Elliott Miles McKinley's first full-length album. Performed by the Martinu and Stamic Quartets.

Brash. Sublime. Boundary-breaking. The music of Elliott Miles McKinley displays a passionate and probing compositional mind that brings a fresh harmonic and rhythmic voice to the tried-and-true format of the string quartet. McKinley’s style of quartet writing is a meld of jazz, rock, and above all, classical, where, when stripped to the root, at the heart of everything, lies pure pulse and rhythm. You can take McKinley out of jazz, but you can’t take the jazz out of McKinley.

This release (the first full CD by the composer) collects 3 pieces performed by the fabulous Martinu and Stamic Quartets.

Elliott Miles McKinley’s music has been performed throughout the U.S., Canada, and Europe, and he has received commissions from the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, the Czech Philharmonic Chamber Music Society, the SOLI Chamber Music Ensemble, and the Duquesne University Contemporary Ensemble. He has been the recipient of the BMI Student Composer Award, an ASCAP composition award, a fellowship at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and several Meet The Composer grants. His teachers include John McNeil, Thomas Oboe Lee, Malcolm Peyton, George Wilson, Alex Lubet, Douglas Gears, David Gompper, Noel Zahler, Michael Daugherty, and William Bolcom.