On Tuesday, April 24, 2012 at 2 PM, the Museum of Making Music welcomes the Hutchins Consort for a special performance in partnership with the "Town and Gown" tour group.

Tickets are $10; $7 for Museum Members.  For information or tickets, please call (760) 438-5996 or order online.

The Hutchins Consort plays on the eight scaled violins of the violin octet designed and built by famed luthier Dr. Carleen Hutchins. The instruments are the first successful attempt to create an acoustically balanced set of instruments that can sound truly like violins across the entire range of written music. With instruments ranging from the tiny treble violin, tuned one octave above the standard violin, to the gigantic large bass violin, tuned one octave lower than a 'cello, the Hutchins Consort produces an astonishing pallet of sounds.

Based in Southern California, the Hutchins Consort brings together a group of extraordinary virtuosi to tackle the challenge of adapting the techniques of traditional strings, as well as inventing new techniques, to master the instruments Dr. Hutchins created.

The Hutchins Consort plays music of the Middle Ages and Renaissance to the music of the modern masters. With original compositions and transcriptions commissioned by the Catgut Acoustical Society for the octet of violins, and new transcriptions by members of the Consort, The Hutchins Consort displays a breadth and depth that few traditional groups match, and a sound that is truly unique.