Carla Kihlstedt is the violinist in the Tin Hat Trio and has also collaborated with a variety of avant-garde and jazz musicians. Kihlstedt majored in classical violin performance at the Oberlin Conservatory and went on to become a prominent performer in both classical and improvised music, playing with artists like John Zorn and Roscoe Mitchell and recording with Eugene Chadbourne, the Grassy Knoll, and Tom Waits. She also appeared on Phillip Glass's series Music at the Anthology, sings, collaborated with choreographer Jo Kreiter, and is a graphic designer/illustrator as well. Kihlstedt played with a '90s Bay Area band, Charming Hostess, and co-founded the chamber jazz group Tin Hat Trio with accordionist Rob Burger and guitarist Mark Orton. The group's music is a unique blend of structure, improvisation, and contemporary classical, with folk, world, and jazz elements. The Tin Hat Trio's recording debut, Memory Is an Elephant, came out in early 1999 on Angel Records, and Helium followed in spring 2000.