Concert at the Finnish House of Nobility on May 7st 2024. Buy tickets here.
Experience a captivating concert featuring two genres of contemporary American chamber jazz for string quartet and jazz trio. The program includes the Finnish premieres of Wynton Marsalis's "At the Octoroon Ballsé and Matthew Sheens' "American Counterpoint", paying homage to the victims of the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting. This chamber concert, blurring the lines between classical and jazz music, will be a unique opportunity to discover the music of some of the most celebrated jazzmen, performed by the virtuoso musicians of Bålder Quartet and Tuomas J. Turunen Trio.
Program
Wynton Marsalis: At the Octoroon Ball
Matthew Sheens: American Counterpoint for String Quartet and Jazz-Trio
Wynton Marsalis: At the Octoroon Ball
At the Octoroon Balls for string quartet is based on traditional Creole music that surrounded the composer while growing up in New Orleans. The octoroon balls were held for white Creole men to choose their Octoroon (one-eighth Black ancestry, with one Black great-grandparent) mistresses. Divided into seven movements, the piece includes fiddle reels, hoe downs, jug stomps, and marching bands – even a somber tone poem. The total performance time is about 45 minutes.
Matthew Sheens: American Counterpoint for String Quartet and Jazz-Trio
Described as “an outstanding pianist, stoked full of creative ideas and limitless technique" by The Australian, Matthew Sheens is a genre-bending jazz composer and pianist. He has performed or recorded alongside musical luminaries including John Patitucci, Jerry Bergonzi, Bob Mintzer, Eric Harland, Kendrick Scott, Matt Penman, Donnie McCaslin, Ben Monder and Ben Wendel. In 2012, Sheens released his debut album, "Every Eight Seconds", to wide acclaim and won the 2013 APRA/AMCOS Professional Development Award. Sheens released his second album "Untranslatable" in 2014, and "Cloud Appreciation", which won the "Jazz Couleurs Hit Award" in France, and "American Counterpoint" in 2018, which won "Australian Jazz Work of the Year" at the APRA Art Awards. A versatile composer, Sheens had commissions from the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra (Symphony No. 1 premiered in Adelaide, SA, 2019), has arranged and orchestrated for the Czech National Symphony, Prague.
Bålder Quartet
Bålder Quartet was formed earlier in 2018 in Helsinki, Finland. The ensemble won the 2018 ‘’Florida Keys’’ International Chamber Music Competition and made its debut at Carnegie Hall later that same year. In April 2019, they were invited to perform at the prestigious ‘‘Mozarthaus’’ in Vienna, Austria. The Bålder Quartet is a part of the Kuhmo Chamber Music's String Quartet Academy, working under the mentorship of Vladimir Mendelssohn as well as renowned quartets such as the Quatuor Danel, Enescu Quartet, and META4. In 2023, they became a part of Holland’s String Quartet Academy, supported and guided under the patronage of its artistic leader Marc Danel and the academy's guest teachers. The ensemble's activities are generously supported by the Finnish Culture Foundation, and in 2022 they have undertaken two international tours.