Two-time Grammy Award-winning violinist Mads Tolling is a former member of Turtle Island Quartet, Stanley Clarke’s Band, and he most recently performed with Bob Weir & Wolf Bros. Mads is known for his vibrant blend of jazz, folk, and classical music, and with his violin he doesn’t shy away from getting down with the grooves of funk and R&B as well. This evening, he joins forces with Italian guitar master Peppino D’Agostino, celebrated for his poetic fingerstyle technique and innovative compositions. Peppino has recorded nineteen albums, performed in over thirty-nine countries and international festivals and concert halls. Guitar Player listed him as one of the 50 best acoustic guitarists of all time.
MADS TOLLING is an internationally renowned violinist and composer originally from Copenhagen, Denmark, now living in San Francisco. As a former nine-year member of both bassist Stanley Clarke’s band and the celebrated Turtle Island Quartet, Mads won two Grammy Awards, and he was nominated for a third Grammy in 2015. He was the 2016 winner of the DownBeat Critics Poll Rising Star Violin Award. Mads has performed with Chick Corea, Ramsey Lewis, Kenny Barron, Paquito D’Rivera, Leo Kottke and Sergio & Odair Assad. Mads is a current member of Bob Weir’s Wolf Bros & Wolf Pack Band.
After graduating Berklee College of Music in 2003, he was recommended by Jean-Luc Ponty to join Stanley Clarke’s band. He has since been featured on NPR’s Morning Edition, and his recordings have received rave reviews in Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Strings Magazine and DownBeat Magazine. Mads has performed for Danish royalty – Prince Frederik & Princess Mary – at the celebration of The Danish Embassy’s 50-year Anniversary. Since 2021, Mads has been a member of Bob Weir & Wolf Bros project as part of the Wolf Pack with tours across the US, including at Red Rocks, The Greek Theatre and Radio City Music Hall. He is featured on Weir’s album Live in Colorado. Mads has written several arrangements of Grateful Dead tunes for the band, some of which are now also part of the Mads Men repertoire.
Mads has twice been commissioned to write violin concertos – for Oakland Symphony and Pacific Chamber Orchestra. He has performed his symphonic works and soloed with orchestras around the US and Japan.
Mads now leads his own groups – Mads Tolling Quartet and Mads Tolling & The Mads Men. His release, Playing the 60s, is a reimagination of classic songs from 1960s film, TV and radio, such as “A Taste of Honey,” “Hawaii 5-0” and “Mission: Impossible.” The album features vocalists Kenny Washington, Kalil Wilson and Spencer Day, and it spent two months on US jazz radio’s top 30.
With his groups, Mads has performed over a thousand concerts around the world, including at The Hollywood Bowl, Library of Congress and at the Bay Area’s Paramount and Herbst Theatres. As a featured Yamaha Artist, Mads leads clinics and masterclasses in the US and internationally.
PEPPINO D’AGOSTINO emerged on the acoustic guitar scene in the early 80’s as a leading member of the second wave of the great fingerstylists that helped redefine the instrument in the ’90s. His remarkable technique, penchant for open tunings, and percussive effects are the basis of his unique compositional style which has been inspiring musicians and audiences alike for decades. Add to that his natural warmth, playfulness, and broad musical tastes and you have the recipe for what he calls “minestrone music”. His virtuosity and his emotional charge have also had a significant influence on the younger generation of fingerstyle guitarists. D’Agostino continues to evolve and grow in ways that would have been hard to predict when he first showcased his melodic yet emotionally intense style on the recordings Acoustic Spirit, Close to the Heart, and Every Step of the Way which was named one of the top three acoustic guitar albums of all time by Acoustic Guitar magazine readers.
D’Agostino has performed in more than 30 countries, at prestigious international festivals and has played in some of the world’s most important theaters. He has shared the stage with Tommy Emmanuel, Leo Kottke, Laurindo Almeida, Sergio Assad, Larry Carlton, and Eric Johnson, to name a few. His solo recordings include high quality labels such as Favored Nations, Mesa / Bluemoon, and Acoustic Music Records. Recognized as “the guitarist’s guitarist” by Acoustic Guitar magazine and described as “a giant of the acoustic guitar” by the San Diego Reader, D’Agostino was voted Best Acoustic Guitarist by readers of Guitar Player magazine. An active member of the Pacific Guitar Ensemble, Peppino has collaborated and recorded with the classical guitarist David Tanenbaum (chair of the classical guitar at the Conservatory of San Francisco), Jeff Campitelli (considered one of the 100 greatest drummers of all time by Rolling Stone magazine) and the legendary Paraguayan harpist and violinist Carlos Reyes, among many others. D’Agostino’s composition “Stammi Vicino,” written with electric guitarist Stef Burns and Italian rock star Vasco Rossi, reached number one in the iTunes rock charts in Italy.
D’Agostino’s simultaneous immersion in the classical guitar and rock worlds, has culminated in his most recent solo recording, Penumbra, a mix of sophisticated yet melodic compositions that are technically complex. Released by Mesa/Bluemoon, Penumbra includes two compositions written for D’Agostino by Latin Grammy Award winner and classical guitar legend Sergio Assad as well as original compositions by three great contemporary classical guitarists: Roland Dyens, Maurizio Colonna and Gyan Riley. You could arguably say that D’Agostino is the missing link between the Classical and the Acoustic guitar.