Mads Tolling is a two-time Grammy Award Winner and the 2016 Winner of The DownBeat Critics Rising Star Poll for the violin. As a former nine-year member of both Turtle Island Quartet and bassist Stanley Clarke's band, Mads has spent most of his professional life touring internationally. Since 2007 he has lead his own groups, Mads Tolling Trio & Mads Tolling Quartet. Most recently Mads has released the album, Mads Tolling & The Mads Men -  which hit top 5 on the US jazz radio charts. Mads has been featured on NPR's Morning Edition, and his recordings have received rave reviews in Downbeat Magazine, Strings Magazine, Washington Post and San Francisco Chronicle. He has performed with Chick Corea, Ramsey Lewis, Kenny Barron & Paquito D'Rivera.

In 2014 Mads received a commission from maestro Michael Morgan to compose a violin concerto for Oakland Symphony Orchestra. Mads premiered the piece in 2015 with Morgan to much fanfare at the Paramount Theatre. Performances internationally have followed.  

John R. Burr is one of the most in-demand pianists around the Bay Area. He has toured extensively with Maria Muldaur and The Alison Brown Quartet. Mads and John first met in 2015, and they recently recorded together on Blue Coast Records.  

The concert will be a journey of vibrant jazz and spirited renditions of some of the great American standards with a few originals sprinkled in. If you're mad about Mads, join us for a fabulous show.