Real Vocal String Quartet
(Azerbaijan, Macedonia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Latvia & Lithuania)
Hear RVSQ discuss their AMA trip on The California Report!
Genre:: Chamber / World Strings
Watch:: Sweet Honey Bee / La La Love You /Elephant Dreams
Videos from RVSQ’s Eastern Europe Tour
Website:: http://www.rvsq.com
Connect:: Facebook / Twitter / YouTube
REAL VOCAL STRING QUARTET (SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA) is a contemporary string quartet whose members also comprise a four piece vocal ensemble. Real Vocal String Quartet re-imagines the classical string quartet as an inclusive vehicle for innovative string playing. Each member of the quartet composes, arranges, and improvises, thus the music is uniquely original. The group’s surprisingly broad repertoire embraces the diverse influences of all four players, from jazz and rock to West African music and bluegrass. Originating new repertoire while exploring the confluence of strings and vocal music, this unique ensemble is the only combined vocal and string quartet performing on the chamber music scene, or any scene, today. Currently, RVSQ is completing their second CD at Fantasy Studios and with producer, Lee Townsend. This album will include original works as well as adventurous arrangements of music by Regina Spektor, David Byrne, Gilberto Gil, and traditional Cajun and Bluegrass tunes. RVSQ is featured on the Canadian performer Feist’s 2011 release, “Metals,” and performed with her at the Coachella Festival and on the Tonight Show in April 2012.
IRENE SAZER (VIOLIN) is an improvising violinist, composer, arranger, and singer whose unique style combines world and roots music with classical, jazz, and pop sensibilities. Known internationally as a founding member of the Turtle Island String Quartet, Sazer’s career has encompassed success as a concerto soloist, a concertmaster, an established recording artist, and a recognized educator of music and improvisation. She founded and directs the School of Strings and String Improvisation in Berkeley, California. Sazer’s own recording First Things First highlights her original voice as a singer and songwriter. Passionate about combining her musical interests in new ways, Sazer continues to push boundaries, exploring the world with her violin, her voice, and her imagination.
ALISA ROSE (VIOLIN) is a violinist, improviser, and composer pursues music across many genres. Alisa has played with diverse artists including singer Michelle Shocked, A.J. Roach and the Strange Pilgrims on PBS’s Song of the Mountains, with the Keisa Duo at Carnegie Hall, with Quartet San Francisco on NPR’s Weekend Edition, and with the bluegrass band 49 Special at the 2009 Rockygrass Festival where they took first prize in the band competition in 2008. Alisa received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Chamber Music from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music where she studied with Camilla Wicks and Bettina Mussumeli. Alisa teaches young violinists at the SF Friend’s School and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music preparatory department.
DINA MACCABEE (VIOLA) performs with some of the Bay Area’s most eclectic ensembles as a violist, violinist, and vocalist. She has performed across the U.S., Russia and Europe with Beth Custer’s live film score project, My Grandmother, and songwriter Vienna Teng. In 2009 she was music director of Fire Throws for New York’s Ripe Time Theater and Jewlia Eisenberg’s Charming Hostess. An alumna of the Henry Mancini Institute and University of Michigan School of Music, Dina teaches youth and adult string players in San Francisco.
JESSICA IVRY (CELLO) holds down the groove in Real Vocal String Quartet. An instructor of music at College of Marin, Jessica has also toured with the Beth Custer Ensemble, singer-songwriter Vienna Teng, and Balkan women’s choir Kitka. For San Francisco company A Traveling Jewish Theatre, Jessica scored and performed original music for The Bright River, a hip-hop retelling of Dante’s Inferno (2005), and Death of a Salesman (2007). Jessica is featured on the Grammy-nominated album Blueprint of a Lady by jazz vocalist Nneena Freelon. In summers 2008 and 2009, Jessica performed in Poland and Ukraine with The Ark Project, an ensemble of Bay Area and New York Klezmer and Balkan musicians that has been featured on Spark, KQED public television’s series highlighting independent Bay Area artists. Jessica holds degrees from Skidmore College and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.