Above: The Turtle Island Quartet performs John Carisi's "Israel" from their most recent recording Confetti Man 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.
Jennifer Hambrick unites her extensive backgrounds in the arts and media and her deep roots in Columbus to bring inspiring music to central Ohio as Classical 101’s midday host. Jennifer performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago before earning a Ph.D. in musicology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.