ETHEL

Watch the trailer: Who is ETHEL?
"...I wish there were more rock bands who played like ETHEL."
- John Walters, Guardian UK
Read ETHEL’s bio
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ETHEL’s TruckStopâ„¢ Tour
In 2008, ETHEL celebrates a decade as the nation’s premier rock-infused, postclassical string quartet, with the launch of its ambitious community-driven TruckStopâ„¢ project. As an organic exploration of the world’s musical melting pot, the 11-stop, 10- month long TruckStopâ„¢ performance/residency tour examines, unites, and honors indigenous communities, cultures, and music. Estimated to accumulate over 40,000 miles across the United States and beyond, TruckStopâ„¢ ranges from a three-day residency in San Antonio, Texas, exploring Tejano Conjunto music, to a week-long retreat on the island of Kauai studying the rich heritage of Hawaiian music.
The tour kicked off January 14th at Joe’s Pub in Manhattan with a collaborative concert featuring Syrian clarinetist Kinan Azmeh and Hewar band, and will come full circle October 14-18, 2008, in Brooklyn, where ETHEL will be joined by TruckStopâ„¢ alumni artists for a special concert series as part of BAM’s Next Wave Festival . Other TruckStopâ„¢ highlights include: a week-long residency/concert with Kaotic Drumline -- a community project designed to get youth off the streets at Dominican University in Chicago, Illinois; a four-day residency/concert with NAMMY (Native American Music Award) award-winning flutist Robert Mirabal in Albuquerque, New Mexico, as part of the Chamber Music Albuquerque series; and a week-long residency/concert in Tilburg, Holland, as part of the 2008 Festival Mundial .
A "TruckStopâ„¢" requires ETHEL to live within a community for a two to 10 day residency, which entails, though is not limited to: hosting projects/workshops with emerging artists at local schools/universities; developing new works and instrumental practices with local artists through collaboration, improvisation, and rehearsal; and performing a concert that salutes the common creative impulse that is formed in the celebration of community. Production of TruckStopâ„¢ is supported by ETHEL’s Foundation for the Arts with funding in part from the Greenwall Foundation, LEF Foundation, Meet the Composer’s MetLife Creative Connections Program, the Multi-Arts Production Fund (a program of Creative Capital supported by the Rockefeller Foundation), and National Endowment for the Arts.
Full itinerary and collaborating artists listed on our calendar. Watch our blog for updates from the road!
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ETHEL Media Highlights (more on www.ethelcentral.com ):
Watch WTTW’s Chicago Tonight coverage of ETHEL + Kaotic Drumline
NY Times FEATURE "A High-Octane Chamber Group’s Continuing Insurrection" by Steve Smith click here
Amazon.com "Best of 2006: Top 25 Classical Editor’s Picks!" by Robert Levine click here
NY Times "MUSIC REVIEW: An Ensemble Both Eclectic and Ubiquitous" by Allan Kozinn click here
NPR "Day to Day" "ETHEL: A String Quartet with an Entirely New Sound" by David Was click here
Photographs: ETHEL in Video by Steve J. Sherman. ETHEL TruckStopâ„¢ photo by Leslie Lyons .