Have Bow Will Travel

HAVE BOW WILL TRAVEL showcases bowed string instruments from diverse cultures. Sina Ettehad, Marjan Alekhamis, and Mohammad Amini perform Persian fiddles – kamancheh, kamancheh alto, and ghaychak alto, joined by Babak Banihoseini on Iranian drums. Lan Tung will give the world premiere of Montreal composer Tim Brady’s energetic electroacoustic work “Concerto Etude” for solo erhu (Chinese violin) and fixed media.

Crossbridge Strings brings together all-star improvising musicians from Iranian, Taiwanese, Indonesian, avant-garde, jazz, and western contemporary music backgrounds: Meredith Bates (violin), Joshua Zubot (violin), James Meger (bass), Sina Ettehad (kamancheh), Lan Tung (erhu & vocals), and Sutrisno Hartana (rebab, suling, vocals).

While the strings weave together vibrant tapestries, Hartana and Tung add rich colours and nuances with their unique vocals, and bass and Indonesian drums provide a rhythmic foundation. The sounds from various genres naturally emerge and evolve, revealing distinct characters of each instrument/player to the foreground through spontaneous orchestration and dynamic shifts. Traditional and contemporary sounds meet unexpectedly to transcend cultural/genre boundaries and demonstrate improvisation in different approaches.