Mads Tolling

Coming Friday, September 11, 2015
Mads Tolling Quartet

Steinway Piano Gallery
7:30 PM

$25 General Admission
$15 RTLOJ Members (Become a Member)
$10 Students

Mads Tolling

Mads Tolling, internationally renowned violinist, violist, and composer, is a member of the two-time Grammy Award-Winning Turtle Island Quartet. As a soloist, he regularly tours as jazz violinist with the acclaimed bassist Stanley Clarke and his touring band. Since 2007 Mads has lead his own group, Mads Tolling Quartet. His latest recording, “The Playmaker” released in the fall of 2009, features bass legend Stanley Clarke and jazz greats Russell Ferrante & Stefon Harris. Mads has been featured on NPR’s Morning Edition, and his recordings have received rave reviews in Downbeat Magazine, Strings Magazine, Washington Post & San Francisco Chronicle. He has performed with Chick Corea, Ramsey Lewis, Kenny Barron & Paquito D’Rivera.

As violist with Turtle Island Quartet, 2003-2007 and now as violinist, 2007-present, Mads maintains an active touring and recording schedule as well as composing and giving master classes. In ‘06 and ‘08 as part of Turtle Island Quartet Mads won two Grammy Awards for Best Classical Crossover album with the recordings “4+Four” and “A Love Supreme – The Legacy of John Coltrane.” Tolling has received Denmark’s Sankt Annae’s Award for Musical Excellence as well as grants from Queen Margaret, the Sonning Foundation and the Berklee Elvin Jones Award.

In 2007 Mads Tolling started his own trio and immediately recorded the album “Speed of Light.” The following year the trio expanded to a quartet. In it are some of the top Bay Area musicians, including Mike Abraham on guitar, George Ban-Weiss on bass and Eric Garland on drums.

Mads Tolling Quartet has performed all over the U.S including Yoshi’s San Francisco & Oakland, Russian River Jazz Festival, Yerba Buena Gardens, Grass Valley Performance Arts, Summerlin Library, Las Vegas & Blues Alley, Washington DC. MTQ will tour nationally and internationally in ’10-’11 in support of their release: “The Playmaker.”

Mads grew up in Copenhagen, Denmark and moved to the U.S. at the age of 20 to pursue jazz studies. He studied under violinist Matt Glaser, and he graduated summa cum laude from Berklee College of Music in Boston in 2003. While still attending Berklee, the renowned jazz violinist Jean-Luc Ponty recommended Mads to join Stanley Clarke’s band. Since then, he has performed more than 100 concerts with Clarke worldwide, including the Newport Jazz Festival and the Hollywood Bowl.

Besides his activities as a performer, Mads Tolling is an accomplished composer. “The Playmaker” release mainly features Mads’ original compositions in addition to well known pieces such as Led Zeppelin’s “Black Dog” and P. W Ellis’ “The Chicken.” Of his three prior recordings of original material, one features the legendary pianist JoAnne Brackeen. Mads has recorded with vibraphonist Dave Samuels and appears on RMB singer Teena Marie’s recording “La Dona” and on jazz vocalist Ann Hampton Callaway’s “At Last”. He has additionally contributed numerous arrangements and compositions to Turtle Island Quartet’s repertoire.

Mads has been a thriving force in the educational aspects of jazz and improvisation. He has been active as a Yamaha clinician and has been involved in workshops, coachings and master classes throughout Canada and the U.S. Recently Mads has been involved with pro bono work for the “Music Rocks” foundation in San Leandro bringing his musical & educational skills to high schools where the music budget has been cut dramatically in recent years.

In his spare time Mads enjoys golfing, tennis and hiking. In 1999, together with his father, he climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

Booking Contact: Matt Beasley
Lumina Music Group
Phone: (+001) 650 400 4920
Email: matt@luminamusicgroup.com

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