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Chris George, Invert's founder and one of its
composers, began his musical studies at age 15, when he took
up the electric bass guitar. In 1982, he enrolled at Berklee
College of Music in Boston, where he focused on performance
and composition. While attending Berklee, Mr. George joined
the popular rock group Boys Life performing in the most reputable
clubs around the city and touring through parts of the United
States. The group shared bills with some of alternative rock's
greatest bands, including The Ramones, John Cale, The Jam,
and The Violent Femmes.
In 1985, Mr. George formed his own group, Drumming on Glass,
playing bass and writing most of the songs. During this time
his interest in Eastern music led him to take up the sitar
and begin studying Indian classical music with sitarist Michael
Segal, a student of one of Ravi Shankar's disciples. Chris
quickly integrated the sitar into D.O.G.'s sound. Throughout
the 1980s, D.O.G. played regularly in local Boston clubs
and toured through parts of the United States. They released
a 7" single and two full length LPs/CD's on Aurora Records,
produced by Lou Giordano (Mission of Burma, Bob Mould). Their
song All The Colors charted on CMJ's top 100.
From 1993 to 1994, Mr. George joined forces with two members
of The Cavedogs (Capital Records recording artists) to form
Merang. Meanwhile, beginning in January of 1992, he had begun
studying the cello. Over the next two years, while taking
private lessons with Ben Meyers and attending master classes
at the New England Conservatory of Music taught by world
renowned cellist Colin Carr, Mr. George began to feel an
ever greater pull towards chamber music and the greater challenges
the cello had to offer.
In 1994, Mr. George moved to New York City and decided to
focus exclusively on the cello. He attended a chamber music
program at Mannes School of Music and performed in various
chamber group settings. He then spent several years studying
privately with Maxine Neuman, a renowned cello soloist and
orchestral performer, who tutored him in cello technique
and the art of composition. After accumulating a backlog
of original compositions scored for multiple cellos, he began
seeking other string players in order to perform and record
this music. In the fall of 1998 he teamed up with another
ex-Bostonian bassist-turned-cellist, Steve Berson. With the
addition of violinist Helen Yee followed by violist Asha
Mevlana in 1999, Invert was formed.
Recently, Mr. George wrote and recorded string arrangements
for Guided By Voices founder Robert Pollard's 2007 release,
Silverfish Trivia. |
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