C enterStage - Reston Community Center
C enterStage - Reston Community Center
C enterStage - Reston Community Center
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C<strong>enterStage</strong><br />
the<br />
2012-2013<br />
Professional Touring Artist Series<br />
A Flower is a<br />
Lovesome Thing<br />
Featuring the Turtle Island Quartet<br />
and Nellie McKay<br />
Wednesday<br />
October 30, 2013<br />
8:00 p.m.
<strong>Reston</strong> <strong>Community</strong> <strong>Center</strong> Presents<br />
A Flower is a lovesome thing<br />
Singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Nellie McKay joins forces with the two-time Grammy<br />
Award-winning Turtle Island Quartet to present a delightfully kaleidoscopic view of the music of<br />
Billie Holiday, Billy Strayhorn, and the Weimar cabaret of the 1920s. While the combination of voice<br />
and strings has long been a staple of the classical genre as well as of contemporary music, McKay’s<br />
talents on piano, mallets, and ukulele and Turtle Island’s famed innovative rhythmic techniques<br />
unleash an unprecedented range of possibilities. A healthy dose of original music - for which both<br />
McKay and the Turtle Island Quartet are renowned - rounds out this sweeping concert.<br />
Turtle Island Quartet<br />
Mateusz Smoczynski, Violin<br />
David Balakrishnan, Violin, Baritone Violin<br />
Benjamin von Gutzeit, Viola<br />
Mark Summer, Cello<br />
with guest<br />
Nellie McKay<br />
Vocals, Marimba, Piano & Ukulele<br />
The multi-award winning Turtle Island Quartet has released numerous recordings and toured<br />
internationally for more than a quarter of a century. The ensemble has collaborated with some of<br />
the most sought-after artists of our day including; Paquito d’Rivera, The Assad Duo, Cyrus Chestnut<br />
and Leo Kottke. McKay - who performed on Broadway in The Three Penny Opera - performs music<br />
of 1920s Berlin as well as jazz standards made famous by Billie Holiday. Some of these pieces<br />
transcend time and genre: well-known standards such as I Remember You, Mean To Me, and I Cover<br />
The Waterfront, to the more offbeat, such as Marlene Dietrich’s sultry version of Black Market, and<br />
Alabama Song, the German Cabaret tune revisited in modern times by the Doors. Also included is<br />
a touch of Doris Day, whose music was so evocatively revisited by McKay on her recent recording<br />
Normal as Blueberry Pie. Songs by the great Billy Strayhorn complete a night of intoxicating revelry.<br />
Tonight’s performance will be announced from the stage.<br />
There will be a short intermission.<br />
Turtle Island Quartet Recordings:<br />
Telarc, Koch International Classics, Windham Hill, Chandos, CC&C Records, GRP, BMG<br />
Turtle Island Quartet is represented by:<br />
Nellie McKay is represented by:<br />
2<br />
3
Bios<br />
Bios<br />
Its name derived from creation mythology found in Native American Folklore, the Turtle Island Quartet,<br />
since its inception in 1985, has been a singular force in the creation of bold, new trends in chamber music<br />
for strings. Winner of the 2006 and 2008 Grammy Awards for Best Classical Crossover category, Turtle<br />
Island Quartet fuses the classical quartet esthetic with contemporary American musical styles, and by<br />
devising a performance practice that honors both, the state of the art has inevitably been redefined.<br />
Cellist nonpareil Yo-Yo Ma has proclaimed Turtle Island to be “a unified voice that truly breaks new ground<br />
– authentic and passionate – a reflection of some of the most creative music-making today.”<br />
The Quartet’s birth was the result of violinist David Balakrishnan’s brainstorming explorations and<br />
compositional vision while writing his master’s thesis at Antioch University West. The journey has taken<br />
Turtle Island through forays into folk, bluegrass, swing, be-bop, funk, R&B, new age, rock, hip-hop, as well<br />
as music of Latin America and India …a repertoire consisting of hundreds of ingenious arrangements<br />
and originals. It has included over a dozen recordings on labels such as Windham Hill, Chandos, Koch<br />
and Telarc, soundtracks for major motion pictures, TV and radio credits such as The Today Show, All<br />
Things Considered, Prairie Home Companion and Morning Edition, feature articles in People and Newsweek<br />
magazines, and collaborations with famed artists such as clarinetist Paquito D’Rivera, vibraphonist Stefon<br />
Harris, guitar legends Leo Kottke and the Assad brothers, The Manhattan Transfer, pianists Billy Taylor,<br />
Kenny Barron, Cyrus Chestnut and Ramsey Lewis, singers Tierney Sutton and Nellie McKay, the Ying<br />
Quartet and the Parsons and Luna Negra Dance Companies.<br />
Another unique element of Turtle Island is their revival of venerable improvisational and compositional<br />
chamber traditions that have not been explored by string players for nearly 200 years. At the time of<br />
Haydn’s apocryphal creation of the string quartet form, musicians were more akin to today’s saxophonists<br />
and keyboard masters of the jazz and pop world, i.e., improvisers, composers, and arrangers. Each Turtle<br />
Island member is accomplished in these areas of expertise as well as having extensive conservatory<br />
training. Original members Balakrishnan and Mark Summer - arguably the finest cross-genre cellist of<br />
the modern age - are joined by the elite of the young alternative string players from Europe - Polish jazz<br />
violin phenom Mateusz Smoczynski, and violist Benjamin Von Gutzeit, of German descent, who recently<br />
completed a masters program in jazz studies at Manhattan School of Music.<br />
As Turtle Island members continue to refine their skills through the development of repertory by some of<br />
today’s cutting edge composers, through performances and recordings with major symphonic ensembles,<br />
and through a determined educational commitment, the Turtle Island Quartet stakes its claim as the<br />
quintessential ‘New World’ string quartet of the 21st century.<br />
For Turtle Island’s recent Telarc recording, Have You Ever Been…, they tackle works by legendary guitarist,<br />
songwriter and performer Jimi Hendrix, along with other compositions reflective of and inspired by<br />
Hendrix’s music including Turtle Island Quartet founder David Balakrishnan’s new composition Tree of Life,<br />
an exploration of the longstanding controversy that Darwin’s theory of evolution sparked – namely, the<br />
spirit world versus the natural world, religion versus science.<br />
David Balakrishnan (violin, baritone violin) graduated from UCLA with a<br />
B.A. in music composition and violin and earned a master’s degree in music composition at Antioch<br />
University West. The Turtle Island founder developed the template for the Turtle Island Quartet<br />
revolutionary compositional style—based on the principle of stylistic integration applied to bowed<br />
string instruments—that in addition to the group awards has earned him Grammy nominations in<br />
the arranging/composing categories and led to numerous grants, both from private sources such as<br />
conductor Marin Alsop, who commissioned his piece for violin and orchestra, Little Mouse Jumps, as well<br />
as national service organizations such as the National Endowment for the Arts and Meet The Composer<br />
foundations. In 2005 he received a MTC/ASOL “Music Alive” residency with the Nashville Chamber<br />
Orchestra for which he composed six orchestral works, the last being a concerto for Turtle Island cellist<br />
Mark Summer. The NCO also commissioned Balakrishnan’s composition Darkness Dreaming, which<br />
premiered in April 2004 with guitarists Sharon Isbin and John Jorgenson. His piece, Spider Dreams<br />
(1992), has been widely performed and recorded throughout the world by a diverse array of musical<br />
organizations, including a live recording by Turtle Island with the Detroit Symphony conducted by Neeme<br />
Järvi on Chandos Records. A 2002 commission awarded by a consortium of presenters headed by the<br />
Lied <strong>Center</strong> of Kansas resulted in a string octet entitled Mara’s Garden Of False Delights, which is featured<br />
on Turtle Island’s Grammy winning Telarc release, 4+Four. His most recent commission is again from the<br />
Lied <strong>Center</strong>, for which Balakrishnan composed a full-length work involving theatre, dance, poetry, video,<br />
and Turtle Island with the KU wind ensemble that is an artistic response to the socio/political issues<br />
concerning the various theories of evolution, both scientific and cultural, entitled The Tree Of Life.<br />
Mark Summer (cello) is a founding member of Turtle Island Quartet and is widely regarded,<br />
thanks not least to his phenomenal percussion and pizzicato techniques, as one of the outstanding<br />
cellists of our time. A graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music, and a recipient of their 2008<br />
Distinguished Alumnae award, Summer was a tenured member of the Winnipeg Symphony for<br />
three years, before leaving the orchestra to perform in several Canadian contemporary and Baroque<br />
ensembles, as well as his own group, The West-End String Band. Asked to perform at the Winnipeg Folk<br />
Festival in 1985, the group went on to record Summer’s original music for CBC Radio. That same year,<br />
Summer visited the Bay Area where he was invited by David Balakrishnan to help form the quartet.<br />
He continued to touch base with his classical roots, performing with the Chamber Symphony of San<br />
Francisco, the Oakland Symphony, Oakland Ballet, and the contemporary music ensemble, Earplay. In<br />
the 26 years since embarking on an improvisational musical odyssey, Summer has continued to develop<br />
a unique and multi-timbered style, which incorporates virtuoso jazz soloing, distinctive bass lines, and<br />
extensive percussive techniques adapted from the guitar, bass and drums. He has been the subject of<br />
feature articles in Strings and Bass Player magazines, and has published two pieces for solo cello, one of<br />
which, Julie-O, was recently featured on two episodes of NBC’s Parenthood. In addition to composing<br />
and performing with Turtle Island, Summer performed for several years in a trio with clarinet virtuoso<br />
Paquito D’Rivera, participating in the trio’s 2005 Grammy-nominated recording The Jazz Chamber Trio. He<br />
has been recorded for numerous motion picture soundtracks and performed and appeared on albums<br />
with singers Linda Ronstadt, Toni Childs, guitarist Jeff Tamelier of Tower of Power, saxophonist Kirk<br />
Whalum, and guitarist Will Ackerman. In 2011, Mark made his debut as an orchestral soloist, premiering<br />
David Balakrishan’s cello concerto, Force of Nature. His more notable cello exploits include performing<br />
the Brahms Clarinet Trio in a sandstone grotto by the banks of the Colorado River in Moab, Utah, and a<br />
performance on Taos Mountain at 11,000 feet on a cello made of ice.<br />
4<br />
5
Bios<br />
Bios<br />
Mateusz Smoczynski (violin) is a graduate of the Frederic Chopin Academy of Music in<br />
Warsaw, Poland. A student of Andrzej Gebski, he made his jazz debut in 1999 in Jazz Camping Kalatowki<br />
with the Jacek Namyslowski Quintet. Mateusz has collaborated with such renowned Polish musicians<br />
as Urszula Dudziak, Tomasz Stanko, Krzesimir Debski, Zbigniew Namyslowski and Jaroslaw Smietana.<br />
Together with Joachim Kuhn, Janusz Stefanski and Bronislaw Suchanek, he took part in the premiere<br />
of legendary jazz violinist Zbigniew Seifert’s Jazz Concerto for Violin, Symphony Orchestra and Rhythm<br />
section. Mateusz leads his own quintet with which he recorded his first CD Inspirations, dedicated to his<br />
two biggest music influences, John Coltrane and Zbigniew Seifert. After the success of his first album<br />
in 2007, Mateusz received the Minister of Culture and National Heritage Scholarship, and in June 2008<br />
was awarded “Jazz Oscar” in the category “Music Lovers’ Hope of 2007”. In 2008, his second recording<br />
Expressions was released to popular acclaim. In 2009, Mateusz formed a band with his brother Jan on<br />
Hammond organ and the Russian drum star Alexander Zinger called New Trio. In 2010 they released<br />
their first CD Simultaneous Abstractions which was nominated for Best Recording Debut of the Year for a<br />
Fryderyki award (“the Polish Grammy”). That same year, Mateusz co-founded the Atom String Quartet,<br />
the very first Polish jazz string quartet. They have recorded two CDs, Fade In and Places, and received first<br />
prize for the Bielska Zadymka Jazzowa Competition, the most important jazz competition in Poland. The<br />
Atom Quartet was also nominated in 2012 for a Fryderyki award. In 2011, Mateusz had the opportunity<br />
to play with pianist Richie Beirach, trumpeter Ack van Rooyen, bassist Glen Moore, and drummer Janusz<br />
Stefanski, performing at the Zbigniew Seifert in Memoriam-Berlin Festival.<br />
Benjamin von Gutzeit (viola) was born into a musical family. One of his sisters recently<br />
became the principal cellist of the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, and his father is the director of<br />
the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria. He began playing the viola at the age of four, beginning on a very<br />
small violin that was outfitted with viola strings. Taught by his father until he turned 12, he then studied<br />
with Emile Cantor, the viola player of the Orpheus String Quartet. In 1992 and 1994 he won first prize<br />
in the final of the German youth Competition Jugend Musiziert; the 1994 win led to a concert tour in<br />
Japan performing in a string quartet at the age of 12. When he turned 15, he developed an interest in<br />
popular music as well and started to play the electric bass in jazz bands. In 1997, he studied for one year<br />
as a student at the Bruckner Conservatory in Linz. While attending the Gymnasium in Austria, in 2001 he<br />
began his jazz studies with Jazz violinist Andi Schreiber from Vienna, later moving to the Netherlands in<br />
2004 to study jazz at the Conservatory of Amsterdam with Dutch saxophone icon Ferdinand Povel and<br />
guitarist Jesse van Ruller. While living in Holland, he took an active part in the Dutch jazz and improvised<br />
music scene and performed on numerous festivals such as the famed North Sea Jazz Festival. In 2010<br />
he was awarded a full scholarship to attend the Manhattan School of Music, where he has pursued his<br />
Masters degree until the present. He has worked with teachers Phil Markowitz, Garry Dial and John Riley.<br />
Benjamin has performed and recorded with many great musicians including jazz violinist Mark Feldman,<br />
electronic music virtuoso Matthew Herbert, cellist Ernst Reijseger, composer and bandleader Martin<br />
Fondse and jazz saxophonist Dave Liebman.<br />
Nellie McKay (vocals, marimba, piano and ukulele) Hailed by The New Yorker<br />
as “funny and touching, ceaselessly clever and scarily talented,” McKay just finished an extended run in<br />
the off-Broadway hit Old Hats (winner of the Lucille Lortel award for Outstanding Alternative Theatrical<br />
Experience and Drama Desk award for Outstanding Revue), and has written two acclaimed musical<br />
biographies, Silent Spring: It’s Not Nice to Fool Mother Nature (an exploration of environmental pioneer<br />
Rachel Carson), and I Want to Live! ( the story of Barbara Graham, the third woman executed in the gas<br />
chamber at San Quentin). “McKay’s virtually unlimited gifts as a singer, songwriter, actress, pianist,<br />
ukulele player, mimic, satirist and comedian into a show that is much deeper than its surface might<br />
suggest,” writes The New York Times. “In the most lighthearted way they evoke a heartless environment of<br />
social injustice in which people who fall through the cracks are invisible to everyone else.”<br />
McKay produced her critically acclaimed, debut double album Get Away From Me with Beatles’ engineer<br />
Geoff Emerick, followed by Pretty Little Head, Obligatory Villagers, Normal as Blueberry Pie: A Tribute to<br />
Doris Day, (“among the killer overhauls of American standards” - The New York Times), and her latest,<br />
Home Sweet Mobile Home. She has won a Theatre World Award for her portrayal of Polly Peachum in the<br />
Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera and performed onscreen in the film PS I Love You, as well<br />
as writing original music for the Rob Reiner film Rumor Has It and contributing to The New York Times<br />
Book Review.<br />
Her music has also been heard on the TV shows Mad Men, Weeds, Grey’s Anatomy, NCIS, Privileged and<br />
Nurse Jackie, and Nellie has appeared on numerous TV shows including Late Show with David Letterman<br />
(with the Brooklyn Philharmonic), The View, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, Late Late Show with Craig<br />
Ferguson, Live with Regis & Kelly and CBS Saturday Morning. In 2010, the Chase Brock Experience produced<br />
a ballet of her third album, Obligatory Villagers, while Nellie recently finished contributing to the<br />
soundtrack for the HBO series Boardwalk Empire.<br />
A recipient of The Humane Society’s Doris Day Music Award in recognition of her dedication to animal<br />
rights, Nellie is known as an outspoken and fierce advocate for feminism, civil rights and other deeply felt<br />
progressive ideals.<br />
6<br />
7
Next On Stage<br />
David Henry Hwang<br />
Playwright, Screenwriter, Librettist<br />
Sunday, November 10, 2013<br />
3:00 p.m.<br />
Tickets available online at:<br />
www.restoncommunitycenter.com<br />
$15(<strong>Reston</strong>)/$30(Non-<strong>Reston</strong>)<br />
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Board of Governors<br />
William G. Bouie<br />
Lisa Ehrhardt<br />
William Keefe<br />
Roger Lowen<br />
Beverly Cosham, Chair<br />
William Penniman<br />
Cathy Vivona<br />
Vicky Wingert<br />
Gerald Zavala<br />
Leila Gordon<br />
Executive Director<br />
Thomas Ward<br />
Deputy Director<br />
RCC Arts & Events Staff<br />
Paul Douglas Michnewicz<br />
Arts & Events Director<br />
Linda Ifert<br />
Technical Director<br />
Mark Brutsché<br />
Assistant Technical Director<br />
Patrick Laney<br />
Assistant Technical Director<br />
Laura Reichert<br />
Technician<br />
Kevin Danaher<br />
<strong>Community</strong> Events Director<br />
Cheri Danaher<br />
Arts Education Director<br />
Gloria Morrow<br />
Arts Education Assistant<br />
William D. Parker<br />
Box Office Manager<br />
Brian Biel, Shannon Catlett & Patrick Pacak<br />
Box Office Assistants<br />
Alison Reinfeld<br />
House Manager<br />
BeBe Nguyen<br />
Director of Communications<br />
Cristin Bratt<br />
Public Information Officer<br />
Samantha Pallo<br />
Graphic Artist