Darol Anger
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Violinist Darol Anger (b. 1953) has played in dozens of groups since he first rose to fame playing fiddle to David Grisman's mandolin in The David Grisman Quintet's (DGQ) 1977 debut. He co-founded the Turtle Island String Quartet with David Balakrishnan in 1985 and performed, composed, and arranged for the chamber jazz group. He frequently collaborates with fellow DGQ alumnus Mike Marshall.
Using classical, folk, and jazz music as springboards, he currently leads Republic Of Strings, with Scott Nygaard. He also co-founded The Duo (with Mike Marshall), Psychograss (the bluegrass group including Mike Marshall, mandolin; Todd Phillips, bass; David Grier, guitar; and Tony Trischka, banjo), and Fiddlers Four (with Michael Doucet, Bruce Molsky, violins; and Rushad Eggleston, cello).
Darol Anger met pianist Barbara Higbie in Paris and formed a musical partnership with her. Together they released an early record on Windham Hill called Tideline (1982) (he played violin, she played piano). Two years later they formed a group called (briefly) The Darol Anger/Barbara Higbie Quintet with Mike Marshall, Todd Phillips, and Andy Narrel. This group performed at the 1984 Montreux Jazz Festival. The quintet became a musical group taking the name Montreux. After two studio releases, Darol Anger left the group and founded the Turtle Island String Quartet. He still collaborates with Montreux and fellow Psychograss collegue, Mike Marshall, and ocassionally also collaborates with Barbara Higbie and Michael Manring.
Anger also plays frequently with pianist Phil Aaberg. He has performed and/or recorded with musicians ranging from Tony Rice, Stephane Grappelli and Mark O'Connor to Marin Alsop, Bill Evans, Nickel Creek and Béla Fleck.
Anger is currently headlining The Republic of Strings and the anonymous 4 (with fellow "Republic" guitarist Scott Nygaard) and is doing a North American tour with both groups in 2006.
