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Photo credit: Anne Staveley

A wealth of influences coexist in Enion Pelta-Tiller’s approach to music.

Classical components drawn from composers like Berlioz, Mahler, Bartok and Stravinsky; jazz violin echoes that summon the best work of Stephane Grappelli and other giants of the genre; folk and traditional elements that run the geographical gamut from Eastern Europe to Ireland to India—all of these ingredients figure into Pelta-Tiller’s ambitious and unique brand of fusion.

It’s no wonder, considering her consistent dedication to musical exploration which started with childhood and college classical music studies in San Francisco and continued after she moved to New York, connected with her future husband/musical collaborator David Tiller and eventually landed in Colorado.

“The Bay Area was a great place to grow up, musically speaking,” Pelta-Tiller recalls. “I became quite interested in experimenting with improvisation and often spent hours improvising music that sounded like what I was supposed to be practicing, or played along with Coltrane, Miles, TISQ, Jascha Heifetz and Ravi Shankar records. I was in this environment of classical, new acoustic and bluegrass-adjacent music, jazz and Indian music—and soaking it all up.��

“When I moved to New York after college, I got involved in playing new music, rock, Irish music and bluegrass.”

Combined, these influences helped carve out Pelta-Tiller’s unique niche in the local music scene, and show up in her work as a performer and an educator, as a composer and as a collaborator with musical luminaries from across the globe. She’s a founding member of the critically acclaimed indie-folk group�� and directs our new��Cross-Genre American Roots Strings Ensemble, roles that draw directly on her wide-ranging interests and skills. She’s also a master’s candidate in jazz performance and pedagogy at the College of Music, set to graduate in May.

Pelta-Tiller’s no-holds-barred musical approach is sure to figure in her upcoming show at�� on March 11 with her group EnQuintet—a jazz ensemble that also features 91��ý faculty members John Gunther on winds/reeds and Victor Mestas on piano as well as Eric Thorin on bass and Kevin Mathews on drums.��

“This time, we’re mostly focusing on repertoire from members of the David Grisman Quintet because I’m interested in how that music—so inspired by both jazz and bluegrass—sounds when played by more traditional jazz instruments instead of in a string band setting,” she says. “For a couple tunes, we’ll add extra horns—Wil Swindler, Jonas Peterson and Cian Kruger—and give our pianist a rest.”

The show will also be an occasion to experience Pelta-Tiller playing her six-string violin—also known as a fadolin—made by New York-based luthier Eric Aceto, offering the depth and tone of a baroque instrument. “It’s amazing for accompanying myself on voice and expanding my improvisational palette,” she notes.

Expanding her skill-set and pushing the boundaries of creative expression have long been a hallmark of Pelta-Tiller’s approach and her connections within the College of Music have only deepened that mission, especially as it aligns with the college’s��universal musician approach to fulfilling its mission.

She speaks of the work she’s done with students in her cross-genre ensemble, taking part in fiddle flash mobs and collaborating with artists like Klezmer fiddler Alicia Svigals. She speaks of�� working with jazz faculty members like Gunther, Mestas and composition professor Annika Socolofsky. It’s all been part of a musical evolution that began when Pelta-Tiller played musical call-and-response games with her father as an infant.

91��ý has been integral to that evolution and Pelta-Tiller looks forward to continuing the connection long after the upcoming Dazzle show and her time as a graduate student.

“In directing combos, my arranging and improvisation skills have been challenged,” she notes. “And in playing with my graduate colleagues in the jazz department, some of whom are doing really far out stuff, my concept of form and my musical imagination have been stretched further than I could have conceived.”