The late Dewey Balfa once said “A culture is like a tree, you have to water the roots, but you can’t go cutting off the branches every time the tree tries to grow”. Well, Racines (which means “roots” in French) both waters the roots and stretches outward. A collaborative project of five gentlemen who are all well-known Cajun musicians in their own right, Racines explores the varying musical traditions that call Southwest Louisiana home: Cajun music, Zydeco, blues, and more.
Category: Music
Connie Han Trio
Pianist and provocateur Connie Han has created an edgy blend of modern and traditional jazz with her incendiary Mack Avenue Records debut CRIME ZONE. At 26, this young lioness is on a fast-climbing trajectory to jazz stardom with rave reviews from the New York Times, Jazziz magazine, Downbeat magazine, and more. The New York Times describes her as “the rare musician with fearsome technical chops, a breadth of historical knowledge and enough originality to write tunes that absorb your ear easily.” Weaving in and out of the
tradition, Han pays tribute to McCoy Tyner, Mulgrew Miller, and Kenny Kirkland with her own unique edge and fire at the piano.
Esmé Quartet
Based in Germany, the award-winning Esmé Quartet was formed by four Korean musicians who had been friends since childhood and has since gained a worldwide reputation as a chamber ensemble of exceptional artistry and achievement. Praised for their warm sound and powerful stage presence, the quartet brings together the performers’ brilliant and distinct musical personalities to form a cohesive, close-knit group that is passionately dedicated to the string quartet repertoire.
Program: Borodin: String Quartet No. 2;
Fanny Mendelssohn: String Quartet;
Tchaikovsky: String Quartet No. 1
Hermitage Piano Trio
Now entering their second decade, the United States-based Hermitage Piano Trio has solidified its place as one of the world’s leading piano trios, garnering multiple GRAMMY Award nominations and receiving both audience and press accolades for their performances that the Washington Post singled out for “such power and sweeping passion that it left you nearly out of breath.” Hallmarks of the Hermitage Piano Trio is their impeccable musicianship, sumptuous sound, and polished skill, which have led to demand for many repeat performances.
Program: Amy Beach: Piano Trio, in A minor, Op. 150; Georgy Sviridov: Trio in A minor, Op. 6; Sergei Rachmaninoff: Trio No. 1 in G minor “Elégiaque” & Vocalise, Op. 34; Gaspar Cassadó: Trio in C Major
Brandon Coleman
Bending the future of sound, taking ivory and ebony to destinations unknown, is keyboard maestro, vocalist, composer, producer, arranger and astral traveler Brandon Coleman. A regular fixture with Babyface, Donald Glover, Flying Lotus, and Kamasi Washington’s band, Coleman represents a new chapter in the evolution of jazz and funk fusion.
Coleman’s latest electronic funk odyssey, Interstellar Black Space, launched in May 2022. He explains, “I wanted to write some music that reflected how I felt about time, space, and celestial energy. I love space movies like Interstellar and The Martian—and I thought to myself, if I was traveling through space what would I want to hear? I wanted to create some astral Negro music.”
Quatuor Van Kuijk and Sean Shibe
The Van Kuijk Quartet’s international accolades boast First, Best Beethoven, and Best Haydn Prizes at the 2015 Wigmore Hall International String Quartet competition; First Prize, and an Audience Award at the Trondheim International Chamber Music Competition; as well as becoming laureates of the Aix-en-Provence Festival Academy. They join one of the most versatile guitarists performing today, Sean Shibe, to present a Spanish-inspired program, including two masterworks in the guitar quintet repertoire.
Program: Mendelssohn: String Quartet Op. 80; Boccherini Guitar Quintet No. 4, Fandango; Adès: Habanera from The Exterminating Angel; De Falla: Homenaje: Le Tombeau de Claude Debussy for Guitar, Poulenc: Sarabande; Castelnuovo-Tedesco: Guitar Quintet Op. 143
Marquis Hill: New Gospel Revisited
One of the finest trumpeters in jazz today, Marquis Hill is also a composer and bandleader whose comprehensive vision highlights the unity and continuity within the musical heritage of African Americans. On acclaimed albums like his latest, Modern Flows Vol. II, and his 2016 breakout project, The Way We Play, Hill and his working band, the Blacktet, use their next-level musicianship and deeply interactive dynamic to break down the barriers separating bop, hip-hop, R&B, and electronic music. At ArtPower, Hill performs from his latest album, a live reinterpretation of his 2012 debut album New Gospel.
Cyrille Aimée
Winner of the Montreux Jazz Festival Vocal Competition and a finalist in the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Vocal Competition, Cyrille Aimée is a riveting performer of new world jazz. She is all about finding herself in each and every moment! Aimée returns to ArtPower to perform new, original songs and music from her roots around the world, always with a focus on groove. In three different languages and with an international band who met in New Orleans, this show is sure to make your heart dance!
Joel Ross ‘Parables’
Joel Ross continues refining an expression that’s true to his sound and his generation. In 2019, the vibraphonist-composer issued his anticipated Blue Note debut, Edison Award-winning record KingMaker to eruptive critical acclaim, followed by his 2020 release Who Are You? which features his band Good Vibes at their most synchronous. New York Times critic Giovanni Russonello praised the album for the ways it “speaks to a new level of group cohesion…more tangle, more sharing, more possibility.”
He returns to ArtPower as bandleader with The Parable of the Poet, his third release for Blue Note Records. The album explores feelings self-awareness— confidence, doubt, regret and forgiveness—through storytellings and retellings.
Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Chamber Ensemble
Drawn from the principal players of the world-renowned chamber orchestra Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, this “luminous, often breathtaking” (Washington Post) ensemble was created in 1967 to perform larger-scale works from the chamber music repertoire, such as wind trios and string octets. Directed by academy director/leader Tomo Keller, the ensemble has released over 30 recordings—more than any other chamber ensemble—of classical, romantic, and modern music from the last century.
Program: Purcell (arr. Britten): Chacony in G Minor; Brahm: Sextet in B-flat Major, Op. 18; Enesco: Octet for Strings