Think of Ying Quartet and Turtle Island String Quartet as yin and yang.

The Ying siblings are known for their exquisite renditions of traditional classical music. Turtle Island’s members, though classically trained, innovatively fuse jazz, be-bop, classical Indian forms, salsa and other genres into original compositions that stretch the bounds of string quartet repertoire.

But, like the yin yang symbol, the groups will combine today at the Lied Center to form a harmonious and unified whole. The performance will feature the world premiere of “Mara’s Garden of False Delights,” an octet for strings written by Turtle Island violinist David Balakrishnan and co-commissioned by the Lied Center.

“The idea was to find a way to play together so they could play with us and breathe our air, so to speak, for a while and we could be around them and learn what they’re great at, too,” Balakrishnan said last week during a break in the groups’ residency and rehearsal activities in Lawrence. “It’s a chance to trade knowledge, trade experience, trade soul, trade heart.”

A new experience

The quartets are friends, having worked together briefly about three years ago. It was viola player Phillip Ying’s idea to do the collaboration this time around, Balakrishnan said.

“They were very excited about the idea of spending some time in our shoes,” he said. “We are, all four of us, kind of odd animals, equally trained in jazz and classical music and grew up that way pretty much from childhood, interested in both traditions.”

Performing jazz-inspired music has forced Ying Quartet members to put on “new ears” and go against their training, Balakrishnan said.

It’s just the type of new experience the Ying Quartet is known for embracing. The group has performed in Carnegie Hall, the White House, hospitals and juvenile prisons. The Chicago natives got their start in 1992 in a tiny Iowa farm town as the recipients of a National Endowment for the Arts grant to support chamber music in rural America. Their performances for audiences from six to 600 strong earned them acclaim in both national and international media.

Ying is now the quartet in residence at Eastman School of Music in New York.

Turtle Island’s roots began in the mind of Balakrishnan, who started the group as an offshoot of creative brainstorming for his 1983 master’s thesis. It began as a solo compositional vehicle for the violinist, who said he played all parts of each song into a tape deck and later combined them. But in 1985, “the right people showed up,” and Turtle Island was born.

Danny Seidenberg of the Turtle Island string Quartet gives students from Lawrence Alternative High School a sample of his group's musical talent Wednesday at Holcomb Park Recreation Center. Turtle Island will play with the Ying Quartet on Sunday at the Lied Center. Last week the musicians did residence work with young players in Lawrence public schools.

Snakes and Ladders

The piece Balakrishnan composed for the Lied Center has three movements. The first, “Sri-Jo,” is based on the idea of love and an open heart, he said.

“The mode I’m using is raga in Indian music,” he said. “It’s not something a westerner would normally associate with that emotion, but it evokes it.”

The next movement, “Doughboy,” is meant to depict the feeling of being stuck in a dark, sad place where you’re perfectly comfortable, he said.

Finally, “Snakes and Ladders” (the name for the Indian precursor to Milton Bradley’s Chutes and Ladders board game) is modeled after the climbing and crashing movement of the game.

¢¢¢¢

“It’s a lot of changes of mood and textures,” Balakrishnan said. “That’s kind of like real life, the shifting moods of life.”

The two quartets will perform the piece as an octet. The program also will include “Quartet in F major” by Maurice Ravel (performed by Ying), selections to be announced from the stage (performed by Turtle Island), “Julie-O” by Mark Summer (a cello duo performed by Mark Summer and David Ying), “Variations on an Unoriginal Theme” by Evan Price (performed by the octet) and “La Creation Du Monde” by Darius Milhaud with arrangements by Danny Seidenberg (performed by the octet).

Harmonius innovation

In addition to residency work the groups conducted in Lawrence schools last week, they also took part in a community forum on Saturday called “Harmonious Innovation: Risk-Taking for a Better Community.”

The forum pulled together the eight musicians and community leaders ” such as Lawrence Schools Supt. Randy Weseman, Mayor Sue Hack and County Administrator Craig Weinaug ” to talk about what it takes to make meaningful changes in public life.

“It’s always great to work with people of other disciplines and other walks of life, so to speak, and talk about what is real for us and what would be real for them,” Balakrishnan said. “String quartets are good models to learn from because they involve a lot of working with interpersonal issues and how to have a group that’s successful that represents everyone’s aesthetic.”