Just Strings

Just Strings is a unique ensemble that specializes in the performance of music in Just Intonation. This ancient system of tuning produces acoustically pure intervals which results in much sweeter consonances and more disturbing dissonances than in our modern system of tuning called Equal Temperament. In a musical world that has foregone tonality in search of new means of expression (atonality and electronic music, etc.), the pure intervals of just intonation provide composers with a refreshing new palette which can include the musical styles of the past as well as new possibilities for the future. Since their formation in 1991 to perform the music of Lou Harrison and Harry Partch, they have gone on to commission and premiere works by Larry Polansky, Mamoru Fujieda, John Luther Adams, Mari Takano, Sasha Bogdonawitsch, Garry Eister and others. In 1995 they toured Japan under the auspices of the American Embassy's prestigious Interlink Festival, giving three weeks of concerts and lectures on new music. They have performed for Chamber Music in Historic Sites, the LA County Museum of Art, UCLA's Partch Centennial Celebration, Sacramento's Festival of New American Music, Minnesota Public Radio’s American Mavericks, the Songlines series at Mills College, the Gordon Getty Concerts at the Getty Center, and WNYC’s New Sounds. In 2004, Just Strings made their Disney Hall debut premiering Harry Partch’s Bitter Music.

Their CD Just West Coast was CD Reviews "CD of the Year" in 1994, & inducted into Fanfare’s “Classical Hall of Fame” (2003), their recording of Sasha Matson's The 5th Lake was released by New Albion Records, Just Guitars (2003) appears on Bridge Records, while Lou Harrison’s music por Gitaro (2008) is on Mode Records. Their latest releases on MicroFest records include premiere recordings of music by Lou Harrison, John Luther Adams, and Tom Johnson.