Category Archives: jazz

Summer Music Institute at BGSU boosts young musicians’ skills

BOWLING GREEN, O.—Bowling Green State University’s critically acclaimed Summer Music Institute is open for registration. Presented by the College of Musical Arts, the institute features nine weeklong sessions, ranging from woodwinds to voice, brass and musical theater. Students will work with BGSU music faculty and guest artists who will challenge and inspire in a college setting. Register at BGSU.edu/SMI before April 30 for $40 off the registration fee.

Session one (June 14-19) includes Piano Camp, Double Reed Camp, Recording Camp, String Camp and Musical Theater. During Piano Camp, students receive private lessons, participate in master classes, play piano duos, attend recitals and perform. In Double Reed Camp, students get hands-on experience making reeds, performing in master classes and honing techniques on bassoon and oboe. Students signed up for Recording Camp, for ages 15-18, will experience a professional sound studio from both sides of the glass, performing and coordinating a recording. String students will receive coaching from the BGSU string faculty and special guests. Advanced string students are encouraged to apply for the Honors String Quartet. Members of the Honors String Quartet receive a full scholarship to cover housing, meals and the registration fee. Musical Theater Camp will focus on audition techniques.

Session two (June 21-26) comprises Brass Camp, with ensembles, private lessons, seminars and performances; Super Sax Camp, which explores both classical and improvised jazz music in private lessons, chamber rehearsals, improvisation clinics and concerts; Flute Camp, whose students will receive private lessons, seminars and master classes as well as breathing, sound, articulation and technique lessons; and Vocal Arts Camp, which educates campers in diction, vocal interpretation, audition techniques, stage deportment and other performance skills. Vocal students must be entering grade 10 or higher.

Students may commute to camp or stay on campus during the week. No audition is required. Recording students must be at least 15 years of age, though exceptions can be made.

Check-in times for each camp are the first day of camp on Sunday between 1 and 3 p.m. For more information and to register, visit BGSU.edu/smi or call 419-372-2506.

Chamber Music remix

Project Trio

 

By DAVID DUPONT, Sentinel News Editor

Project Trio doesn’t have the usual classical chamber ensemble biography.

The musicians –  flutist Greg Pattillo, cellist Eric Stephenson and bassist Peter Seymour – were “all good buddies” at the Cleveland Institute of Music in the late-1990s.

Seymour said in a recent telephone interview that they loved playing together, both within the walls of the conservatory and “extracurricular” gigs where they explored rock, hip hop and jazz.

After graduation and grad degrees, the three headed off on the difficult path of making musical careers for themselves. Still they got together when they could, and when they could they talked. Those conversations turned to the eclectic mix of music they had always enjoyed.

Seymour said they wanted “our own little project that we could do a couple times a year and make music we really wanted to do.”

After lots of talk, in 2005 they played their first show. Then in 2007, Pattillo posted a video, “Inspector Gadget Remix.” It featured his distinctive beatbox technique for flute which  incorporates vocal sounds and percussive effects into his playing.

The video exploded. It has now had 26 million views.

On the basis of that the trio was able to focus on  Project Trio full time. Since then the trio has toured worldwide. Project Trio will perform Nov. 22 at 8 p.m. in Kobacker Hall as part of Bowling Green State University’s Festival Series. Tickets are $15 and $5 for BGSU students. Visit bgsu.edu/arts or call 419-372-8171.

That video represented a lot of hard work, Seymour said, and it took more hard work to exploit its popularity to show presenters an audience existed for the ensemble’s twisted blend of musical styles.

The musicians match their stylish repertoire with an appealing stage manner.

“There’s no question that concert music, instrumental music is changing, and that engaging the audience is one of the most important things we do as chamber and jazz musicians,” Seymour said. “There’s a lot of cool new music going on in classical, jazz and instrumental music and we’re trying to add our voice to that.”

They put high priority in connecting with audiences. “We speak to the audience regularly,” Seymour said. “We smile. We have fun. We dance.”

That’s not an act though, “it’s who we are.”

“We love to perform, we love to share music with people,” he said.

As the band arranges and composes new material “we truly think about what the audience  might like.” That prompts adventures into new genres – Brazilian choro music or Indian ragas.

“We’re always trying to push forward.”

And there’s one way to test those experiments: “The only place you can find out if an audience will like stuff is to bring it to the stage and see what happens.”

Seymour said the Bowling Green audience can expect a mix of what the trio has to offer. That includes off-beat versions of classical masterpieces such as “Peter and the Wolf” and the finale to the opera “William Tell.”

The show will include original music, as well as the sound of jazz composer Charles Mingus, and some hip hop, Seymour said. “Truly something for everyone.”

 

PROJECT Trio Makes a splash at BGSU

Project Trio

“Toledo’s classical music scene next week will focus intensely on youth music education — both performers designing programs to interest and inspire young audiences, and youthful performers revealing their capabilities in concerts and recitals.

Topping the list is Project Trio.

If you’ve never thought of the flute, the cello, and the bass as percussion instruments, then you’ve clearly missed out on this young and energetic musical trio. Energetic young New Yorkers playing on classical-music oriented instruments are ready to free Northwest Ohio of such limited thinking.

The players — bassist Peter Seymour, cellist Eric Stephenson, and flutist Greg Patillo — who met while studying at the Cleveland Institute of Music, have applied a fresh new face and sound to the idea of chamber music through clever improvisation and fresh arrangements of standards.

“Absolute technical masters of their instruments — Patillo is renowned as the leading beatbox flutist in the United States, Stephenson is a regular in major chamber performances — they amp up the energy playing together, mixing styles from classical, jazz, urban, and original works with skill and wit.

Project Trio is coming to Bowling Green State University for a residency and to Toledo for several youth concerts Nov. 19-22. Their big marquee appearance will be at 8 p.m. Nov. 22 in Kobacker Hall. Tickets are $5-$15 at 419-372-8171. A preconcert talk for ticketholders will start at 7 p.m. in nearby Bryan Hall.”

Read more at toledoblade.com

New release from Jazz Studies Director David Bixler featured on WBGO Radar

SlinkSlink, the latest recording from Auction Project, has been featured on WBGO Radar in anticipation of the album’s September 15 release.

Auction Project is BGSU Jazz Studies Director David Bixler on alto sax, Heather Martin Bixler on violin, Arturo O’Farrill on piano, Carlo De Rosa on bass and Vince Cherico on drums. Mike Stern makes a guest appearance on electric guitar.

Of the group’s unique musical style, WBGO lauds the album for “stak[ing] out uncommon musical territory, a place where Celtic reels merge with gospel and funk, as if it were the most natural thing on earth”.

Listen to Slink and read more of WBGO’s praise for the new release.

David Mirarchi, Freshman ’14, featured in The Scranton Times Tribune

Noted teen’s next gig: Talented college freshman, Eynon resident well on road to career as jazz saxophonist

“Back in late July, some of the region’s best jazz musicians converged at Scranton High School to bring the legendary Johnny Richards composition “Cuban Fire!” to life.

The vast majority of players in conductor Pat Marcinko Jr.’s 26-piece Upper Valley Winds Latin Jazz Orchestra had decades of accumulated chops. But there was some easy-to-spot youth in the saxophonists’ station that night, in the form of Eynon resident David Mirarchi.

Mr. Mirarchi is just 18, and only a few months out of Valley View High School. But, on that night, he played with the panache and dexterity of an old pro.”

read more on The Times-Tribune