11/04/11

Story by Diane Carroll

Turtle Island Quartet

Turtle Island ready for round-the-world foray into holiday music

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. – Turtle Island Quartet will usher in the holiday season with its unique blend of jazz and classical chamber music during a performance at 8 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 3, in the Carlsen Center's Polsky Theatre at Johnson County Community College.

"Solstice Celebration: A Festival of Lights," is billed as a joyful journey through the world's holiday music. From the songs of Chanukah and India's Dewali festival to the old English carols and Scottish reels of the 16^th century, the quartet will explore the timeless music that has been part of holiday celebrations for centuries. Selections from Vince Guaraldi's A Charlie Brown Christmas will add a modern touch.

Tickets, which are $35, are available at the college box office at 913-469-4445 or on line at jccc.edu/TheSeries.

Providing a pre-concert talk at 7 p.m. in Recital Hall will be Dr. William Everett, professor of musicology at the Conservatory of Music and Dance, University of Missouri-Kansas City.

A Kansas City chamber vocal ensemble called Te Deum will join Turtle Island on several songs. Artistic director Matthew Shepard leads the ensemble, which is dedicated to sacred choral music.

Since the Turtle Island Quartet formed in 1985, it has been a singular force in the creation of bold, new trends in chamber music for strings. As the winner of the 2006 and 2008 Grammy awards for Best Classical Crossover Album, Turtle Island fuses the classical quartet esthetic with contemporary American musical styles.

Cellist nonpareil Yo-Yo Ma has called the quartet "a unified voice that truly breaks new ground – authentic and passionate – a reflection of some of the most creative music-making today."

The quartet is made up of musicians who are equally grounded in jazz improvisation and classical technique, said violinist David Balakrishnan, who founded the quartet. Since they are just as comfortable playing jazz as they are playing classical, their music grooves and swings, he said.

For holiday shows, the quartet likes to slip in songs that honor their personal ancestral roots, Balakrishnan said.

Balakrishnan's father is from south India, so they play Jot Se Jot Jagake Chalo, a song in keeping with the Hindu holiday festival in India called Dewali. Cellist Mark Summers is Jewish so they include Chanukah, Oh Chanukah for him.

Christmas Day I' Da Morning honors violist Jeremy Kittel's Scottish fiddle prize-winning technique. And violist Mads Tolling, who is from Denmark, does a solo version of Beautiful Savior with variations. He often tells the story of how his family would gather around the Christmas tree and sing that song before opening their presents.

Other songs on the set list that the musicians may pick from are Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite, Silent Night/All Blues by Miles Davis and World Turning by Fleetwood Mac.

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