It isn’t everyday that a string quartet whips out its own fresh take on Miles Davis or shows up at a gig primed for some picking and strumming. But the Turtle Island Quartet isn’t exactly an “everyday” kind of band.
The genre-bending group formed in 1985 in California as the brainchild of violinist and composer David Balakrishnan. He aimed to stretch the limits of the traditional string quartet repertory and create new possibilities by borrowing from the worlds of jazz, folk, bluegrass, funk, New Age, rock, hip hop and world musics.
The result: an innovative “jazzfolkgrassical” string quartet like no other.
Tune in to Classical 101 Friday at 11:00 a.m. to hear the Turtle Island Quartet perform live and chat about their work and their performance On Denison University’s Vail Series, Friday, 7 pm, in Swasey Chapel.
The Turtle Island Quartet performs John Carisi’s “Israel” from their most recent recording Confetti Man
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzXoGJqaKsM
