Spring Vibes: At the Crossroads of Classical Music, Jazz, & Folk
$30
- Emma Burge, violin
- Cassio Vianna, piano (jazz)
- Mark Hilliard Wilson, guitar
Frédéric Chopin — Selected works
George Gershwin — Selected works
Get ready for a mind-blowing musical extravaganza that blends the timeless elegance of classical, the soulful improvisation of jazz, and the traditional folk melodies in our own interpretation.
Are you interested to learn how different genres of music influence each other? Can you recognize Chopin's melody in the bossa nova hit How Insensitive, performed by Frank Sinatra and Sting? Are you curious to hear our own jazz variations on the themes of folk songs from Central Europe?
Join us for this listen-and-guess performance and recognize your favorite melodies. The program includes works of pre-jazz era composers with a huge impact on the jazz genre, classical music influenced by jazz, Bossa Nova favorites, jazz standards, and our own variations on the themes of Ukrainian and Polish folk songs. Together in one concert we will explore different dialects of the unifying language of music that brings together cultures and people.
Refreshments available.
About PNW Kobzar Project
PNW Kobzar Project continues the authentic Ukrainian kobzar tradition of story telling via the language of music and art songs.
Kobzar (Ukrainian кобзар) literally means 'kobza player', a performer on Ukrainian stringed instrument of the lute family, and more broadly — a performer of the musical material associated with the kobzar tradition. The professional kobzar tradition was established during the Hetmanate Era around the sixteenth century in Ukraine. Kobzars accompanied their singing with a musical instrument known as the kobza, bandura, or lira. Their repertoire primarily consisted of para-liturgical psalms and "kanty", and also included a unique epic form known as "dumas" (Ukrainian equivalent of epic ballads, literal translated to English as "thoughts").
Kobzardom in Ukraine is similar to Western European poet-musician tradition such as Celtic bards, Old Nord/Eddic scalds, French troubadours, and Greek kitharodes. In Ukraine the word kobzar is associated with the great national poet Taras Shevchenko who was greatly influenced by kobzar traditions. His most famous poetry collection is called Kobzar. Urkainians show Taras Shevchenko the deep respect to his contributions to Ukrainian language and literature by calling him Kobzar. In PNW Kobzar Project concerts, we will include art songs based on Taras Shevchenko’s lyrics as well as the instrumental chamber music inspired by his literary and artistic heritage.
In addition to artistic aspect, kobzars were also old Ukrainian tradition keepers and news spreaders while traveling town to town and village to village. They played the role of the social media independent from the state authorities. During the time of serf system introduced to Ukraine by the Russian Empire (1783-1861) kobzars were those few people in Ukraine who could travel and speak freely though both administrative state and religious authorities of the Russian Empire did everything possible to reduce the influence of kobzars.
https://pnwkobzarproject.bandzoogle.comAbout Emma Burge, violin
Violinist Emma Burge is an avid supporter of contemporary and new music, seeking to combine her classical training with improvisation. Emma is a third generation Suzuki violinist, whose grandparents Sandy and Joan Reuning were pivotal in bringing the Suzuki method to the U.S. Emma recently moved to Seattle from Boston, where she got a degree from the New England Conservatory and was an active freelancer/teacher. Because of her intense performance education, Emma has learned a lot about balance and how to use music as a positive force.
https://www.phoenixorch.org/emma-burge-violinAbout Cassio Vianna, piano (jazz)
About Mark Hilliard Wilson, guitar
Mark Hilliard Wilson is an active performer, teacher, and director of the Seattle Guitar Orchestra, which he founded in 1999. As cathedral guitarist at Seattle's St. James Cathedral, he has performed there weekly since 2006. Wilson has written or arranged more than 200 works, and avidly explores new venues for the performance of classical music while addressing contemporary issues through concert programming. Music has always been everything to Wilson, from the barrel organs he heard in his childhood in Holland to the symphony orchestras in Washington, DC and country bands in Weiser, Idaho. He continues to study and embrace the wonder of new places and the creativity of the wonderful artists of every stripe in the world.
https://markhilliardwilson.com/