Outstanding Jazz Composer and the ASTA Alternative Strings Award for Music Traditions. He graduated from the University of Michigan at age 20, earning their highest musical honor, the Stanley Medal, and has a Master of Music from Manhattan School of Music. Kittel has performed at over one thousand concerts and festivals over the past few years including the Kennedy Center, “A Prairie Home Companion,” the Ryder Cup Opening Ceremony and Carnegie Hall. He has appeared as guest artist with the Vancouver Symphony, the Detroit Symphony, the Rochester Philharmonic and the Republic of Strings, and has taught at many camps and schools such as the International Music Academy in the Czech Republic and Mark O’Connor Fiddle Camps. His first CD, Celtic Fiddle, was called “one of the top 20 Celtic albums of 2000” by the radio show Celtic Connections. His second, Roaming, took second place for Best Celtic Instrumental Album in a competition of 10,000 CDs. His most recent recording, Jazz Violin, won the 2006 Detroit Music Award for Outstanding Jazz Recording.
Listings Information:
Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Center presents
Translating ‘Trane: A Love Supreme
Turtle Island String Quartet
Sunday, November 9, 2008 at 3:00pm
129 West 67th Street (between Broadway and Amsterdam)
Tickets at 212 501 3330 or http://www.kaufman-center.org
Single tickets are $30 (members $20)
EDITORS: Please refer to the series by its name, MUSICALLY SPEAKING…
and its location, Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Center
Press Only: Hi-res photos for download at http://kaufman-center.org/press/image-library
About Merkin Concert Hall
Renowned for its acoustics, accessibility and innovative programming, the recently renovated Merkin
Concert Hall is the recipient of multiple awards for adventurous programming, most recently from
ASCAP/Chamber Music America in 2002–03. The Hall is a division of Kaufman Center, which also
includes Lucy Moses School (a community arts school) and Special Music School (a New York City
public school for musically gifted children). A not-for-profit organization founded in 1952, Kaufman
Center occupies its own facility, the award-winning Goodman House, located in Manhattan’s Lincoln
Square arts district. The Center is an unsurpassed cultural resource where people of all ages can
experience the joy of artistic creation, expression and appreciation.
Kaufman Center’s presentations in Merkin Concert Hall are made possible in part by institutional support from the Amphion Foundation, BMI Foundation, Inc., Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, Edward T. Cone Foundation, Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Barbara Bell Cumming Foundation, The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, Fink Foundation, Inc., Ann & Gordon Getty Foundation, Harkness Foundation for Dance, Herman Goldman Foundation, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, The Florence Gould Foundation, The Edith Meiser Foundation, Rodgers and Hammerstein Foundation, Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Adolph and Ruth Schnurmacher Foundation, Starr Foundation, Phyllis Fox and George Sternlieb Foundation, and with public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.