Faculty Concert:
Jussi Reijonen: trï
Wednesday, June 3, 2015, 8:00pm at Brookline Music School
BROOKLINE – June 3, 2015 – Brookline Music School presents Faculty Concert, Jussi Reijonen: trï on Wednesday, June 3, 2015 at 8:00pm in Bakalar Recital Hall at Brookline Music School (25 Kennard Rd. Brookline, MA 02445). In this concert, Finnish guitarist/oudist/composer and BMS faculty member Jussi Reijonen showcases new arrangements of music from his acclaimed CD Jussi Reijonen: un, joined by an international cast of players: Turkish pianist/percussionist Utar Artun and Palestinian cellist Naseem Alatrash. ...
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Faculty Concert:
Jussi Reijonen: trï
Wednesday, June 3, 2015, 8:00pm at Brookline Music School
BROOKLINE – June 3, 2015 – Brookline Music School presents Faculty Concert, Jussi Reijonen: trï on Wednesday, June 3, 2015 at 8:00pm in Bakalar Recital Hall at Brookline Music School (25 Kennard Rd. Brookline, MA 02445). In this concert, Finnish guitarist/oudist/composer and BMS faculty member Jussi Reijonen showcases new arrangements of music from his acclaimed CD Jussi Reijonen: un, joined by an international cast of players: Turkish pianist/percussionist Utar Artun and Palestinian cellist Naseem Alatrash.
Reijonen’s original music draws from a wide pool of influences and experiences gathered growing up in five different countries on three different continents; in both his original compositions and his playing, the open spaces and silences of Scandinavia effortlessly rub shoulders with the maqamat of the Arab world and the rhythmic richness of India and West Africa, creating a truly enchanting musical mosaic.
“…extraordinary music…(Reijonen’s) playing is deep and profoundly nuanced throughout.”
— Barry Cleveland, Guitar Player
“Reijonen’s musical universe has no frontiers. It is a beautiful, sensual mosaic of traditions and influences.” – Eyal Hareuveni, All About Jazz
“Musical cultures and sensibilities cross, evocatively... without blinking or apologizing.”
— Josef Woodward, DownBeat
Jussi Reijonen: trï will also be performing later the same week at the Burlington Discover Jazz Festival at 2 p.m. on Sunday, June 7. The concert takes place at the BCA Center, 135 Church Street, Burlington, VT. Free admission. For more information go to http://www.discoverjazz.com or call 802-863-7992.
It is said that music does not lie in the notes themselves but between them, and it is exactly in that space where Reijonen‘s music thrives and blossoms. His critically acclaimed and Independent Music Award-nominated 2013 album, un, was a lifelong musical journey in the making – a journey that has spanned over three decades and four continents, and which has taken him from his native Northern Finland to years spent living in the Middle East, East Africa, and now the United States.
Where un brought together five seasoned musicians from across the globe to pay tribute to the traditions of American and Scandinavian jazz as well as the folk musics of the Middle East and Africa, Reijonen’s wandering muse has more recently found a home in that most symbiotic of musical constellations: the trio. With Jussi Reijonen: trï, he has begun to explore new sounds and shades of his writing in a more stripped down, naked setting. The result is a compelling modern world music sound for an increasingly multi-cultural world.
Born in Rovaniemi, a small town on the Arctic Circle in northern Finland and moving between Finnish Lapland, the Middle East and East Africa, Jussi Reijonen has spent his life soaking up the sounds of various cultures. He studied music at the Pop & Jazz Konservatorio in Helsinki, as well as at Berklee College of Music and New England Conservatory in Boston where he earned his Master’s degree in the groundbreaking Contemporary Improvisation Department.
While living in Finland, he played with the country’s top artists; he has also performed in the USA, Canada, Sweden, Latvia, Germany, France and Lebanon with renowned musicians such as jazz drummer Jack deJohnette, legendary flamenco singer Pepe de Lucia, multiple Grammy Award-winning flamenco guitarist and producer Javier Limón, Palestinian oud/violin master Simon Shaheen, fretless guitar pioneer David Fiuczynski, Turkey’s gypsy clarinet legend Hüsnü Senlendirici, and Lebanese nay virtuoso and multi-instrumentalist Bassam Saba, among many others.
A globally acclaimed Palestinian cellist, Naseem Alatrash is a sonic product of his upbringing in the Middle East. After studying at The Edward Said National Conservatory on Music in Palestine, Alatrash was awarded a full scholarship to attend Berklee College of Music where he studied with Eugene Friesen, Owen Young, Rob Thomas and Simon Shaheen. An accomplished classically trained musician and improviser of diverse styles, Alatrash has earned a reputation for fearlessly broadening the horizons of the cello on the world stage. He has performed at The Nancy Jazz Festival, Lebanon’s Beit Aldeen Festival, Jerash Festival, The Kennedy Center, Wigmore Hall, Kennedy Center, and within the Aldeburgh World Orchestra’s London Olympic tour appearing at The BBC Proms in The Royal Albert Hall and at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. He has performed alongside Ron Carter, Simon Shaheen, Leo Blanco, Javier Limon, Cafe De Silva, Jorje Drexler and for Alejandro Sanz at the 2013 Latin Grammy Awards. Twice awarded “string player of the year” from The National Music Competition of Palestine, Alatrash continues to be a voice for Palestinian culture and advocate of its music through his global string group The Four Corners Quartet.
Award winning composer, arranger pianist and percussionist Utar Artun has performed at jazz festivals and clubs worldwide from Turkey to Switzerland, New York to Boston. A native of Ankara, Turkey, Artun graduated from Percussion Department of Hacettepe Conservatory before heading to Berklee College of Music from which he graduated with the highest honors. He is currently studying for his master’s degree student at New England Conservatory. Artun has performed with Kevin Eubanks has been in workshops, concert performances and clinics with Bobby McFerrin, Maria Schneider, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Simon Shaheen, Dave Hines, Larry Finn, Eddie Gomez, Erkan Ogur, Husnu Senlendirici, Mehmet Ali Sanlikol, Kenwood Dennard, Jason Linder, Ledisi and David Fiuczynski. Artun is featured on numerous recordings including the 2014 EP Rose Lace for which he earned a Bronze Medal at the 2014 Global Music Awards. He has also arranged music for theater, film and has composed and arranged over 50 pieces for symphony orchestra, as well as more than 100 pieces for brass bands and big bands. He is currently working as an arranger for the Ankara Kent Big Band. Artun has won numerous awards and honors including the Highest Award of the SCAMV 1st National Symphonic Composition Contest. He is also one of the most highly awarded scholars of Foundation of Modern Education (CEV) and Ankara Jazz Foundation (ACD).
Faculty Concert Jussi Reijonen: trï will take place in Bakalar Recital Hall at Brookline Music School, 25 Kennard Road, Brookline, MA 02445 on Wednesday, June 3, 2015 at 8:00pm. The event is free and all ages are welcome. For more information about these events and more visit bmsmusic.org or call Brookline Music School at (617) 277-4593. For information about Jussi Reijonen visit http://jussireijonen.com/.
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