Since 2007, the adventurous string quartet ETHEL has been seeking out homegrown virtuosos of the American vernacular in places like Lexington (Kentucky), San Antonio (Texas), and the Grand Canyon, all with a simple set of goals: listen, learn, and make music with them on their own turf. Ten cities, eleven months, and 40,000 miles later, ETHEL brings it all home—with a few new friends in tow—in ETHEL's TruckStop™: The Beginning, an electrifying celebration of American music at its most diverse.

Directed by Annie Dorsen (Broadway's Passing Strange) and featuring a virtual set composed of Kate Howard's documentary footage from ETHEL's travels, this work pairs the quartet's signature hard-driving style with the singular sounds of four dazzling artists—a Texan queen of conjunto accordion (Eva Ybarra), a Grammy-winning Native American flutist from New Mexico (Robert Mirabal), a Grammy-winning Hawaiian slack-key guitarist (Jeff Peterson), and a bluegrass banjo legend from Kentucky (Dean Osborne)—for a raucous evening of cross-country musical collaboration, grown from the ground up.

Cornelius Dufallo—violin
Ralph Farris—viola
Dorothy Lawson—cello
Mary Rowell—violin

Featuring:
Jeff Peterson—Hawaiian slack-key guitar
Robert Mirabal—Flute
Eva Ybarra—Tejano Conjunto accordionist
Dean Osborne—Banjo

Photo by Leslie Lyons (less info)