Crossbridge Strings 

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left to right: Lucy Strauss, Sutrisno Hartana, Joshua Zubot, James Meger, Sina Ettehad, Meredith Bates, Lan Tung, Reg Quiring

Crossbridge Strings brings together Vancouver’s diverse bowed string players from east and west and uses improvisation as the medium for musical exchange. Established in 2021, Crossbridge Strings is a collective of all-star improvising musicians from Indonesian, Taiwanese, Iranian, avant-garde, jazz, and western contemporary music backgrounds. The rebab, erhu, kamanche, violin, viola, cello, and bass blend beautifully together, and the sounds from various genres naturally emerge and evolve. At the same time, distinct characters of each instrument/player is brought to the foreground through spontaneous orchestration and dynamic shifts. The unique vocal styles of multi-instrumentalist Sutrisno Hartana and Lan Tung add rich colours and nuances in the mix, while bass and drum provide rhythmic foundation to support the strings.

Videos below include collaborating dancers. With the diverse backgrounds and experiences of the musicians, Crossbridge Strings can perform with or without other improvising artists from different disciplines and genres. The ensemble size is also flexible.

Lan Tung – erhu (Chinese fiddle) & vocal
Sutrisno Hartana – rebab & suling (Indonesian fiddle & flute), vocal
Sina Ettehad – kamanche (Iranian fiddle)
Meredith Bates – violin
Joshua Zubot – violin
Lucy Strauss & Reginald Quiring – viola
Marina Hasselburg – cello
James Meger – bass

may perform as a smaller group

Crossbridge Strings於2021年由來自台灣的二胡演奏家董籃創立，以跨文化的弓弦樂器組合，在即興音樂的領域帶來不同的聲響。骨幹成員包括：印尼音樂家Sutrisno Hartana，擅長印尼胡琴Rebab、笛子Suling、雙面鼓等多種樂器，以及充滿民族風格的唱腔；伊朗音樂家Sina Ettehad演奏傳統樂器Kemenche；並廣邀溫哥華著名弓弦樂器即興演奏家演奏西方的小提琴、中提琴、大提琴、倍大提琴。Crossbridge Strings活躍於跨界合作，2021年首次登台即與NOW Society、Sound of Dragon Society、多位加拿大原住民表演藝術家合作；2022年與來自台灣的視覺藝術家董籬及舞蹈家張逸軍合作，於台加藝文節登上Vancouver Playhouse演出。