Press contact (Vieaux): Christina Jensen PR
646.536.7864 | [email protected]
Guitarist Jason Vieaux
Performs the World Premiere of
Vivian Fung’s Twist
Friday, April 25 at 7:30pm (World Premiere)
World Cafe Live | 3025 Walnut Street | Philadelphia, PA
Tickets: $16 General, $11 Students at 215-222-1400 or http://bit.ly/1nnw3Iv
Sunday, April 27 at 7:00pm (New York Premiere)
Le Poisson Rouge | 158 Bleeker Street | New York, NY
Tickets: $20/$25 Seated, $15/$20 Standing, $75 VIP Box
at 212.505.FISH or http://bit.ly/1fFFJEg
“among the elite of today’s classical guitarists” – Gramophone
Jason Vieaux: www.jasonvieaux.com
Philadelphia, PA; New York, NY— On Friday, April 25 at 7:30pm, celebrated guitarist Jason Vieaux will perform the world premiere of Vivian Fung’s Twist at World Cafe Live Philadelphia (3025 Walnut Street). The New York premiere will follow that Sunday, April 27 at 7:00pm at Le Poisson Rouge (158 Bleeker). The concerts feature world premieres of works commissioned by violinist Kristin Lee for pairings of violin with another instrument. Five award-winning composers bring the distinct sounds, styles and backgrounds of their native countries to the pieces they’ve written. In addition to Fung’s Twist written for Jason Vieaux, composer/performers include Andy Akiho, steelpan; Jakob Ciupinski, theramin; Shobana Raghavan, South Indian singing; Bridget Kibbey, harp; and Patrick Castillo, spoken word.
Twist for violin and guitar has three movements: Twisted Prelude, Twisted Pipa, and Twisted Jam. Of the piece Fung said, “The movements are reinterpretations, my ‘twists’ on a Baroque prelude, a traditional pipa work, and jam session licks.”
Jason Vieaux, “among the elite of today’s classical guitarists” (Gramophone), is the classical guitarist that goes beyond the classical. He has earned a reputation for putting his expressive gifts and virtuosity at the service of a remarkably wide range of music, and his schedule of recital, concerto, chamber music, teaching and recording commitments is distinguished with return engagements throughout the U.S. and abroad. These concerts follow the release of Vieaux’s latest album, Play, a selection of audience favorites celebrating Vieaux’s 20 years of professional touring, released January 2014 on Azica Records.
Vieaux’s solo recitals have been a feature at every major guitar series in North America, as well as many of the important guitar festivals in Asia, Australia, Europe, and Mexico. Recent and future highlights include returns to the Caramoor Festival, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and New York’s 92nd Street Y. Vieaux’s appearances for Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Music@Menlo, Strings Music Festival, Grand Teton, and many others have forged his reputation as a first-rate chamber musician and programmer. He collaborates in recitals this season with Escher Quartet, acclaimed harpist Yolanda Kondonassis, and accordion/bandoneón virtuoso Julien Labro. Vieaux’s passion for new music has fostered premieres of works by Dan Visconti, David Ludwig, Jerod Tate, Eric Sessler, José Luis Merlin and Gary Schocker.
Jason Vieaux has performed as concerto soloist with over 50 orchestras, including Cleveland, Houston, Toronto, San Diego, Ft. Worth, Santa Fe, Charlotte, Buffalo, Grand Rapids, Kitchener-Waterloo, Richmond, Edmonton, IRIS Chamber, Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Chautauqua Festival, and New Hampshire Music Festival. Some of the conductors he has worked with include David Robertson, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Jahja Ling, Stefan Sanderling, Michael Stern, David Lockington, Steven Smith, and Edwin Outwater.
Vieaux continues to bring important repertoire alive in the recording studio as well. Among his previous eleven commercial albums is an Azica disc of Astor Piazzolla’s music with Julien Labro and A Far Cry Chamber Orchestra. Bach: Works for Lute, Vol.1 hit No. 13 on Billboard’s Classical Chart after its first week and received rave reviews by Gramophone, The Absolute Sound, and Soundboard. Images of Metheny features music by American jazz legend Pat Metheny, who, after hearing this landmark recording, declared: “I am flattered to be included in Jason’s musical world.” Sevilla: The Music of Isaac Albeniz made several Top Ten lists the year of its release. Vieaux’s albums and live performances are regularly heard on radio and internet around the world, and his work is the subject of feature articles in print and online around the world, including such magazines as Acoustic Guitar, MUSO, Gramophone, and on NPR’s “Deceptive Cadence.”
In 2012, the Jason Vieaux School of Classical Guitar was launched with ArtistWorks Inc., an unprecedented technological interface that provides one-on-one online study with Vieaux for guitar students around the world. In 2011, he co-founded the guitar department at The Curtis Institute of Music, and he has taught at the Cleveland Institute of Music since 2001.
Vieaux is a member of the Advisory Board of the Guitar Foundation of America, and is affiliated with Philadelphia’s Astral Artists. His primary teachers were Jeremy Sparks and John Holmquist. In 1992 he was awarded the prestigious GFA International Guitar Competition First Prize, the event’s youngest winner ever. He is also honored with a Naumburg Foundation top prize, a Cleveland Institute of Music Alumni Achievement Award, and a Salon di Virtuosi Career Grant. In 1995, Vieaux was an Artistic Ambassador of the U.S. to Southeast Asia.
Jason Vieaux is represented by Jonathan Wentworth Associates, Ltd. For more information, visit www.jasonvieaux.com; Jason is tweeting @JasonVieaux, and his Facebook fan page is www.facebook.com/jasonvieaux.
About Vivian Fung
With music described as “evocative” by The New York Times, Vivian Fung has distinguished herself as a composer with a powerful compositional voice, whose music often merges Western forms with non-Western influences such as Balinese and Javanese gamelan and folk songs from minority regions of China. Fung is a 2013 JUNO Award winner for her Violin Concerto, commissioned and recorded by Metropolis Ensemble and violinist Kristin Lee on Naxos. Fung is also the recipient of a 2012 Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship as well as awards from the New York Foundation for the Arts, ASCAP, BMI, American Music Center, MAP Fund, American Composers Forum, and the Canada Council for the Arts. She has been composer-in residence of the Delaware Chamber Music Festival, Music in the Loft Chicago, San José Chamber Orchestra, and Billings Symphony. For more information, please visit: www.vivianfung.ca
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