Red Cedar Chamber Music: Crossover Quartet

Tickets at www.cspshall.org - $30 in advance, $35 at the door

Electric guitar? Yes! Composers Blake Shaw (double bass) and Dan Padley (electric guitar) join Red Cedar’s core ensemble, violinist Miera Kim and cellist Carey Bostian, to form an eclectic string quartet. The program includes jazz standards by Herbie Hancock, Bill Evans, George and Ira Gershwin, and Iowa’s own John Rapson. In addition, Red Cedar has commissioned new works from both Shaw and Padley. Each has written a four-movement suite for the ensemble.

Dan Padley’s Turkey River Suite is inspired by a family cabin in Northeast Iowa that sits on the bank of the Turkey River. The movements evoke the methodical churning of the water, surprisingly majestic bluffs and landscapes, as well as a final reminder of the animals and other humans with which we coexist. His unique and beautiful harmonic language permeate the work whose movements range from sublime to blistering. Little Village has called Padley, “perhaps Iowa City’s most versatile guitarist.”

Blake Shaw’s A Suite to Remember takes the listener through four movement portraying community, empathy and kindness. Being rooted in tradition while moving forward has been the catalyst of evolution. Thinking through things together has led to some great collaborations. Taking control of your surroundings and creating fresh opportunities helps everyone's success. When we move together as one, everyone wins.

Shaw and Padley perform together often in a variety of ensembles - Freegrass, River Glen, Dan Padley Trio, and Blake Shaw’s BIG(ish) Band. Both are regarded as some of the areas’ best instrumentalists and are excellent improvisors and composers. This program marries elements of both traditional jazz and chamber music while allowing for solos, both written out and improvised, to make the most of each player’s skill set.
The program includes a new arrangement by Shaw and Padley of John Rapson’s The Sun will Never Set on the Prairie. Rapson was the longtime beloved Professor and Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Iowa. Both Shaw and Padley studied and and performed with him. In 2019, John founded the Rapson Collaborative, a non-profit with the mission of supporting the diverse voices of local artists in the creative development and production of socially-engaged musical projects. Rapson passed away in 2021. His memory is held dearly by many in Iowa.

Nine performances of Crossover Quartet will begin Thursday April 10 at the Cedar Rapids Public Library and culminate with the CSPS performance on April 18.

This series of concerts and educational events is made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts, Arts Midwest, the Iowa Arts Council (which exists within the Iowa Economic Development Authority), the Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation, Aegon Transamerica Foundation, the McIntyre Foundation, the Grandon Foundation, the Giacoletto Foundation, the City of Marion, Hills Bank, and Farmers State Bank. Additional support comes from GreatAmerica Financial Services and TrueNorth Companies. Special thanks to Artist Sponsor ImOn Communications.