TURTLE ISLAND QUARTET

TURTLE ISLAND QUARTET

For new engagements, please contact
Fox Performances


For new engagements, please contact
Fox Performances

 

WATCH

Turtle Island Quartet with Cyrus Chestnut – Will The Circle Be Unbroken
Turtle Island Quartet – Strings Session
Turtle Island Quartet w/ Cyrus Chestnut – Ruby My Dear
Turtle Island Quartet – Dewey Square

LISTEN

Turtle Island Quartet
Have You Ever Been (Hendrix)
1983…A Merman I Should Turn to Be (Hendrix)
Turtle Island Quartet with Cyrus Chestnut

TURTLE ISLAND QUARTET

Since its inception in 1985, the Turtle Island Quartet, has been a singular force in the creation of bold, new trends in chamber music for strings. Winner 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 passionate – a reflection of some of the most creative music-making today.”

The Quartet’s birth was the result of violinist David Balakrishnan’s brainstorming explorations 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 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 Leo Kottke and the Assad brothers, The Manhattan Transfer, pianists Billy Taylor, Kenny Barron, Cyrus Chestnut and Ramsey Lewis, singers Tierney Sutton and Nellie McKay, the Ying Quartet and the Parsons and Luna Negra Dance Companies.

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 Turtle Island members continue to refine their skills through the development of repertory by some of today’s cutting edge composers, through performances and recordings with major symphonic ensembles, and through a determined educational commitment, the Turtle Island Quartet stakes its claim as the quintessential ‘New World’ string quartet of the 21st century.

For more information on the Turtle Island Quartet, please visit www.turtleislandquartet.com
FaceBook @TurtleIslandQuartet  Instagram @tiq_music

DISCOGRAPHY
Confetti Man, Azica Records – 2014
Mike Marshall and The Turtle Island Quartet, Adventure Music – 2014
Have You Ever Been…, Telarc – 2010
A Love Supreme: The Legacy of John Coltrane, Telarc – 2007
4 + Four: Turtle Island String Quartet with Ying Quartet, Telarc – 2005
Danzon, Koch Int’l Classics – 2002
Art of the Groove, Koch Int’l Classics – 2000
The Mozart Variations, Windham Hill – 2000
The Hamburg Concert, CCn’C – 1999
Porta Do Templo, Blue Jackel Ent. – 1999
Turtle Island String Quartet: A Windham Hill Retrospective, Windham Hill – 1997
By the Fireside, Windham Hill – 1995
The Romantics, Windham Hill – 1995
A Night in Tunisia, A Week in Detroit, Chandos – 1994
Who Do We Think We Are, Windham Hill – 1994
Laments & Dances-Music from the folk Traditions, Music Masters Jazz – 1994
Homage, GRP Records – 1994
A Winter’s Solstice IV, Windham Hill – 1993
Spider Dreams, Windham Hill – 1992
The Impressionists: A Windham Hill Sampler, Windham Hill – 1992
On the Town, Windham Hill – 1991
Skylife, Windham Hill – 1990
Metropolis, Windham Hill – 1990
A Winter’s Solstice III, Windham Hill – 1990
A Shock to the System, Windham Hill – 1990
Turtle Island String Quartet, Windham Hill – 1988
A Winter’s Solstice II, Windham Hill – 1986

TURTLE ISLAND QUARTET

Since its inception in 1985, the Turtle Island Quartet, has been a singular force in the creation of bold, new trends in chamber music for strings. Winner 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 passionate – a reflection of some of the most creative music-making today.”

The Quartet’s birth was the result of violinist David Balakrishnan’s brainstorming explorations 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 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 Leo Kottke and the Assad brothers, The Manhattan Transfer, pianists Billy Taylor, Kenny Barron, Cyrus Chestnut and Ramsey Lewis, singers Tierney Sutton and Nellie McKay, the Ying Quartet and the Parsons and Luna Negra Dance Companies.

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 Turtle Island members continue to refine their skills through the development of repertory by some of today’s cutting edge composers, through performances and recordings with major symphonic ensembles, and through a determined educational commitment, the Turtle Island Quartet stakes its claim as the quintessential ‘New World’ string quartet of the 21st century.

For more information on the Turtle Island Quartet, please visit www.turtleislandquartet.com
FaceBook @TurtleIslandQuartet  Instagram @tiq_music

DISCOGRAPHY
Confetti Man, Azica Records – 2014
Mike Marshall and The Turtle Island Quartet, Adventure Music – 2014
Have You Ever Been…, Telarc – 2010
A Love Supreme: The Legacy of John Coltrane, Telarc – 2007
4 + Four: Turtle Island String Quartet with Ying Quartet, Telarc – 2005
Danzon, Koch Int’l Classics – 2002
Art of the Groove, Koch Int’l Classics – 2000
The Mozart Variations, Windham Hill – 2000
The Hamburg Concert, CCn’C – 1999
Porta Do Templo, Blue Jackel Ent. – 1999
Turtle Island String Quartet: A Windham Hill Retrospective, Windham Hill – 1997
By the Fireside, Windham Hill – 1995
The Romantics, Windham Hill – 1995
A Night in Tunisia, A Week in Detroit, Chandos – 1994
Who Do We Think We Are, Windham Hill – 1994
Laments & Dances-Music from the folk Traditions, Music Masters Jazz – 1994
Homage, GRP Records – 1994
A Winter’s Solstice IV, Windham Hill – 1993
Spider Dreams, Windham Hill – 1992
The Impressionists: A Windham Hill Sampler, Windham Hill – 1992
On the Town, Windham Hill – 1991
Skylife, Windham Hill – 1990
Metropolis, Windham Hill – 1990
A Winter’s Solstice III, Windham Hill – 1990
A Shock to the System, Windham Hill – 1990
Turtle Island String Quartet, Windham Hill – 1988
A Winter’s Solstice II, Windham Hill – 1986