Formed in 2001, the quartet is a collaboration of cellist Crispin Campbell, mandolinist Don Julin, guitarist Angelo Meli and bassist Glenn Wolff. The group plays original compositions as well as music by the likes of Django Reinhardt, Frank Zappa, and Hank Williams.
Cellist Crispin Campbell is on the faculty at Interlochen Arts Academy and the Madeline Island Music Camp and is founder and former artistic director of the Manitou Music Festival. A musician whose interests defy categories, he frequently appears as a soloist, chamber music and improvisational collaborator throughout North America. Campbell's repertoire ranges from the Bach Cello Suites to Delta blues, chamber music with violinist Vartan Manoogian, pianist David Schrader, and collaborations with jazz pianist Paul Sullivan and composer David Amran.
Mandolin player DonJulin has performed on over 20 CDs ranging in style from folk to gospel to jazz to avant-garde, while his original compositions have won awards at the Walnut Valley Music Festival in Winfield, Kansas. Touring Italy four times, Julin has given master classes at the conservatory in Padova at the invitation of fellow mandolinist Ugo Orlandi. He has also been a featured performer at the Classical Mandolin Society of America Conferences of 2001 and 2002. Highly regarded as a recording engineer, Julin has recorded and mixed CD projects for over twenty years in Traverse City, Michigan.
Guitarist Angelo Meli was born in Detroit and attended Michigan State University and the Berklee College of Music in Boston. His experience ranges from the folk club circuit in Detroit to rock and roll in Boston to Latin bands and studio work in Florida. In Michigan, he has performed with back-up bands to the Drifters, the Coasters, the Platters and the Marvelletes. Angelo is also active as a songwriter and performs frequently with a variety of groups including the blues band the Corvairs.
Bassist Glenn Wolff grew up in Traverse City, Michigan. As a teenager, he played in folk bands with his friend John Wunsch. While studying art at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, he played in garage bands with fellow student and singer/songwriter John Kruth. After moving to New York, Wolff played for 9 years at venues such as Figaro's, Folk City, the Speakeasy, CBGB's and Max's Kansas City, while pursuing a career as a free lance illustrator. He returned with his family to Northern Michigan in 1987 and continues to pursues a double career of visual artist and bass player.
Mandolinist Alan Epstein from Ann Arbor, Michigan often joins the quartet as a special guest for concerts. He made his debut performance with Neptune at Mandofest 2005 in Lawrence, Kansas. Alan, a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania has played mandolin on his travels in Colorado, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and now the state of Michigan. He is the founder and former director of the Pittsburgh Mandolin Orchestra. Along with performing, he has studied with some of the top mandolin players in the country and has enjoyed sharing that knowledge both as a teacher and as an occasional contributing writer for Mandolin Magazine. In 2004 he was a recipient of the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts Apprenticeship in Traditional Arts, studying mandolin with world-renowned gypsy mandolinist Charley Rappaport.
Click here for a PDF of the Neptune Quartet press sheet
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