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Novato, California 94947
USA

Mark Summer, solo cellist, composer and co-founder of Turtle Island Quartet. Percussion and pizzicato cello techniques. Sheet music and lessons available for purchase. Winner of two Grammy awards (2005 and 2008), nominated four times, most recently in 2014.

Blog

Occasional blog posts by cellist Mark Summer.

Welcome to marksummer.net

Mark Summer

Welcome to marksummer.net!

As some of you already know, I’m retiring from Turtle Island Quartet after 30 years as a founding member.  While I get ready to play my final TIQ concert on Nov. 20 in Springfield, OH, I reflect on all the amazing places I’ve been:

Singapore (sitting outside in a tee-shirt at night in December eating stick after stick of the best satay I’ve ever had) Hong Kong, (jet lag was so bad most of us flopped over while listening to saxophonist James Moody) Germany, (easily forty visits and hundreds of beers) London (went to Abbey Road for a private tour, yeah, yeah, yeah!) as well as concerts in every state in the union save Hawaii (I been everywhere, man, I been everywhere).

Life has been good. Hectic at times, lonely on the road, but good. Now it’s time for me to see what new adventures await me as a solo artist.

My hope with the new site is that it’s useful for you. Let me know what you’d like to see up and have access to. I’ve put up audio tracks for all the sheet music I am making available for purchase on this site, as well as my recording of Jimi Hendrix’s “Little Wing,” which unfortunately I can’t legally sell as sheet music. My plan is to continue to compose music for solo cello and expand my body of work that hopefully makes the case that the cello can play any kind of music, even Classical. 

We are all fortunate to have found ourselves in a golden age of fantastic cellists doing things on the instrument that were unimaginable when I first started playing. I’m inspired by what I hear and see happening in the cello world, and I look forward to the coming years. It’s a new chapter in a life that has truly been blessed with your friendship and support.

Enjoy your cello, always.

-Mark Summer