LIVE at Piedmont Piano Company
Mads Tolling & Edward Simon
Music from Denmark, Venezuela, & Beyond
Grammy award-winning Danish violinist Mads Tolling and world-class Venezuelan jazz pianist Edward Simon embark on a musical odyssey, finding the connections between the rich tapestries of jazz and the folkloric melodies of Latin America and Scandinavia. They will share music by Egberto Gismonti, Astor Piazzolla, and Niels Henning Ørsted Pedersen, as well as their own compositions. Both Yamaha Artists, they have recorded 25 albums between them as a leaders and co-leaders.
General Admission
$35 in advance / $40 at the door
We are offering a limited number of seats for this performance. Advance purchase is recommended.
MADS TOLLING
Mads Tolling is two-time Grammy Award-winning violinist and composer from Copenhagen, Denmark, now based in the San Francisco Bay Area. A former member of both Stanley Clarke's band and the Turtle Island Quartet, Mads has performed with renowned artists like Chick Corea, Ramsey Lewis, Paquito D’Rivera, and Leo Kottke. He recently was a part of the late great Bob Weir’s Wolf Bros. Mads leads his own ensembles, and tours as a soloist.
After graduating from Berklee College of Music in 2003, Mads joined Stanley Clarke's band on the recommendation of Jean-Luc Ponty. He has been featured on NPR’s Morning Edition and received praise from the Washington Post and The San Francisco Chronicle. In 2016, Mads won DownBeat Critics Poll Rising Star Violin Award. Mads has performed for King Frederik and Queen Mary of Denmark at the Danish Embassy in Washington D.C.
Mads has written violin concertos for The Oakland Symphony and Pacific Chamber Orchestra and has performed them around the U.S. and Japan, including with The Hawaii Symphony and Orchestra Kanazawa. In Bob Weir & Wolf Bros, Mads has recorded three albums and toured extensively, playing venues like Red Rocks and Radio City Music Hall. With hundreds of concerts worldwide, he leads Mads Tolling & The Mads Men and recorded the album Playing the 60s, which reimagines songs from 1960’s TV, film and radio. The release topped US jazz radio charts and peaked at #5.
Mads is a featured Yamaha Artist, offering clinics and masterclasses globally. madstolling.com
EDWARD SIMON
Praised by DownBeat as “one of the strongest pianists of his generation,” awarding-winning artist and composer Edward Simon has become an irrepressible force in modern music. Throughout his accomplished career, the Venezuela-born Bay Area artist has refined his sound by exploring its pluralisms and by fostering global connections on and off the bandstand. Based in the SF Bay Area, as a member of the All-Star SFJAZZ Collective, Edward has been a Guggenheim Fellow and awarded multiple composition grants as part of Chamber Music America’s New Jazz Works initiative.
Grounded in the moment and wired for exploration, Simon’s expression leans into different styles from Latin America, the Caribbean, West Africa and the United States, treating their elements and traditions as inextricably related and universal. His technical mastery continues expanding, as does his emotional resonance and his social impact. He’s a storyteller. Lithe and beautiful, guttural and lamenting — his music courts tension even beyond harmony and rhythm, renewing his legacy of artistry, advocacy and true creative expression. edwardsimon.com