The Modern Mandolin Quartet
with Guest Performer/Composer David Balakrishnan of the Turtle Island String Quartet

This new release from the Modern Mandolin Quartet features a guest performance by David Balakrishnan (of Turtle Island String Quartet fame) who also composed the title work, Interplay. In addition new works by Tully Cathey (Elements) and Terry Riley (G - Song) round out the CD.

Formed in 1985, the Modern Mandolin Quartet gives a new voice to that most American of instruments, the mandolin. With two mandolins, a mandola, and a mandocello, the instruments correspond to a conventional string quartet. From a tradition dating to the early part of the twentieth century, the MMQ reintroduces mandolin music from around to a new generation of audiences. MMQ also commissions new works to bring the mandolin into the 21st century.

The Modern Mandolin Quartet is David Peters and Dana Rath, mandolins; Paul Binkley, mandola; John Imholz, mandocello. The members come from diverse musical backgrounds including classical, jazz and folk. To date the MMQ has arranged and performed over 90 works originally written for orchestra, chamber ensemble, piano, guitar and string quartet.

The Modern Mandolin Quartet began recording in 1988 with Windham Hill/BMG; they have released four albums to date, with sales in excess of 130,000 worldwide. In addition to their own albums, the group has recorded for Polygram, Well-Tempered Productions and many others. MMQ has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund.

Critics Say...
"...a daring synthesis of the old and the new..."
-Washington Post

"Now at the hands of the MMQ, this unpretentious stringed instrument has become a voice of sparkling precision and winsome invention."
-Pulse

"The MMQ will amaze you with their virtuosity and energy and create wonderful sounds you won't hear anywhere else."
-Joan Jeanrenaud, Kronos Quartet