The Jake Schepps Quintet has made a name as an ensemble with an intrepid, imaginative vision for contemporary stringband music. Although we are all students of traditional and progressive bluegrass styles, the JSQ has stretched beyond those boundaries. In 2011, Jake released an album of music by Béla Bartók arranged for string band. In 2012 the quintet will premiere a new commission by Marc Mellits, the first of its kind being a contemporary classical work written for 5-piece bluegrass stringband (banjo, mandolin, guitar, violin and bass). This stems from our belief that the traditional bluegrass ensemble is as sonorous and well-disciplined as a string quartet or jazz piano trio, yet relatively unexplored.