Berklee students write and produce an original musical each year honoring an American music icon. This year's musical tells the story of the life and work of B.B. King. The show will feature two special guest performers -- Grammy-nominated vocalist Nona Hendryx (Labelle, solo) and Grammy-winning guitarist Vernon Reid (Living Colour) -- and the musical talents of more than 20 Berklee students.
B.B. King: Why I Sing the Blues takes place on Saturday, April 30, at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, May 1, at 3:00 p.m. in the Berklee Performance Center (BPC), 136 Massachusetts Avenue, in Boston. Tickets are $10 and are available online through ticketmaster.com. For more information, call 617 747-2261 or visit berkleebpc.com. The BPC is wheelchair-accessible....
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Berklee students write and produce an original musical each year honoring an American music icon. This year's musical tells the story of the life and work of B.B. King. The show will feature two special guest performers -- Grammy-nominated vocalist Nona Hendryx (Labelle, solo) and Grammy-winning guitarist Vernon Reid (Living Colour) -- and the musical talents of more than 20 Berklee students.
B.B. King: Why I Sing the Blues takes place on Saturday, April 30, at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, May 1, at 3:00 p.m. in the Berklee Performance Center (BPC), 136 Massachusetts Avenue, in Boston. Tickets are $10 and are available online through ticketmaster.com. For more information, call 617 747-2261 or visit berkleebpc.com. The BPC is wheelchair-accessible.
The musical traces King's life from his humble beginnings in the Mississippi Delta to his place as an internationally beloved entertainer and icon of blues music. The show will feature some of his most popular songs, such as "Sweet Sixteen," "Rock Me Baby," "Why I Sing the Blues," and "The Thrill is Gone." Grammy-nominated drummer Terri Lyne Carrington will serve as ensemble director. The musical is directed by Associate Professor Rebecca Perricone, and produced by Associate Professor Amy Merrill.
Nona Hendryx is an ambassador of artistry in education at Berklee. She performed at the 2010 Berklee BeanTown Jazz Festival, and Skin Diver, her futuristic rock opera, was recently workshopped by Berklee students. From her beginnings with LaBelle, followed by a stunning solo career, and then an induction into the Rhythm & Blues Foundation's Hall of Fame in 1999, Hendryx has always been on the cutting edge of music. With Labelle, she racked up three gold albums and a No. 1 worldwide hit with "Lady Marmalade (Voulez-Vous Coucher Avec Moi Ce Soir?)." Recently, Hendryx toured festivals in Europe with the Daughters of Soul (Sandra St. Victor, Indira Khan, Lisa Simone, Lalah Hathaway, and Joyce Kennedy), toured in the U.S with Cyndi Lauper on the True Colors tour, and reunited with Patti Labelle for a 2008-2009 tour.
Vernon Reid is best known for his lightning-fast guitar solos, leading the pioneering multi-platinum rock band Living Colour, and founding the Black Rock Coalition, a collective promoting the creative freedom and development of black rock musicians. Born in London, Reid and his family emigrated to Brooklyn while he was a child. He began playing guitar at 15, initially studying jazz and progressing quickly. In 1980, he joined drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson's Decoding Society, a cutting-edge jazz group with whom he appeared on six albums. Over the course of the decade, Reid went on to work with a wide variety of experimental musicians -- Defunkt, Bill Frisell, John Zorn, Arto Lindsay, and Public Enemy, among others.
DBR will conduct the BCSO for his Hip-Hop Essay for Orchestra and Rushen will lead the ensemble in a set of her music. The program also includes works performed by Berklee concerto competition winners, pianist Sonya Belousova, performing the finale of Shchedrin's Piano Concerto No. 1, and saxophonist Alexey Sokolov, performing the Glazunov Saxophone Concerto. In addition, Berklee composition competition winner Arturo Cardelus will premiere a movement of his piano concerto. Selections from Michael Daugherty's Metropolis Symphony will round out this showcase.
Having carved a reputation for himself as an innovative composer, performer, violinist, and band leader, Haitian-American artist Daniel Bernard Roumain melds his classical music roots with his own cultural references and vibrant musical imagination. Proving that he’s "about as omnivorous as a contemporary artist gets" (New York Times), DBR recently collaborated and performed with Lady Gaga on American Idol. His accolades range from being voted as "America’s Assignment" on CBS Evening News, to receiving praise as one of the "Top 100 New Yorkers" (New York Resident), "Top 40 Under 40" business people (Crain’s New York Business), and spotlighted as a "New Face of Classical Music" in Esquire Magazine. A native of Margate, Florida, he studied music as an undergraduate at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music and completed his masters and doctoral work at the University of Michigan under the tutelage of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer William Bolcom. For more information, visit http://www.dbrmusic.com.
A classically trained pianist, Patrice Rushen has spent a lifetime honing the skills that make her one of the music industry's most well-rounded and sought-after artists. Rushen was the first woman in 43 years to serve as head composer/musical director for the Emmy Awards, and the first woman to serve as musical director for the NAACP Image Awards broadcast, an honor she has held for 12 consecutive years. In 1998, Rushen's adult-contemporary CD Signature received a Grammy nomination, and was also nominated for an NAACP Image Award. An accomplished film composer, Rushen's feature credits include Men In Black, Waiting To Exhale, Sandra Bernhardt's Without You I'm Nothing, and Robert Townsend's Hollywood Shuffle. In 2008, Rushen accepted a professorship at Berklee; she received an honorary doctor of music degree from college in 2005. For more information, visit http://www.patricerushen.com.
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