August 15, 2026: Interplay Re-Release
Our album INTERPLAY has dropped today (August 15, 2026) for streaming and digital download on all the major platforms. One exception is Apple Music; see below for details).
Here it is on YouTube and on Spotify.
INTERPLAY was a collaboration with composer and violinist David Balakrishnan (of Turtle Island String Quartet fame), and Tully Cathey (Utah-based guitarist, composer, and music theorist), commissioned for the Modern Mandolin Quartet with a generous grant from the Meet The Composer /Reader’s Digest Commissioning Program, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund. David’s contribution was the 4-movement eponymous piece INTERPLAY (Shoka, Rishi’s Dance Inner Voices, Thyaga), which features his compositional and playing skills with music that straddles classical, Indian, jazz, and bluegrass genres.
Tully Cathey’s piece ELEMENTS (Fire, Earth, Air, Water) is a musical depiction of the ancient concept of the four basic elements, dating from pre- Socratic times (6th-5th centuries BCE) and persisting throughout the middle ages and into the early modern period (1500-1800 CE), deeply influencing European thought and culture.
Terry Riley’s piece G Song fills out the album. The group at the time this album was recorded (1999) consisted of David Peters and Dana Rath (mandolins), Paul Binkley (mandola), John Imholz (mandocello). David Balakrishnan is the featured violin soloist. INTERPLAY was recorded at the Different Fur studios (San Francisco) in 1999; Howard Johnston engineered and mastered the album. And a heartfelt thank-you to artist Sharon Howard Constant for her beautiful cover art!
Apple Music exception: CD Baby cannot distribute releases explicitly categorized as “Classical”; to Apple Music because the streaming services require specialized XML data structures and granular metadata (such as composer, conductor, orchestra, and specific movements) that CD Baby’s standard system does not currently support. However, the album should be pretty easy to locate through the usual channels: Youtube, Spotify, and so on.
Album Credits:
David Peters and Dana Rath, mandolins
Paul Binkley, mandola
John Imholz, mandocello
Guest Artist: David Balakrishnan, Violin
Produced by John Imholz.
Production assistance by Dana Rath.
Recorded during June and July 1998 by Howard Johnston at Different Fur Studios, San Francisco.
Additional engineering by Justin Lieberman.
Edited by John Imholz.
Mixed by John Imholz and Howard Johnston; additional mixing by Dana Rath and Paul Binkley.
Mastered by Howard Johnston.
Photography by Kathryn MacDonald.
Cover art by Sharon Constant / Visible Ink Strings by D’Addario.
Paul Binkley, Dana Rath and John Imholz play instruments made by John Monteleone.
David Peters plays a Nugget mandolin made by Michael Kemnitzer.
The Modern Mandolin Quartet would like to thank the following people for their help and support with this project: Nadya Tichman and David Anton Imholz, Janet Ramos-Rath and Emily Rath, Maya Morishita, Tuck Andress and Patti Cathcart, Butch Baldassari, Peter D’Addario, Bette Imholz, Jim Kennedy, Jamie LeMoine, Mike Marshall, the Meadowsweet Dairy, Janet Miner, Corey Morishita, David Naggar, John Schaefer, Susan Skaggs and Robin Sutherland.