Moth Quartet. From left: Tristan Carter, Salina Fisher, Elliot Vaughan, Nicholas Denton Protsack Photo: Supplied / Moth Quartet
You know the phrase "many strings to their bow"?
Tristan Carter is the living embodiment of it.
The Wellington violinist, composer and teacher has taken on more projects that most cats have lives.
Just back from a performance at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in the UK, Carter spoke with RNZ Concert host Bryan Crump about his upcoming gigs with the Moth String Quartet, of which he is a member along with Kiwi composer Salina Fisher.
One this Saturday 28 September is with another composer, Briar Prastiti, to help launch her album Twinn Ethyr, followed by a Moth-only event on 3 October at The Pyramid Club, Wellington.
The quartet released an album, scree scrub mountain sky, earlier this year. The Moths recorded it in a yurt in Ohakune, as a musical response to the wilds of Tongariro National Park.
But that's not the half of it. Carter is also part of the anarchic big jazz band, The Troubles, an Indian/Jazz crossover enterprise, Shades of Shakti, and the Balkan band Bazurka.
His recent trip to Edinburgh was part of an ongoing collaboration with the Java Dance Theatre, directed by Sacha Copland. It was his third trip to the Fringe Festival.
And did we mention when he's not performing, Carter teaches Wellington schoolkids the basics of being in a rock and roll band?
For a violinist of variety, Tristan Carter's career is only just getting started.
