The winter has descended and the shortest day of the year is just around the corner when the Turtle Island String Quartet and jazz vocalist Tierney Sutton warm things up with “A Solstice Celebration” at Macky Auditorium.
“We plan to bring a little light to Boulder in the darkest part of the year,” says cellist Mark Summer, co-founder with violinist David Balakrishnan in 1985. True to its reputation, the two-time Grammy Award-winning quartet for Best Classical Crossover Album performs a show so varied that “eclectic” seems somehow short of the mark. The program ranges from the Beatles to Bollywood, Joni Mitchell to Latin Chanukah tunes, and beyond.
“A Solstice Celebration” is part of the Artist Series at the University of Colorado Boulder. As with all the quartet’s music, “A Solstice Celebration” offers a unique fusion of jazz, classical, world and pop influences.
The musicians bring a mix of traditions to the music. Sutton grew up Jewish, while Balakrishnan was raised Hindu and Sutton practices the Baha’i faith. Even the name of the quartet is rooted in American Indian creation mythology. “It’s not a religious program. It’s just all of us, Turtle Island and Tierney, doing music that really moves us,” Summer says. “We’ll play a lot of pleasing and familiar music, but also take it deeper into a more spiritual realm.”
Sutton, who has played frequently with the quartet, is much more than a guest performer. “We really are not like a band backing up a singer. It’s the five of us creating a quintet together,” Summer says. As the Aspen Times noted, “These guys play real jazz. They improvise solos. They swing. And they play the same instruments Haydn used in the 18th century.”
“The group was founded on an exploration of forms that had never been attempted in a traditional string quartet format,” says the Portland Oregonian. “They (do) it with amazing power and finesse … leading their listeners deeper into a comforting musical spell.”
The Turtle Island String Quartet with Tierney Sutton present “A Solstice Celebration” at 4 p.m. on Sunday, December 15 at Macky Auditorium in the CU, Boulder campus. Tickets are $14 and up. For more info, please call 303-492-8008 or visit the CU Mackey website at CU Events Website.