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| | Arts Calendar / December 14 / Concerts |
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 With the release of her first chart-topping single" Down on my knees" in 2006, Ayo's fresh and powerful melody won right away the heart of the public. Born in Germany with Nigerian origins, Joy Olasumibo Ogunmakin was musically reborn in France, gaining instant fame as Ayo. While happily combining mixed legacies, with musical influences such as Bob Marley and Donny Hathaway, Ayo was immediately spotted as a one of a kind artist in the 21st century. She wrote her first songs at the age of thirteen, while she was supposed to be studying classical composition. Her talents were spotted by pop-music producers who hired her for a short-lived girls band. She left the group and moved to Hamburg in the early 2000. In Hamburg, she recorded with her best friend the first version of "Down on My Knees", using a cupboard as a sound studio. While recording, she tells her friend that some day, this song will be the first single of her album. In 2006 the prophecy came true, with the release of "Joyful". Her first twelve track collection hit sales of more than 400000 copies: amazing sales figures for an album wrapped up in only five days. Fame and recognition had been knocking at Ayo's door and she certainly wasn't one not to make the most of it. She didn't buy a brand new Mercedes Benz. She became a Unicef ambassador. For her long-awaited third album, Ayo took advantage of several months of touring to start writing on the road. Then she went off for a two month holiday in Jamaica and when she came back, she was pregnant. Along with this good news, inspiration kicked back in, with a new CD to be named after her daughter, Billie-Eve. This album is more complex and richer than the first two, featuring powerfully emotional music highlighted by the talents of a few prestigious guests. The album delivers varied musical styles, ranging from reggae to psychedelic rock through blues and the deepest kind of soul, all supported by the most powerful and intense lyrics she has ever written. Each track deals with deeply rooted emotions in a very open-hearted way. Today far from any kind of trendy dictate, free from any featuring showbiz or diva attitude, Ayo stands out as a universal artist, an utterly sincere singer with a genuine heart. In October 2013 Ayo released Ticket To The World produced by Jay Newland. Recorded live, its prolific collection of sixteen songs breathes sincerity and elegance. Beginning with the cover photo, taken (like all the liner photos) at the huge Chateau Rouge African market in the heart of Paris: style in the ghetto. Turning to the music, with the very first notes of "Fire" with its whiff of folk-rock insurrection, the stage is set. This a revolution in a velvet glove, inspired by passion and powerful emotions. "For me, it's all about the soul. I wrote "Fire" during my last stay in New York, just when the riots were beginning in London, not too long before the Olympic Games. Everything was changing… and not necessarily for the better. Music isn't just about entertainment, it can also be a weapon to fight injustice. Used the right way, music can spark revolution." More info
RED Club  |
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19:30 | From Baroque to Present Days |
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19:00 | Moscow Soloists Chamber Ensemble |
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The Moscow Soloists Chamber Ensemble conducted Yuri Bashmet performs "The Seasons" - four concertos for violin, strings and cembalo by Vivaldi, Andante Cantabile for viola and strings and Serenade for string orchestra by Tchaikovsky. Soloists: Yuri Bashmet (viola), Sergey Krylov (violin). The Moscow Soloists chamber ensemble was founded by the world renowned violist Yuri Bashmet in 1992 including young string players nominated by their professors as the most accomplished and gifted graduates of the Moscow Conservatory. Moscow Soloists has established itself, in the words of the international press, as "one of the best in the world" ("Davar", Israel), "the voice of the nation" ("IL Tempo", Italy). The ensemble has performed in forty countries on five continents and regularly tours Europe, America, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, appearing in such prestigious concert venues as Carnegie Hall in New York, Musikverein in Vienna, Concertgebow in Amsterdam, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Philharmonic Hall in Berlin, Barbican in London, Tivoli in Copenhagen, Cite de la Music in Paris, Academia Santa Cecilia in Rome, and many others. The repertory of the Moscow Soloists is rich and diverse, comprised of masterpieces from the Classical canon, the works of contemporary composers, and works from the past which are less frequently performed. The programs of the Moscow Soloists are often marked by premieres of interesting and challenging new works by living composers. Expanding the repertoire for string orchestra is part of the mission of the group. Sergey Krylov was opened to the musical world by Mstislav Rostropovitch who said about his young colleague: "I think Sergey Krylov enters today the five best violinists of the world." The musician performed at such prestigious venues as Berlin and Munich Philharmonics, the Musikverein and Konzerthaus halls in Vienna, Radio France Auditorium in Paris, Megaron in Athens, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, La Scala theater in Milan, as well as at music festivals in Santander and Granada, at the festival "Prague Spring".
Tchaikovsky Concert Hall |
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 Crossover violinist Vanessa Mae born in Singapore to an English father and a Chinese mother. At age three she took up the piano; at four her parents divorced, and she and her mother moved to England. At five, she switched from piano to violin, studying with Lin Yao Ji at the Central Conservatory in Beijing and Felix Andrievsky at the Royal College of Music in London. At nine, Vanessa Mae made her concert debut with the Philharmonia Orchestra and toured England playing the Tchaikovsky concerto, with her mother, Pamela Nicholson, acting as co-manager. At 12 she toured with the London Mozart Players, and at 13, she began her recording career. Her early recordings have been repackaged by Angel as The Classical Collection 1. Her breakthrough disc, The Violin Player, bowed on the charts in fall 1995, featuring a "Toccata and Fugue" based on Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor and incorporating wailing electric guitar and a pumping, synthetic dance beat. The Violin Player was made with entirely commercial intentions, and the promotional material circulating at the time did nothing to understate the extraordinary allure of the young artist. The notorious "wet T-shirt" poses that appeared in the CD booklet and video raised eyebrows among commentators in the U.S., who published articles roundly condemning the classical music industry for exploiting children and flirting with obscenity. Despite the negative publicity, several of the tracks on The Violin Player were adopted into the mainstream of the dance club scene in Europe and Asia, and the disc went on to sell in excess of three million copies worldwide. In 1996, Vanessa Mae won the Best New Female Artist distinction at the BRIT Awards; she was the first classical artist to do so. Since the release of The Violin Player, Vanessa-Mae has gone on to amass an international legion of admirers through touring, recording and television appearances; her popularity is especially strong in Asia. She has just as easily inspired hostility and outright rejection on the part of her colleagues in the world of classical music. Many complain that she is a half-developed talent who is using her good looks and the pop promotional machine to make her a star at the expense of the classical tradition. Vanessa-Mae claims that she doesn't listen to critics and has opined that "to have an ordinary Classical career would have been just a bit too lazy." However, her releases after The Violin Player have been a mixed bag, as she attempts to find a niche somewhere between the classical repertoire and her natural acumen for club dance mixes, others of which have circulated widely in Asia. There is one standout among her later recordings; the China Girl disc, in which she gets to the heart of the Gang Chen Butterfly Lovers violin concerto. Gramophone, a magazine usually known for its harsh treatment of crossover artists, allowed that "this whole collection makes agreeably easy listening." In 1998, Vanessa-Mae made her acting debut in the Hallmark Television movie Arabian Nights. In 1999, Vanessa Mae and her mother, Pamela Nicholson, had a parting of the ways over issues relating to her management, and the following year Vanessa Mae revealed to a reporter that she was being harassed by a stalker. Among the first classical artists to utilize MIDI programming technology in works for public consumption, Vanessa Mae has added a lively new aspect to the debate about the relevance of classical music in an era dominated by the pop music marketplace. In Moscow on the threshold of Christmas Vanessa Mae accompanied by string orchestra and chorus will perform a romantic and fabulous program including compositions by Bach, Vivaldi, Paganini. More info
Crocus City Hall |
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