Thursday, February 21 – the Marlin 7:00, 8:00 and 9:00pm
Friday, February 22 – Locations throughout Pioneer Park at 7:00pm
Saturday, February 23 – Davis Concert Hall at 7:30pm
Sunday February 24 at Unitarians Fellowship Hall at 3:00pm
This is how it starts:
To a great extent Hering’s size dictates what FCA does. For 10 years we’ve contemplated doing more in smaller venues… we’ve often experimented, but rarely more than once/season and rarely exclusive of a larger performance.
Why not present in more intimate spaces? Smaller venues create a more visceral experience. Chamber music in chamber settings. It’s more dynamic, more exciting. Why not program a series? Then it hit us: Why not do it all at once?
Next?
Program the cerebral, passionate, exquisite, profound Sirius Quartet. Virtuoso artists combining progressive classical music with components of jazz and improvisation.
Make improv the focus of their residency.
Then get Seven)Suns who share violinist Fung Chern Hwei with Sirius and who’s work focuses on blending metal and classical and Tracy Silverman and Roy “Futureman” Wooten ( Futureman/Silverman ). A founding member of Turtle Island, Tracy frequently performs with Sirius and of course Roy “Futureman” Wooten is a founding member of the Flecktones. These guys are no strangers to improv in a classical context or each other.
What they bring to live performance, to improvising with each other, will be electrifying!
What?
Create a round robin of performances in intimate spaces. Sharing intensive community outreach and education for 4 days of dazzling workshops and performances culminating in one fabulous, combined festival performance.
When?
February. Why? Because in a community survey you told us that outreach to students was a priority for you and that’s the best time to work with the youth orchestra, and it’s before MIOS (Music In Our Schools).
But also when the light is returning to Fairbanks and our brains start to move again after months of dullness in the dark. This is brain food!
Welcome back the light. Let’s get those brains moving again.
Callisthenics. for your brain. Fun. (because you have to get your brain ready for summer when it’s light all the time and your neurons are firing, firing, firing…)
Classical. Improv.
What will they think of next?
Get Tickets NowSirius Quartet
Internationally acclaimed veterans of contemporary music, Sirius Quartet champions a forward-thinking, genre-defying approach to performing that makes labels like ‘New Music’ sound tame. Time Out New York calls them “four-string virtuosos boast[ing] an outlandishly diverse repertoire,” while The New York City Jazz Record describes them as “a stellar ensemble that transforms standard chamber music frameworks with exceptional playing, writing and arranging.” Having premiered works by significant living composers, Sirius continues its long-running commitment to musical innovation with bold, original works by its own members, pushing beyond the conventional vocabulary of string instruments by incorporating popular song forms, gripping improvisations, extended techniques and undeniable contemporary grooves.
Seven)Suns
Seven)Suns is string quartet (and often percussion and vocals) named after an apocalyptic Buddhist prophecy. Fairbanks audiences will remember violinist Earl Maneein from two guest appearances here with Sweet Plantain, first with FCA and again with cellist Jennifer Devore, with the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival. Amanda Lo on Violin and Sirius violinist and violist Fung Chern Hwei complete the quartet. What can we tell you? They performed with Dillinger Escape Plan at their final gig. Epic.
“Can a string quartet be metal? The short answer is “absolutely,” with the elaboration being that Seven)Suns is probably more metal than most metal bands out there.” – Greg Kennelty, Metal Injection
“Seven)Suns’ work is much more than “string quartet interprets metal songs.” That’s the easy hook, and the quickest entry point, but their incorporation of electronics, and the complexity of Maneein’s compositions and arrangements, make this group something very special and forward-looking. They should be embraced by the neo-classical community every bit as fervently as by adventurous metalheads.” – Phil Freeman, Burning Ambulance
Futureman/Silverman
Tracy Silverman’s groundbreaking work with the 6-string electric violin synthesizes his eclectic background in classical, rock, jazz and world music into a genre-bending performance of stylistic breadth and emotional depth. Equally eclectic is his longtime musical partner, renowned composer, innovator and 5x Grammy-winning percussionist Roy “Futureman” Wooten (of Bela Fleck & the Flecktones). Together they present arrangements of electric violin concertos written for Silverman by John Adams, Terry Riley, Kenji Bunch, Nico Muhly, and Silverman himself, as well as original compositions and a few “derangements” of Hendrix, Stevie Wonder, Beethoven, and Bach.
Lauded by the BBC as “the greatest living exponent of the electric violin”, Tracy Silverman’s work with the 6-string electric violin defies musical boundaries. The world’s first concert electric violinist, Silverman was recently named one of 100 distinguished alumni by The Juilliard School. Formerly first violinist with the innovative Turtle Island String Quartet, Silverman premiered “The Palmian Chord Ryddle“, written for him by legendary composer Terry Riley, with the Nashville Symphony at Carnegie Hall in 2012. Silverman has worked with a who’s-who of rock, new music, and jazz, including Pulitzer winner John Adams, who composed his electric violin concerto, “The Dharma at Big Sur,” specifically for Tracy, recorded on Nonesuch Records with the BBC Symphony. Tracy teaches at Belmont University and lives in Nashville, TN.
Ground breaking drummer, inventor, musician, composer and five time Grammy Award winning musician Roy “Futureman” Wooten is best known for playing a “Drumitar” with Béla Fleck and the Flecktones. He has composed original music for ballet, several large symphonic works, and a soundtrack for a screenplay celebrating the extraordinary life a musical Chevalier called the Black Mozart.
Silverman/Futureman on TracySilverman.com
Futureman/Silverman on Myriad Artists
Get Tickets Now