Back around graduation time, young Steamboat musicians Kate
and Nissa woke up one morning to find that their practice video had received
over 100,000 hits overnight. Now, almost two months later the video has over
300,000 hits and thousands of fans.
"Sailing Ships," aptly named for Steamboat Springs High
School’s Sailors mascot, perfectly captures the high school mentality of simultaneously
longing for the past and anxiously waiting to be set free. Listen to the song
below.
The simple trio of vocals, piano, and cello set mostly in a
minor key brought me back to one of my own high school memeories, where two of my
very good friends wrote a song with the same arrangement for their
graduation. I can’t be sure if it was Kate and Nissa’s heartfelt music or
memories of my own youth that brought goosebumps to my arms, but the song certainly
moves everyone who listens to it.
We’re proud that Kate had the chance to participate in
Strings School Days before graduating high school to pursue a career in music.
Kate will begin at the University of Colorado at Boulder in the fall. Nissa has
one year left at The Lowell Whiteman School in Steamboat Springs. She will play
at the Strings Music Pavilion on Wednesday August 1. This last Heritage Concert
of the summer features 14 young Steamboat musicians who will perform on stage
with the professionals. Visit the Strings Music Festival website to purchase
tickets.
"My favorite memory of Strings is the rainbow before Kathy Mattea’s performance.”
Strings Music Festival Tent - 1996
Last
week, we were graced with another beautiful rainbow as we celebrated 25 years
of Strings. It seemed especially fitting that it ended at the Pavilion.
“A seriously funky collective capable of bringing
elements of deep soul, New Orleans funk, Stax/Memphis stylings and earthy
R&B together . . . Kincheloe wove a sultry, sexy spell with her incredible
blues-soaked lines and deep-in-the-groove dance moves.”-The Buffalo News
Sister Sparrow and The Dirty Birds
Sister Sparrow and The Dirty Birds have hit the ground
running since 2010 with the release of their debut, self-titled album. The band is the next
hottest thing, having opened for the Black Keys, the Neville Brothers, Dr.
John, the Rebirth Brass Band, and the Soul Rebels Brass Band, and with lead
singer Arleigh Kincheloe’s voice being compared to Adele, Amy Winehouse, and
Janis. Their music turns jazzy New Orleans blues into rock ‘n roll, and the
crowd can’t resist the urge to dance.
Below you can watch the band’s newest music video, 'Another
Ride.' Kincheloe says, “The whole carnival idea, “Another Ride” is about life,
but the imagery is directly inspired by being a little kid at the Margaretville
Fair.”
The other day I was at one of our Outreach Programs at the
Boys and Girls Club with our artist-in-residence string quartet, the Tesla Quartet. They asked the group of 6-10
year olds, “does anyone know what pizzicato
is?” As my mind went blank, a curly blond haired kid, no more than 6, raised
his hand and confidently said “plucking.”
If you are wondering if he was right, keep reading because this post
is for you.
Chamber Music: Written
for a small group of instruments, the word "chamber" signifies that
the music can be performed in a small room with an intimate atmosphere. This could also be compared to the modern day
“jam session.”
Orchestra: A
large instrumental ensemble with sections of string, brass, woodwind, and
percussion instruments, led by a conductor. These have different names depending
on size. A smaller-sized orchestra (of about fifty players or less) is called a
chamber orchestra. A full-size
orchestra (about 100 players) may sometimes be called a symphony orchestra or philharmonic
orchestra.
Concerto: This
basically means solo with the orchestra. Here you will want to pay attention because someone is about to show off
some mad skills.
Applause: Here is the moment you have been waiting for
to show your appreciation. Well sometimes you have to wait a little
longer. Somewhere in the early 19th
century it was decided that applause interrupted the momentum of a piece,
which is why we now hold our applause until all movements (little songs within
a piece) are complete. It looks like Mozart
lost this battle years ago when he expected that people would eat and talk
over his music, particularly at dinner, and was delighted when his audience
would clap during his symphonies.
Pizzicato: Plucking
- he was right.
Cristin Frey is the Marketing Director for Strings Music Festival. Look for more of her posts debunking classical music terminology.
"Music was never divided by genre in my mind. It's about
singing good music."-k.d. lang
Since the beginning of music, artists have refused to be labeled as only one particular genre. Where once classical, jazz, rock, and country
seemed to describe pretty much every type of music, more and more categories have cropped up to accommodate artists who are pushing back against being stuck in one genre. Now indie, punk, bluegrass,
and alternative country, alt rock, and pretty much alt anything else are acceptable
categories. The rest of this post will focus on a few unlikely collaborations
that may be the beginning of the next new genre.
One of the most popular musical styles today is R&B, or
Rhythm and Blues. R&B is actually a subgenre in and of itself, branching out
from the broader category of hip-hop. Rihanna has been dominating the genre for
five plus years, and her newly released video Princess of China is a
collaboration with Coldplay. Coldplay is a British alternative rock group, who
has also been labeled as “blue romantic.” Watch what happens when hot and
sultry Rihanna mixes with cool and mellow Coldplay in their video. Perhaps
they’re onto the next groundbreaking genre. Shall we call it RR&B - Rock, Rhythm, and Blues?
Since hip-hop is so prominent today, hip-hop artists love
experimenting with artists from other genres to find that new sound that pushes
their music to the top of the charts. Kanye West, who’s been leading the
hip-hop scene since 2004, released a song with Bon Iver on his latest album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Bon
Iver exploded on the indie folk scene this year, taking home two Grammys in
2012. Kanye West and Bon Iver found an “indie-hop” sound in Lost in the World. The ethereal slow
synthesized tones of Bon Iver provide the perfect backdrop for Kanye’s lyrics
about trying to find a way through our urban jungle. Recently they released a
music video that further enhances the trapped and lost message of the song.
And then there’s the band whose name is also the title
of the new genre it created: Gangstagrass. Rap lyrics laid over the sounds of
banjo and fiddle, make the ultimate leap in pushing back those genre lines. Founder
of the band, Rench’s influences come from listening to hip-hop music at school
in southern California and honky-tonk at home with his Oklahoman dad. Rench
says, “Hip-hop was music of the streets and country was music of the hills, but
it was rooted in these communities that were making music to express the
struggles of their daily lives, which has a lot of overlap.” Rench hints at the idea that a collaboration or a mashup will be a success, regardless of the genre, as long as the two styles match in meaning and the feeling.
These collaborations do more than just boost artists to the
top of the charts. They remind us to keep listening to music. As one blogger wrote, “Listening to what
we know we like keeps us from hearing what we know nothing about.” So break out of your own genre box and put the radio on scan because you may just discover your new favorite song.
