Neither Wilner Baptiste nor Kevin Sylvester had any interest in learning to play a stringed instrument while growing up. But Sylvester's mom enrolled him in a violin class after he got into trouble, and Baptiste mistakenly got placed in a violin class instead of one for saxophone. Today, they are Black Violin, classically trained musicians who have bridged the gap between classical and popular music. Going by the stage names Wil B. and Kev Marcus, they've performed with Kanye West and Aerosmith and at President Barack Obama's January 2013 inaugural dinner. They've collaborated with Alicia Keys and have performed for more than 100,000 students in North America and Europe in the past year, espousing accessible music education for youngsters. When they come to Genesee Theatre on Oct. 1, their goal is to unite young and old, lovers of all kinds of music and people of all different races through their music. It's part of their Unity Tour 2016. "With all things that are going on in our society, we just felt like we had to come up with a name that represented what we represented," said Baptiste, who plays viola in the duo. READ THE FULL News-Sun - Chicago Tribune ARTICLE

 

Ukulele player Jake Shimabukuro has announced a new concert on Friday, October 14 at The Republik in Honolulu, HI to celebrate the release of his new album Nashville Sessions. 'Hawaii News Now' talked to Jake about the new CD; it features eleven tracks. Nashville Sessions is Jake's first album of all original songs. At the suggestion of his manager, Jake went into a Nashville studio this past January to jam with two top Nashville session players, Jake's bassist Nolan Verner and drummer Evan Hutchings. "At first I was hesitant," Shimabukuro admits. "‘We're just going to go in and jam? Really? With nothing prepared?' I never dreamed we would leave the studio six days later with a full album."  Jake said: "After many years of working with friends Milan Bertosa, Noel Okimoto, Dean Taba, and Michael Grande in Hawaii, it was a bit scary for me to fly over to Nashville and record with different people. But being in a different environment, out of my comfort zone, challenged me in different ways and I think the new recording reflects that - especially the compositions. Overall it was a positive experience and I learned a lot from it. I am looking forward to sharing it with my friends and family in Hawaii!" We also reflected on the life and times of Hawaii Musicians and Na Hoku Hanohano Award Winners Ernie Cruz Jr. and Guy Cruz who recently passed away within days of each other.  Guy was a bandmate of Jake's when they were part of the group "Colon"; Jake also mentioned that Ernie was part of the Ka'au Crater Boys, which Jake and his Pure Heart band members looked up to. WATCH THE Hawaii News Now VIDEO

 

Some might say that jazz and country music belong on different continents. Yet at the opening night of his alma mater's annual Berklee Beantown Jazz Festival, John Scofield demonstrated that each genre is merely an island in a musician's pond and that bridges can be built to connect them. From the abstract unaccompanied guitar to the organ chords over syncopated drumming and the jazzier solos, the inherent nuance of the 10-song set list kept the spectators lively and won Scofield a standing ovation. Scofield released his new album, "Country for Old Men," on the day of the concert to high expectations: His previous record, "Past Present," won the 2016 Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Album and was nominated for another award. Nevertheless, there was no evident pressure in the room as Scofield and his bandmates-drummer Bill Stewart, bassist Steve Swallow, and pianist and organist Larry Goldings-masterfully captured the calming spirit of country balladry and the vivid energy of western rock and roll. READ THE FULL Harvard Crimson REVIEW

 

Itzhak Perlman, greeted with a cheering, standing ovation from a capacity crowd Sunday night at Dominion Arts Center's Carpenter Theatre in the opening concert of the Richmond Symphony's new season, delivered an affectionate account of Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor. Perlman's performance was hardly lacking in brilliance - who else mines as much tonal silver from a fiddle? - but this interpretation was more memorable for its songfulness and seamless phrasing in the central andante movement and its almost giddy playfulness in the finale.  Photo by Jay Paul READ THE FULL Richmond Times-Dispatch REVIEW

 

The opening program for the Boston Symphony Orchestra's 2016-2017 season was all-Russian, and even without any Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, or Rachmaninoff on the bill, it was a memorable evening, as BSO music director Andris Nelsons offered a fresh perspective on works by Shostakovich, Prokofiev, and Mussorgsky. The opening flourish was Shostakovich's six-minute "Festive Overture," which he wrote in 1954 for a concert at Moscow's Bolshoi Theatre to commemorate the 37th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution. The piece, which he's reported to have composed in just three days, is bookended by fanfares; in between, a theme from the composer's "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsenk District" and the influence of the Overture to Glinka's "Russlan and Ludmilla" are both palpable. READ THE FULL Boston Globe review READ THE Harvard Crimson CLICK HERE FOR The Boston Musical Intelligencer

 

The London Contemporary Orchestra with Terry Riley on piano and Gyan on guitar came armed with bassoon, double bass, chamber organ, a drummer, two percussionists and three vocalists, with each musician using instinct to guide them forward. The second half was the thing: Riley's groundbreaking work In C, a modern masterpiece that starts with a throbbing C note and builds into a trance-like, shapeshifting whole. Hailed for its simplicity - each musician has the same sequence of 53 melodic motifs, to do with as they please - it's a piece that begs reinterpretation, that keeps itself fresh (Africa Express with Damon Albarn and Brian Eno recorded a version).  Small flourishes - a bow on a metal spiral, a hand up the side of a tambourine - overlapped; moments of transcendence came and went. The climax, a wild variation in volume, saw the piece finish abruptly. Leaving, for the briefest of moments before the ovation, a real sensation of peace. READ THE FULL Evening Standard REVIEW

 

Tuesday Musical's 2016-17 Main Stage Season opens Tuesday, Sept. 27, 7:30 p.m. in EJ Thomas Hall with the Emerson String Quartet's 40th anniversary celebration and world premiere of English composer Mark-Anthony Turnage's "Shroud." The Akron audience will hear the world premiere of "Shroud" before performances of the piece at Lincoln Center in New York City and Wigmore Hall in London. Tuesday Musical is a co-commissioner of the piece, along with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts, among others. Acclaimed by Fortune magazine as "arguably the world's best group of chamber musicians," the Emerson String Quartet has amassed an unparalleled list of achievements over three decades: more than 30 recordings, nine Grammys (including two for Best Classical Album), three Gramophone Awards, the Avery Fisher Prize, Musical America's "Ensemble of the Year" and collaborations with many of the greatest artists of our time. READ THE FULL Akronist ARTICLE