born on april 3, 1958 in encino, ca, summer grew up in los angeles, california playing piano, guitar and, from the age of nine, cello. from the beginning he was very interested in alternative genres, and as a teenager playing in a rock band called the purple testament, later known as the plague. summer studied cello with edwin geber of the los angeles philharmonic, then with geber’s wife gretchen geber, and graduated from the cleveland institute of music, continuing his studies with the geber family with stephen geber as a cello performance major. after conservatory, summer worked in the winnipeg symphony orchestra for three years. looking for alternative genres, he went on to play in an assortment of alternative ensembles until, in winnipeg, he met the violinist darol anger. shortly after, he was invited by david balakrishnan and anger to join turtle island, and moved to the san francisco bay area in 1985 to perform permanently with the band. summer left the band in 2015 to pursue a solo career. in 2011, summer made his solo concerto debut with the alexandria symphony, performing balakrishnan's "force of nature", written especially for him. he has lived in the town of novato, outside of san francisco since 2009.