About the Artist Pianist Víkingur Ólafsson’s remarkable originality and powerful musical conviction have seen him, in just a few years, take the music world by storm to become one of the most sought-after artists of today. With a captivating ability to communicate both on and off-stage, Ólafsson made an unforgettable impact with the release of […]
After emerging as the Grand Prize winner of the 2017 M-Prize Competition, the largest prize for chamber music in the world, Russian Renaissance has firmly established itself as one of the most electrifying and exhilarating ensembles of today. Through stunning performances of everything from tango and folk to Classical and jazz, Russian Renaissance is redefining […]
Schubert Club Mix kicks off for the season at one of our audience’s favorite locations, the hip and stylish downtown Minneapolis warehouse-converted-event-space Aria. On stage is Scottish violinist Nicola Benedetti, Schubert Club's first annual Featured Artist, together with collaborative pianist Alexei Grynyuk. As a child and teenage prodigy, Nicola racked up award after award, and she hasn't slowed down. Today she is one of the most sought after violinists for solo and orchestral performances. Her Schubert Club Mix performance will explore Brahms's music and life story through the lens of the violin sonatas.
Join us at Aria for a high energy evening featuring Colin Currie, “the world’s finest and most daring percussionist” (The Spectator, 2013). The Guardian highlights his “athletic percussionism, compulsive showmanship and deep musicality.” His Schubert Club Mix program will feature a wide range of instruments and includes music based on stories by Gabriel García Márquez – interspersed with readings of the texts. Currie is as mesmerizing to watch as he is to listen to – and his broad array of percussion instruments make a fascinating theatrical set.
Brazilian-American vocalist, composer, and pianist Clarice Assad and her world-renowned father Sérgio Assad (guitar) will perform a jazz-inspired program primarily featuring music from their first recording together called Reliquia. In a review of this recording, All About Jazz states, “Clarice constantly captivates, whether singing in Portuguese, delivering wordless vocals, or taking to the piano bench, and Sérgio, likewise, manages to seduce with his every gesture on guitar.” Clarice’s rising reputation as a composer-performer who comfortably straddles the worlds of jazz, classical, and traditional Brazilian rhythms is quickly catching up with her father’s international prominence as one of the world’s great guitarists. This concert, the first ever Twin Cities performance by this duo, will be a testament to the bonds forged through birth and life, continually strengthened in every small and large gesture of love that takes place between a parent and child.
Join us for Alehouse Sessions, an energetic evening of English 17th-century tavern music. This nontraditional concert will give the audience a window into this tumultuous period through Purcell overtures, English sea shanties, and Scandinavian folk songs thrown in for good measure. These sessions have been hailed as ‘irresistible’ (The Times), ‘superb’ (The Scotsman) and ‘fabulously unrestrained’ (The Guardian), and they have diverted away from the traditional concert model by ‘creating the effect of a late night jamming session’ (BBC Music Magazine). Using their own arrangement of the tunes, the Barokksolistene ‘Alehouse Boys’ will be making their Twin Cities debut in a program combining humor, unrivalled virtuosity, and a flare for improvisation.
Roomful of Teeth is a Grammy-winning eight-person vocal project dedicated to mining the expressive potential of the human voice. They have studied Tuvan throat singing, yodeling, Hindustani music and other vocal techniques from around the world to shape their unique sound. The performance at Aria will include a world premiere of a new commission by experimental pop artist Nick Zammuto and the Minnesota premiere of group member Caroline Shaw’s Pulitzer Prize-winning composition, Partita for 8 Voices.
World-renowned Norwegian trumpeter, Tine Thing Helseth formed her ten-person (all female) brass ensemble in 2007 after she and some trumpet playing friends watched a string orchestra. They were inspired to recreate the same level of ensemble on brass instruments, playing great repertoire at the highest level possible. tenThing’s music are all original arrangements by Norwegian guitarist and arranger Jarle G. Storløkken. Their pieces (sometimes with choreography) span an eclectic range of repertoire from Grieg and Bizet to Piazzolla and Kurt Weill.