Exchanges: Kristin Lee, Kokayi, Miguel Zenon, and Anthony Tidd
LINKS & ASSETS
BOOKING INQUIRIES
Christina Jensen, christina@jensenartists.com
Gina Meola, gina@jensenartists.com
646.536.7864
Violinist Kristin Lee is pleased to offer Exchanges, a new concerto for 3 soloists and full orchestra by Grammy-winning musician/producer/composer Anthony Tidd. Kristin is joined by Guggenheim Fellow wordsmith Kokayi and MacArthur Fellow saxophonist Miguel Zenon in this new composition that will pay homage to three key musical genres at the bedrock of Western music; Classical, Jazz, and Hip Hop.
Exchanges, presented in three movements, celebrates the historic and ongoing cultural exchange which has, over centuries, given birth to the complex tapestry that is our modern arts culture. The piece will draw equally from creative elements at the heart of all three soloists’ sound worlds to produce a cohesive work that is altogether new and fresh, featuring deep grooves, interactive improvisations, narrative freestyles, thematically developed passages, and immense soundscapes that are only possible with orchestra.
Kristin Lee says, “Anthony Tidd and I met back in 2011, just a little over a decade ago. I had just graduated from The Juilliard School, eagerly searching for how music was going to shape my life. Anthony and I met because we were performing at The Kimmel Center for a project that the legendary hip hop band, The Roots, had put together called Philly-Paris Lockdown. The idea of this brilliant project was to bring musicians of various genres onto one stage and showcase the collaboration of classical, hip hop, jazz, folk, and indie artists. As a recent graduate at the time, I had never encountered such brilliant and generous minds from other musical worlds. And from that day on, my love for music has expanded so much beyond just the violin and classical genre. Exchanges is not only about celebrating our friendship but showcasing the importance of inspirations from other genres of music, especially between jazz and classical genres. I envision Anthony writing very complex time signatures and harmonies that will continue to challenge me! Since Anthony is a virtuoso electric bassist, I can also envision some parts that include groove filled bass parts with the violin improvising over it!”
Anthony Tidd says, “I firmly believe that genre is an illusion. As with all other facets of culture, many musicians of different backgrounds and of different persuasions have always mixed, influenced each other, borrowed from other traditions and even played within multiple genres. This is certainly my story. I was educated in London on violin within the classical tradition as a child. I was drawn to jazz later because I wanted to learn to improvise on a high level. Unfortunately, at the time, there weren’t any opportunities to do so on violin, so I began playing the bass. Later still, I worked extensively within hip hop because it was the dominant culture that I grew up in and encountered when I moved to the United States, and because I always had an interest in music production. Today I prefer to call the music I compose creative music, because in reality, like many art musics, it is a mix united by creativity. When it comes to excellence within this type of ‘genre-bending’ experiment, there is no more capable musician than Kristin Lee. After ten years of working together within all kinds of musical situations involving artists such as Steve Coleman and The Roots, and the many discussions we have had about the future of ‘art music’ and great musicians, I have no doubt that Kristin will be the perfect partner for such a project.”
Duration: 20 minutes