Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Rocking Rachmaninoff

Mosaic Quartet’s schtick is rocking the classical music tip.
Mosaic Quartet’s schtick is rocking the classical music tip.

Dave Mustaine’s appearance with the San Diego Symphony was an ambitious collaboration of rock and classical. San Diego’s Mosaic Quartet is all about mixing rock and Rachmaninoff. Three members have studied at a conservatory. They mix classical passages throughout their pop songs.

“We started off writing typical electronic pop” says pianist Chetan Tierra. “Then we decided to utilize our [classical] expertise.”

Sponsored
Sponsored

Mosaic has built a database of some 1300 fans through a series of living-room concerts last year.

“We did, like, 30 shows at our house in Clairemont,” says Tierra. “We incorporated lasers, fog machines, spotlights. It was a full concert experience. Sometimes we’d do two or three shows a weekend to cover the demand. We got to know our fans personally.”

“We’d have to turn away people,” says singer/guitarist/keyboardist Jonathan Belanger. “We never had any problems [with neighbors or police]. Our drummer [Pat Knightly] would play with practice sticks to keep the noise down.

“We stopped doing the house concerts around Thanksgiving. We started doing shows at Dizzy’s [and] a yoga studio in Vista — we did three shows there. They all sold out with 70 people a show.”

The quartet is set launch a series of five house concerts in the L.A. area. Contacts for those shows grew out of Belanger’s connections he’s developed through his day job as a research analyst for a brokerage firm. “We found investors across the country who wanted to invest in the band. We were able to raise a lot more money than any record company would have given us. That’s one of the reasons we’re doing this all on our own.”

The classical connection has been helpful.

“Our biggest angel investor came to know us through my participation in the Van Cliburn international piano competition in Dallas,” says Tierra. He says the Yamaha company signed on as a Mosaic Quartet underwriter.

“The old classical music model is dying,” says Belanger. “Patrons of those arts are diminishing. Back in th ’60s everyone wanted to learn guitar because people listened to rock. We have a strong connection with classical piano. Yamaha hopes we can get people interested in the piano.”

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Jayson Napolitano’s Scarlet Moon releases third Halloween album

Latest effort has the most local vibe
Mosaic Quartet’s schtick is rocking the classical music tip.
Mosaic Quartet’s schtick is rocking the classical music tip.

Dave Mustaine’s appearance with the San Diego Symphony was an ambitious collaboration of rock and classical. San Diego’s Mosaic Quartet is all about mixing rock and Rachmaninoff. Three members have studied at a conservatory. They mix classical passages throughout their pop songs.

“We started off writing typical electronic pop” says pianist Chetan Tierra. “Then we decided to utilize our [classical] expertise.”

Sponsored
Sponsored

Mosaic has built a database of some 1300 fans through a series of living-room concerts last year.

“We did, like, 30 shows at our house in Clairemont,” says Tierra. “We incorporated lasers, fog machines, spotlights. It was a full concert experience. Sometimes we’d do two or three shows a weekend to cover the demand. We got to know our fans personally.”

“We’d have to turn away people,” says singer/guitarist/keyboardist Jonathan Belanger. “We never had any problems [with neighbors or police]. Our drummer [Pat Knightly] would play with practice sticks to keep the noise down.

“We stopped doing the house concerts around Thanksgiving. We started doing shows at Dizzy’s [and] a yoga studio in Vista — we did three shows there. They all sold out with 70 people a show.”

The quartet is set launch a series of five house concerts in the L.A. area. Contacts for those shows grew out of Belanger’s connections he’s developed through his day job as a research analyst for a brokerage firm. “We found investors across the country who wanted to invest in the band. We were able to raise a lot more money than any record company would have given us. That’s one of the reasons we’re doing this all on our own.”

The classical connection has been helpful.

“Our biggest angel investor came to know us through my participation in the Van Cliburn international piano competition in Dallas,” says Tierra. He says the Yamaha company signed on as a Mosaic Quartet underwriter.

“The old classical music model is dying,” says Belanger. “Patrons of those arts are diminishing. Back in th ’60s everyone wanted to learn guitar because people listened to rock. We have a strong connection with classical piano. Yamaha hopes we can get people interested in the piano.”

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

The danger of San Diego's hoarders

The $1 million Flash Comics #1
Next Article

Wild Wild Wets, Todo Mundo, Creepy Creeps, Laura Cantrell, Graham Nancarrow

Rock, Latin reggae, and country music in Little Italy, Oceanside, Carlsbad, Harbor Island
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader