NEIGHBORHOOD CLASSICS
Simone Dinnerstein, Artistic Director
presents Grammy-Nominated Guitarist Jason Vieaux
Wednesday, January 21, 2015 at 7pm
P.S. 321’s Auditorium | 180 Seventh Ave. | Brooklyn, NY
Tickets: $15 at www.neighborhoodclassics.com or at the door. All ticket sales benefit P.S. 321.
Jason Vieaux: www.jasonvieaux.com
New York, NY– Neighborhood Classics presents virtuoso guitarist Jason Vieaux in concert on Wednesday, January 21 at 7pm at P.S. 321 in Brooklyn (180 Seventh Ave.). At P.S. 321, Jason will play music ranging from Bach to Pat Metheny, including guitar favorites by Spanish composer Isaac Albéniz and 19th century Italian classical guitar master Mauro Guiliani. The concert will be hosted by Neighborhood Classics Founder and Artistic Director Simone Dinnerstein. All ticket sales for this one-hour, family-friendly concert benefit P.S. 321.
“This concert series is about bringing communities together around music,” Simone Dinnerstein explains. “It is a way for students, parents, teachers, and neighbors to gather in a familiar and comfortable setting to listen to great music.” All of the performances take place in the evenings and on weekends, so that families may attend together.
Jason Vieaux, the classical guitarist that goes beyond the classical, is equally at home playing jazz and even rock. WNYC’s John Schaefer recently introduced him on his show Soundcheck saying, “Jason Vieaux is a classical guitarist … actually, that doesn’t sound right. Let’s say that Jason Vieaux is a guitarist whose instrument happens to be a classical guitar.” Vieaux’s NPR Tiny Desk Concert in 2009 was the first ever to feature a classical musician. 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. Vieaux’s latest album, Play, a selection of audience favorites celebrating his 20 years of professional touring, was released in January 2014 on Azica Records and has been nominated for a 2015 GRAMMY Award for Best Classical Instrumental Solo. In June 2014, NPR named “Zapatadeo” from Play as among its “50 Favorite Songs of 2014 (So Far),” describing Vieaux as “perhaps the most precise and soulful classical guitarist of his generation.”
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; he has taught at the Cleveland Institute of Music since 1997, heading the guitar department since 2001.
About Neighborhood Classics:
Pianist Simone Dinnerstein founded the Neighborhood Classics series in 2009 at P.S. 321, the school that her son attended and where her husband teaches, and expanded the series to P.S. 142 on Manhattan’s Lower East Side in 2010. Neighborhood Classics builds relationships at a local level between neighborhoods and musicians.
These one-hour, family-friendly performances, which are hosted by Dinnerstein and feature musicians she has admired and collaborated with during her career, are open to the public and raise funds for the schools. The musicians performing donate their time and talent to the program, and the concerts are organized and administered by parent volunteers and faculty members. In 2012, composer James Matheson joined the Neighborhood Classics team as Artistic Director at P.S. 142.
In addition to evening concerts, Neighborhood Classics has organized three all-school happenings which immersed the school in music, with dozens of musicians performing in all of the school’s classrooms throughout the day – a Bach Invasion featuring more than 20 cellists performing solo Bach, a Renaissance Revolution! which brought early music specialists to perform Baroque and Renaissance music throughout the school, and most recently a Violin Invasion celebrating the opening of the 2014-2015 Neighborhood Classics season. Watch SymphonyNow’s coverage of the Bach Invasion: http://bit.ly/BachInvasion.
Neighborhood Classics has already raised enough funds to bring back the fourth grade band program at P.S. 142. At P.S. 321, proceeds benefit the school’s PTA, which helps to fund art, chess, band, and chorus programs.
Since 2009, the following top-tier musicians have been presented by Neighborhood Classics: pianist Simone Dinnerstein, violinist Rachel Barton Pine, clarinetist Richard Stoltzman, marimbist Mika Stoltzman, cellist Maya Beiser, pianist Pablo Ziegler, cellist Zuill Bailey, pianist Valentina Lisitsa, harpist Bridget Kibbey, violinist Maria Bachmann, cellist Wendy Sutter, Face the Music (a teenage new music group), lutist Paul O’Dette, pianist Kathleen Supové, cellist Clive Greensmith, pianist Lafayette Harris, Jr., Joseph C. Phillips & Numinous, Contemporaneous, Cypress String Quartet, Chiara String Quartet, and the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME).
For more information, visit www.neighborhoodclassics.com.
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