The Ying Quartet and the Turtle Island String Quartet will bring a “live version” of their Grammy Award-winning recording 4 + Four to the Eastman School of Music’s Kilbourn Hall at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 17. Each group will perform by itself and then join for the second half of the concert.
The Ying Quartet is acclaimed not only for the ensemble’s exceptional musical qualities, but for making creative connections between chamber music and other art forms. The Turtle Island String Quartet has a repertoire that includes folk, bluegrass, swing, rock, and other music genres. The two groups’ collaboration on 4 + Four explored jazz, improvisation, and classical string quartet tradition and earned them the 2006 Grammy Award for Best Classical Crossover Album.
Tickets to the performance are $8 to $18 and are available at the Rochester Philharmonic Box Office, 108 East Ave.; by phone, 585-454-2100; and online at esm.rochester.edu/concerts.
The Ying Quartet, the Eastman School of Music’s string quartet-in-residence, is now in its second decade of performance. The siblings began their career as an ensemble in 1992 in Jesup, Iowa, under a National Endowment for the Arts program to bring chamber music to communities that rarely hear it. The quartet’s “rural residency” was profiled in national and international media, including the New York Times and CBS Sunday Morning.
In 1993, the quartet—comprised of siblings Janet and Timothy, violin; David, cello; and Phillip, viola—received the prestigious Naumburg Chamber Music Award. Appearing in festivals and concerts around the world, the ensemble is equally known for its outreach performances in diverse settings, ranging from Carnegie Hall to hospitals and juvenile prisons, to make artistic and creative expression an essential part of everyday life.
In 1999, the Ying Quartet introduced LifeMusic, a multi-year commissioning project supported by the Institute for American Music, to produce a distinctively American string quartet repertory. Participating composers have included Michael Torke, Kevin Puts, Paquito D’Rivera, Augusta Read Thomas, and others.
The Turtle Island Quartet derives its name from creation mythology in Native American folklore. Trained as instrumentalists, the quartet’s musicians are also accomplished improvisers, composers, and arrangers. The ensemble fuses the classical quartet esthetic with contemporary American musical styles, creating “alternative” chamber music that is now considered mainstream.
The group has made over a dozen recordings on labels such as Windham Hill, Chandos, Koch, and Telarc. Its credits also include film soundtracks and national appearances on the Today Show on television and on public radio’s All Things Considered and Prairie Home Companion.
Members of the Turtle Island Quartet are David Balakrishnan and Evan Price, violin; Mad Tolling, viola; and Mark Summer, cello.
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Calendar Listing:
Wednesday, Oct. 17
8 p.m.
4 + Four: Turtle Island String Quart and the Ying Quartet
Kilbourn Hall, 26 Gibbs St.
Tickets: $8 to $18 (discount with UR ID), can be purchased at the Rochester Philharmonic Box Office, 108 East Ave.; by phone (585) 454-2100; or online at esm.rochester.edu/concerts.
Information number: 585) 274-1110