String Planet is an eclectic instrumental duo (or trio) featuring violist Novi and Chapman Stick player Larry Tuttle. In their music, classical chops and a pop sensibility combine with a serious groove - fun, loose, colorful and ever-so-slightly twisted.

String Planet's musical attitude comes from an exotic instrumentation (most people have never even seen the Chapman Stick before, much less in combination with electric viola) and an optimistic science fiction-ized “one planet” outlook on life.

Their “Songs From the Home Planet” show and new CD features original takes on some of the great music from Planet Earth - from The Beatles to Prokofiev to who knows what - you never know what's going to show up, or how it's going to sound when it gets there.

Larry and Novi met when they formed the instrumental group Freeway Philharmonic with guitarist Robert Stanton. FREEWAY PHIL recorded four albums -- FREEWAY PHILHARMONIC, CAR TUNES, SONIC DETOUR and ROAD TO JOY - and toured incessantly for fifteen years.

Now with STRING PLANET, their years together show a deep affinity for each other's playing and their uncanny entwining-interplay within each song. "I often can sense what Larry is going to play," states Novi. "I love to move around within a song playing the melody, then a counter-melody, then a harmony part, and maybe adding some coloring and inner voices. We try for lots of dynamics. Our passion is the sound of strings working together."

Novi has a long list of credits highlighted by her viola solos on hit singles lke The Doobie Brothers' "Black Water" and Prince's "Purple Rain" and "Raspberry Beret." She also has performed on recordings by pop artists as diverse as Cher, James Taylor, Madonna, Bonnie Raitt, Michael Jackson, Bon Jovi, Neil Diamond, Kenny Loggins, Ray Charles and Julio Iglesias. Novi has worked in other genres such as folk (Indigo Girls, Gordon Lightfoot, Dan Fogelberg, Shawn Colvin), country (Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris & Linda Ronstadt, Kenny Rogers), jazz (Stanley Clarke, David Benoit), new age (John Tesh, Nicholas Gunn, Tangerine Dream, David Arkenstone), and blues (John Mayall). In addition, Novi has performed onstage with many artists including Everclear, Johnny Mathis, Frank Zappa, Scott Weiland, John Cale, Gladys Knight and Luther Vandross and her own groups - “Chunky, Novi and Ernie” and “Sumner”.

"When I began playing The Stick," says Larry, "it was a life-changing move. It allowed me to continue as a bass player (Larry played acoustic bass classically from the age of nine) while adding melodies and rhythm at the same time, and it was a great instrument to compose on as well - kind of like a string section posing as a 2 X 4 - what could be more fun??” In 1999 Larry released THROUGH THE GATES, an album of solos played on The Stick.

Besides concerts, STRING PLANET offers school assembly programs ("Music and the Imagination"), plus workshops for young string players (they've worked as clinicians for the Henry Mancini Institute)

Novi and Larry also perform frequently with acoustic artist Lindsay Tomasic - check out the possibility of a "two-bands-in-one" booking - visit Lindsay's site at www.sonicbids.com/Lindsaytomasic


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