An Exclusive Interview with Mads Tolling

Mads Tolling is an internationally renowned violinist, violist, and composer, and is also a member of the two time Grammy Award-Winning Turtle Island Quartet. Originally from Copenhagen, Denmark, Tolling spends time playing for Stanley Clarke’s touring band, as well as fronting his own group – the Mads Tolling Quartet. Yotam Rosenbaum had a chance to talk with him. Enjoy!

An Exclusive Interview with Mads Tolling (click here for the audio)

Yotam Rosenbaum: Hello, this is Yotam Rosenbaum and today I’m talking with Mads Tolling, a jazz violin player, double Grammy award winner and a member of the Turtle Island quartet, a string quartet that plays jazz, the group has been around for 25 years now. Mads also, in the past, toured with Stanley Clarke and, these days, he leads his own jazz quartet, which he will tell us more about. But first, Mads, why don’t you go ahead and introduce yourself, tell us where you’re from and how did you end up playing jazz on the violin?

Mads Tolling: I grew up in Copenhagen, Denmark; grew up playing violin from the age of 6 years old and was a good boy and played classical music for the most of my young years. And when I was 14, 15 years old, I started listening a lot to Mose Davis, got attracted to playing jazz and rock’n’roll and Latin music, those types of styles, and always was interested, at a pretty young age, of seeing how the violin could fit into that type of music.

And I started listening to some of the people that inspired me in Denmark, including Svend Asmussen and Stéphane Grappelli, the French violinist, and Jean Luc Ponty, and figuring out how you can actually do those on the violin. And that was, sort of, the breakthrough for me and about 17-18, just going to high school, and basically, just, figuring out how to play music like that on my violin. And when I was 20 years old I got accepted at Berklee College of Music, where I study with some great musicians, including Joe Lovano and JoAnne Brackeen, just some of my heroes growing up. And right out of school I basically, even before then, I actually jumped on stage and jammed with Jean-Luc Ponty, he’s a great French jazz violinist, and he recommended me to Stanley Clarke, which, sort of, was my first really big professional gig. I started playing with him when I was 20 years old and after that, right out of school, I actually got into a group called Turtle Island Quartet.

And what Turtle Island Quartet is really, is two violins, and a viola and a cello. But playing anything but what you’d expect, say, configurations of play, because it’s not really about Mozart and Haydn, it’s really about playing Chick Corea and Mose Davis. Our latest album is actually music of Jimmy Hendrix. So we really run the gamut in that group and really play a lot of different styles; I used to play viola with that group, and now I’m playing violin and it’s been going, for me, for over seven years, the group itself has actually been together for 25 years. So, it’s been going for a long, long time.

** VISIT THE MADS TOLLING WEBSITE **

Yotam Rosenbaum: Oh, wow, 25 years for any band to stick together is quite an accomplishment. So during the seven years that you’ve been with the Turtle Island Quartet, the group has won two Grammy awards. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Mads Tolling: When I first joined Turtle Island Quartet, in 2003, they were actually just about to record their, as me being in the group, our first album on a label called Telarc, and I recorded with them, in 2004, with Turtle Island, an album called “4+ Four”, that we did… actually the music was written for a string quartet, so we did some interesting tunes including Darius Millhaud’s “Creation of the World”; we did an original piece by one of the founders of Turtle Island, David David Balakrishnan called “Mara’s Garden of False Delights”; we did a piece by The Beatles, called “Because”, and so that one actually earned us a Grammy nomination in 2006.

And we actually ended up winning that whole category in 2006 for Best Classical Crosser album, that year, which was very fortunate, given the fact that Jess joined the group, I mean, like, literally a half year before we recorded that, so good fortune there. And then two years later we recorded another album on Telarc, it was the music of John Coltrane, legacy of John Coltrane, “A Love Supreme” where we, sort of, played through that mac and opus of John Coltrane’s and that one also won a Grammy and that was in 2008. So, those two years were, sort of, the good charm years, the good luck years for us with the Grammys. And, of course, now, in 2011, the classical crossover album has been eliminated, so…
Yotam Rosenbaum: Yeah, many musicians are not very happy about that.

Mads Tolling: Right.

Yotam Rosenbaum: So would you say that winning the Grammys was a big game changer for the group? Did it affect sales and gigs?

Mads Tolling: Those were some pretty good years, but I think I would mainly contribute that to the better economy back then than now. I think it’s good, it gives a little bit of a buzz, it’s not, like, if you’re winning, like, if you’re U2 and winning the Grammy for the year, you’re on TV and you get tons of publicity out. I mean, the classical and jazz Grammys are not as well publicized given that there’s no TV running while that’s going on. But it certainly that gets out there, and people write about it, and talk about it and it’s something that you’ll always have on your resume, you know – you know, winning a Grammy – I know so many amazing musicians, famous musicians, that actually never won, they may have been nominated, but never won, and it doesn’t always makes sense, but nonetheless it’s a very cool thing to have.

Yotam Rosenbaum: Yeah, for sure. So, these days you’re leading your own jazz quartet, the Mads Tolling Quartet, and you have some upcoming shows in the Bay area. Why don’t you tell our listeners, especially the ones in the region, some information about those shows?

Mads Tolling: Right, yeah, so the first show is on Monday, July 25th, in Redwood City, it’s called ‘Jazz in Maine’ and it’s from 6 to 8 pm, in an outside stage there. We played it last year and it’s kind of like a cozy scene there outside, a lot of music, a lot of restaurants and people out in the scene there. So that’s – even though Redwood City isn’t known for exactly the hopping nightlife – I think people will still find it really refreshing to see live music in that space. And then, after that, we’re actually playing just three days after, we’re playing up in Novato, at a place called Pacific Smokehouse, which is a pretty new venue, it’s a big restaurant in a big complex there, where they have a stage. And we’re playing there 8.00 pm and that’s the 28^th, that’s Saturday, as far as my math is correct. And our biggest show will be on August 14^th, which is the San Jose Jazz Fest; we’re playing on a Smith Dobson tribute stage, at 6:00 pm, that day. And San Jose Jazz still is a great scene, there’s so many great musicians coming through there this year, so we’ll be happy to play there with the quartet.

Yotam Rosenbaum: That’s great, so before we say goodbye, let’s listen together to one of your tunes from your latest release “Star Maker Machinery”. Can you explain a little bit about the name and the tune?

Mads Tolling: Yeah, “Star Maker Machinery” is, despite the title, which I think Johnny Mitchell wrote its I’m not sure if the song was in that tide, but it was definitely in the lyrics, but despite that it’s actually a piece that I wrote to John McLaughlin, that he actually, also, listened to and liked, apparently, he was very into the music, he said it brought him back in time. So, yeah, this is a piece that I wrote, written for the quartet. So, please enjoy.

Yotam Rosenbaum: Mads Tolling, thank you very much for joining us today and talking to us.

Beethoven, The Most Influential Composers In Western Classical Music

Born in December 1770 in Bonn, Germany, Beethoven was a great composer and pianist. Considered to be one of the most influential composers in Western Classical Music, he wrote nine symphonies, nine concerti and a variety of orchestral work, overtures and incidental music and other occasional work.

Beethoven started learning music at a very young age from renowned musicians of those times. With his extraordinary talent, he captured the attention of several famous musicians and made his first public appearance at Vienna in 1795 where he was to play his own work. This was followed by a tour to Prague, Dresden, Leipzig and Berlin. He had debuted with a piano concerto in the same year in Budapest. Till then he had established himself as a piano virtuoso.

Beethoven Piano Concertos

Beethoven Piano Concertos were admired throughout the world and are still known as masterwork. He wrote several concertos out of which seven are very famous. These include Piano Concerto No. 1 in 1796-97, Piano Concerto No. 2 in 1795, Piano Concerto No. 3 in 1800-01, Triple Concerto for violin, cello and piano in 1805, Piano Concerto No.4 in 1805-06, Piano Concerto No. 5 in 1809-10 and an unpublished Piano Concerto in 1815. The last one was performing version and was incomplete. It was later on completed by Nicholas Cook. Along with this, he had also written Violin Concerto in 1806 and Romance in E minor for three soloists and orchestra.

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Beethoven Sonatas

Beethoven Sonatas constitute a great treasure that have been researched and studied by numerous pianists and musicologists. He had written thirty-two piano sonatas creating a new and impressive form of art. He played an important role in transforming and evolving of the sonata form. He had imposed his personality and joys and sorrows of his own life on the sonatas.

Beethoven Symphonies

Beethoven had also composed nine symphonies including Symphony No. 1 in 1799-1800, Symphony No. 2 in 1801-02, Symphony No. 3 in 1803-04, Symphony No. 4 in 1806, Symphony No. 5 in 1804-08, Symphony No. 6 in 1804-08, Symphony No. 7 in 1811-12, Symphony No. 8 in 1812 and Symphony No.9 in 1817-24. He also intended to write the tenth symphony but because of his ill health, he could not do so.

Other Works

His other works include five orchestral works, around ten overtures and incidental music composition, chamber music including string trios, piano trios, sonatas for violin, works with wind instruments and cello with piano. String quarters, string quintets and trio for piano, flute and Bassoon, and so on are some other noticeable works of Beethoven.

In 1801, Beethoven confessed to his worry of becoming deaf but he carried on with his music compositions and explored many other musical domains. His handicap was getting worse day by day and in later years he stopped talking to people. It was during this time that he wrote exceptional sonatas and symphonies for piano music, his greatest work. He also wrote one opera, Fidelio.

Beethoven was bedridden during last of months of his life and died on March 26, 1827 during a thunderstorm. His funeral was attended by around 30,000 people.

This article on the music composed by Beethoven is written by Dan Brown. If you are interested in Beethoven’s piano music you may want to read more about the Beethoven Piano Concertos and Beethoven Fur Elise.

Taking Note: Jennie Dorris MM ’05

Jennie Dorris (MMus’05) takes classical music to the coffee shop.

The hiss of coffee steamers, clinking cutlery and murmur of conversation are an unlikely backdrop for a concert of Mozart, Dvořák and Takemitsu. But for Jennie Dorris (MMus’05), a coffee shop is the perfect place to perform live classical chamber music.

Dorris and her Telling Stories troupe perform chamber music and read original essays at casual Colorado venues, including cafés and art galleries. They’ve even performed amid kegs of beer in a brewery warehouse.

Founded by Dorris in 2006, Telling Stories is a concert series that draws on a cast of 100 classically trained freelance musicians and writers who want to make chamber music and literature “a little more fun and a lot less stuffy.” It has its own radio show on Colorado Public Radio.

Her goal is to attract a younger audience to classical music, and what better way to do that than by performing where the show can be enjoyed over coffee or a brew?

“I want to make classical music more approachable,” Dorris says. “Most 20-somethings are not invested in classical music and have zero patron knowledge. That meant plopping music down in the middle of their lives.”

And in the process, Dorris, 31, is carving out an unconventional niche by combining her two passions — writing and music — into one creative career.

“Classical music has such complexity and passionate intensity,” she says. “I can hear a sad pop song and enjoy it, but when I listen to a Chopin prelude, I can feel the sorrow.”

Dorris plays percussion instruments, including drums, vibraphone, glockenspiel and a six-foot-long, five-octave marimba. She graduated from CU-Boulder with a master’s degree in percussion performance during a tight economic climate in which young musicians were jockeying for scarce positions in traditional orchestras. Rather than get a job while waiting for a position to open, Dorris decided to take music to the people.

Telling Stories’ inaugural hour-long concert was at the Laughing Goat Coffeehouse on Pearl Street in Boulder. The theme was Getting Ahead of Ourselves, a tongue-in-cheek nod to her concern she was launching Telling Stories prematurely.

“The idea of that first concert was to push the concept down the mountain and see if it would roll,” she says. “It’s hard when you’re making your own career path because you don’t even know what the milestones look like.”

Her concerts typically consist of three to five musicians playing classical chamber music or a commissioned new chamber piece interspersed with two to four writers reading short original essays based on a theme. Topics have included Rush Hour,Expecting and Guilty Pleasures. Although these novel concerts are performed outside the traditional symphony or recital hall, the classical repertoire is never compromised.

“We don’t ever dumb down our music,” Dorris says. “We play hard and sometimes avant-garde repertoire and people come along with us because they’re comfortable. They’re not trapped in their seats scared they’ll cough. They love to stay after concerts and talk with the performers. We’re attracting people who are new to classical music.”

Music and writing have been part of her life since Dorris was growing up in Oklahoma.

“If you saw me in high school, you’d see a younger version of me doing what I do now,” she says. “I was running the school newspaper and playing in the band.”

She double-majored in music and magazine writing at Drake University. After graduating Dorris wanted more training and mentorship for her music, which led her to the College of Music at CU-Boulder. With writing, however, she just wanted more work. She has written for publications as diverse as Field &Stream and Entrepreneur and wrote a blog for 5280 Magazine about living an affordable sustainable life.

Since it launched, Telling Stories has transformed into a burgeoning business. In 2010 Dorris received a MasterMind Award from Denver’s Westword magazine for being a cultural visionary, and she has been featured in Symphony Magazine.

Dorris stays busy with music, writing and extending her interdisciplinary reach. She teaches journalism at Community College of Denver and music at Red Rocks Community College in Lakewood, Colo. She is a sabbatical replacement instructor at the CU College of Music and plays with the Colorado Ballet and Colorado Springs Philharmonic.

In addition, she created a program at the Denver School of the Arts in which she works with high school students to produce 10-minute performance pieces showcasing the kids’ music, art and writing.

Jeffrey Nytch, director of CU’s Entrepreneurship Center for Music, emphasizes the untapped opportunities for the entrepreneurial musician.

“The most effective entrepreneurs are those who create opportunities that didn’t exist before,” Nytch says. “Musicians who succeed at this connect with the audience because they have something authentic to communicate while staying true to their art.”

Dorris has learned that finding her niche means developing a career that is a satisfying amalgam of two arts.

“I love interdisciplinary work because I’m wearing all my hats,” she says. “I’m not just a writer or a musician. I’m the type of person who can see how many different things can work together.”

Take note of a vintage year in classical music

With champagne corks popping for the new Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts and area arts groups pouring forth their finest, Kansas City is in for a vintage year indeed.

The Kansas City Symphony, the Lyric Opera of Kansas City and the Kansas City Ballet  are offering ambitious seasons for their first year in Moshe Safdie’s majestic building. The Harriman-Jewell Series and Friends of Chamber Music also will present concerts in the shiny new facility.

While the spotlight will certainly be on the center, Kansas City’s beloved recital hall, the Folly Theater, will remain a very busy venue.

Kansas City Symphony

Befitting the Kansas City Symphony’s historic first year in the Kauffman Center’s Helzberg Hall, Michael Stern has programmed a memorable season with guest artists worthy of a world-class performing arts center.

Concerts this fall featuring soloists include pianist Emanuel Ax, who will open the season Sept. 23-25, followed by Park University’s piano superstar Behzod Abduraimov performing Nov. 18-20.

The Independence Messiah has been a Christmas tradition for decades. This year it moves to the Kauffman Center, where Yasuhita Toyota’s acoustics should make the work sound brand new. Led by Steven Jarvi, the large Independence Messiah Choir will join the Kansas City Symphony and Chorus for Handel’s masterwork for three performances Dec. 2-4.

The Lyric Opera

Ever since Ward Holmquist became artistic director of the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, the company’s production values have been getting better every year. For its debut in the Kauffman Center’s Muriel Kauffman Theatre, the Lyric will pull out all the stops with Puccini’s opulent “Turandot.”

Dripping with jewel-like melodies, “Turandot” will give the Lyric an opportunity to show what it’s capable of, musically and theatrically. There will be four performances of “Turandot” beginning Oct. 1.

In November, the Lyric will perform Mozart’s “Cosi Fan Tutte,” an opera that lends itself to creative updating. The Lyric will present the Mozart classic in an eye-popping production for four performances beginning Nov. 5.

Harriman-Jewell

Clark Morris, executive director of the Harriman-Jewell Series, has several concerts planned for the new Helzberg Hall, mostly large-scale ensembles that would have previously performed in the Music Hall. The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra led by trumpeter Wynton Marsalis will perform Oct. 1 .

The Vienna Symphony conducted by Fabio Luisi with the Eroica Trio will perform Nov. 9.

For its more intimate programs, such as its Discovery Concerts, Harriman-Jewell will use the Folly. Harriman-Jewell begins its season with a Discovery Concert on Sept. 24 featuring violinist Caroline Goulding. All of 18, Goulding has already won an Avery Fisher career grant and has been nominated for a Grammy.

Morris is maintaining the Harriman tradition of introducing Kansas City to vocalists on the cusp of stardom. For a Discovery Concert on Nov. 19, Harriman-Jewell will present tenor Alek Shrader, who has been receiving rave reviews from critics on the coasts and is poised to be opera’s next big thing. Both Discovery concerts are free.

Also this fall, as part of its series Great Masters: The Ingram Events, Harriman-Jewell is bringing three of classical music’s most impressive talents to the Folly. Piano Powerhouse Marc-Andre Hamelin will perform on Oct. 15, violin virtuoso Midori will give a recital on Oct. 27 and James Galway will bring his Irish charm and Golden Flute to the Folly on Nov. 3.

Carlsen Center

Emily Behrmann, general manager of the Performing Arts Series at Johnson County Community College, has lined up one of her most eclectic seasons yet. Yardley Hall’s excellent acoustics make classical and jazz performers sound their best, and Behrmann is bringing great performers from both worlds.

On Sept. 30, the Miles Davis Experience will give audiences a taste of a true American genius, and on Nov. 6, the Munich Symphony with Gloriae Dei Cantores will fill Yardley Hall with Mozart’s sublimely spiritual Requiem.

Two more concerts of note this fall at the Carlsen Center are the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet on Oct. 22 and “69 Degrees South: The Shackleton Project.” The latter tells the story of Ernest Shackleton’s heroic voyage to and from Antarctica through highly imaginative music and puppetry.

Behrmann always likes a holiday concert that’s off the beaten path, and this year she’s bringing the 12-piece Burning River Brass to deck Yardley Hall with good cheer on Dec. 16.

Friends of Chamber Music

Cynthia Siebert, artistic director of the Friends of Chamber Music, is one of this city’s foremost classical music presenters. This year, she’s also a producer with the ambitious “Darwin Project” on Oct. 14. The chamber music organization commissioned the work from local writers, scientists and musicians that will take advantage of the multimedia capabilities of the Kauffman Center.

Thankfully, the warm and intimate Folly Theater will still be used for many of the group’s concerts, including the Tokyo String Quartet on Oct. 21.

Early music fans can look forward to a couple of programs. Rebel, an early music ensemble based in New York, will perform a vibrant concert of baroque music on Nov. 18 at Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral. And perhaps the world’s greatest choral group dedicated to Renaissance polyphony, the Tallis Scholars, will return to Kansas City for a Christmas concert on Dec. 8 at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.

Kansas City Chorale

The Catholic Church is rediscovering the beauty of Gregorian chant. Even in a non-liturgical setting, chant has the ability to calm, center and restore. The Kansas City Chorale led by Charles Bruffy will explore this ancient tradition with “Chant and Beyond” Oct. 15 at St. Michael Archangel, 143rd and Nall; Oct. 16 at Redemptorist Church, 3333 Broadway; and Oct. 18 at Asbury Methodist, 5400 W. 75th St. In addition to pure Gregorian chant, the Chorale will also perform music by the medieval mystic Hildegard von Bingen and Renaissance polyphony, which uses chant as the basis for elaborate settings of the Mass.

Why Classical Music Needs Spotify

"There's a lot of talk these days about reinventing classical music. Or maybe just reinventing its marketing, but in any case doing something to make it come alive -- and assure its survival -- in an age of O.J. Simpson and Madonna."

That is the first paragraph of Greg Sandow's brilliant article, dates from 1996, which seems to be a long long time ago. But the anxiety over the supposedly dying classical music hasn't changed for a much longer time. To make that passage relevant in the 1920s, all you need to do is to change the last two objects to Jazz and gramophone; 1960s, Beatles and TV; and 2010s, smartphone and Spotify.

I agree with Alex Ross that all these debates over whether classical music is dead or not, is a waste of time, because it will never change anything. Entrepreneurs and technicians couldn't care less about these concerns, when they set out their business or research plans. And when they determine a new distribution method or technology is more convenient than the previous one, therefore more people will adopt it and more profit (for them) will be generated, they will never step back because of the potential harm it could do to art. Deal with it.

And there's a lot of talk these days about the potential harm Spotify could do, or already have done, on the music industry, or even music itself.

Some of them, like Walter Benjamin did 75 years ago, argue that when art was rendered too easily accessible, its “aura” was lost. I partly agree with that, and I'm by no means a tech enthusiast (I find H.P. Lovecraft view of the universe more likeable than Stephen Hawking's). But if you see this from a historical perspective, the “devaluation” of art is inevitable, and for centuries art constantly gained new values by taking advantage of new technology, so we are not living in a culture desert now, after everything that came after the industrial revolution.

The rise of bourgeois introduced classical music to a much wider audience, but at the same time, screwed landed aristocrats, so they could no longer afford (not only financially, but also emotionally) to support artists like Beethoven on their own, or to hire Haydn with a full orchestra. People may argue: “I'd rather have one Beethoven other than 100 salon composers.” But sorry, no one can change the times when the times have changed. Art will deal with new spiritual conflicts caused by new technology, and hopefully, flourish in new ground made possible by it, like it did in the past centuries. I consider myself a very cynical man, but I believe in the self-renewing capacity of art. Otherwise I cannot think of anything that human beings can lean on.

I'm also optimistic about Spotify's impact on the classical music industry. According to the much-quoted article by Mode founder Brian Brandt, Spotify's payment to his label is about 1/3 penny per stream, in June 2011. Looks bleak, yes? Here's my take on it:

Mr. Brandt also said the profit from one CD sold is about $3.

If 10 users listen to a 10-track Mode album on Spotify for 10 times, Spotify pays Mode: