SummerFest might seem a long time away but our artists are busy touring and promoting their summer concert schedules. This certainly includes our opening guest artist Silk Road Ensemble cellist Mike Block, as he winds his way through Asia with Yo Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble project. We’re thrilled to have him and his colleagues join us for workshops and concerts in the opening week of our SummerFest 2017 Off the Charts: exploring Human Rights and celebrating Global Music. Mike brings his fellow ‘Silk Roaders’ with him to Fort Collins — Shane Shanahan (percussion), Kaoru Watanabe (flutes), and Steve Wilson (bass trombone) — for a Bruce Adolphe World Premiere of his newest work for these artists, Thuenpa Puen Zhi (Four Harmonious Friends). Next stop for this work — Zimbabwe!
(From Mike Block)
“Hello from Beijing!”
I’ve just finished the “Voices and Strings Across the Sea” tour of Denmark and Germany with Danish folk musicians Harald Haugaard and Helene Blum, along with Hanneke Cassel, and now I’m with Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble on our Fall tour of China, Korea, and Taiwan! It’s been a pretty exciting trip so far – Hanneke and I also got to play a show in Switzerland and have an amazing Raclette dinner in the Alps, and tonight I’m about to have my first authentic Peking (Beijing) Duck! As you can imagine, most of the trip has been defined by overeating …
Here’s the new “Save the Date” announcements for summer 2017 events I’m directing:
8th Annual 2017 Mike Block String Camp dates are set, and we are now accepting applications at www.MikeBlockStringCamp.com!
Main Week: July 3-8
Extension for Advanced Players July 10-14
Florida Band Incubator (F.B.I.): July 10-14
ENROLL NOW, and come hang out on the beach with us! 🙂
Faculty still being confirmed, so stay tuned …!
Silkroad’s 3rd Annual 2017 Global Musician Workshop will happen May 30-June 5, at DePauw University again. We are still working on updating the www.GlobalMusicianWorkshop.com website to accept 2017 applications, but if you’re interested, you can save the date for now! 🙂 Faculty still being confirmed, so stay tuned …!
If you’ve made it this far in the email, you deserve a little Bach in the Bathroom! 🙂
This “performance” of Prelude #2 was recorded a year and a half ago at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. but I’ve just gotten around to posting it now … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qDkkoqeXmo
Also a heads up that I’ve been doing lots of REAL recording (like, not in a bathroom …) this year for multiple solo projects! One album of American Folk music is DONE, and you’ll see some videos of that very SOON! Two other albums I’ve been working on include one of original songs, and one of solo cello Classical music. I can’t wait to share them with you! My online students at www.ArtistWorks.com/cello have already been getting some sneak peaks at them … if you, or people you love, happen to play cello, then tell them to check out my Online Multi-Style Cello School at ArtistWorks, where they can see lots of great private content! (there has got to be a better way to say that …)
And here is the obligatory full list of some upcoming tour dates:
11/14-11/20/16 Asia Tour With Yo-Yo Ma And The Silk Road Ensemble – www.silkroadproject.org
11/14/16 Qingdao, China
11/16/16 Beijing, China
11/18/16 Seoul, Korea
11/20/16 Taipei, Taiwan
12/15-12/18/16 Recording for my upcoming solo projects at Dimension Sound Studios in Jamaica Plain, Massachusettes.
1/5-1/20/17 Guangzhou, China I’m co-leading a workshop for young Chinese orchestral musicians, called Youth Music Culture Guandong, alongside Yo-Yo Ma, Michael Stern, Johnny Gandelsman, Kinan Azmeh, Joe Gramley, Wu Tong, and others. The event will open with a performance of Zhou Lin’ duo concert for cello and sheng I will perform with Wu Tong and Jing Huan, resident conductor of the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra. Youth Music Culture Guandong website.
2/1-2/12/17 Florida Tour with Hanneke Cassel
More details to be announced soon!
Hope you’re well!- Mike