The genre-bending Turtle Island String Quartet stopped by the Strings studio for a Strings Session to premiere a work written by founding violinist David Balakrishnan. This the is the first work the four quartet members–violinists Alex Hargreaves and Balakrishnan; violist Benjamin von Gutzeit, and cellist Malcolm Parson–feel like they can really call their own, Balakrishnan says.


Advertisement


“Part of this process was to find out who we really are as Turtle Island String Quartet,” he says. Although the quartet has been around for more than 3o years, two members recently joined the group: Parson in June 2015 and Hargreaves in January of this year. Watch the multi-style players tackle “Aeroelasticity: Harmonies of Impermanence, Backlash.”