The Kruger Brothers & Kontras Quartet - Appalachian Concerto

Many thanks to Tim White for his invitation to Song of the Mountains #907, and his permission to post on YouTube. The Appalachian Concerto was composed by Jens Kruger. The Kruger Brothers consist of Jens Kruger, Uwe Kruger and Joel Landsberg. The Kontras Quartet includes Dmitri Pogolerov, François Henkins, Jean Hatmaker and Ai Ishida.

The Appalachian Concerto is a work commissioned by the Ashe County Arts Council as part of their program to bring artists together in creative and collaborative ways, providing Ashe County with new and innovative works based in the arts culture of the region. The work highlights the range of the banjo as a solo instrument and showcases Jens Kruger’s skills as composer and arranger.

Composed in 2010, the Appalachian Concerto is a work for banjo, bass, guitar, and string quartet. Innovative, challenging, and beautiful, the piece takes the ensemble playing the Kruger Brothers are famous for to an entirely new level of musicianship. From the first notes to the last cadence, the piece celebrates Appalachia—the history, the landscape, and the culture—in a way that only the Kruger Brothers can.