“Four-time Grammy-winning jazz singer/bassist Esperanza Spalding’s concert Tuesday at the Kimmel Center … has her playing with the combined forces of the NYO2 youth orchestra and the Fab Philadelphians,” writes David Patrick Stearns in Tuesday’s (7/18) Philadelphia Inquirer. The concert features “Philadelphia Orchestra musicians playing side-by-side with musicians ages 14 to 17…. ‘Talk about being put in the hot seat,’ said conductor Giancarlo Guerrero, who has conducted National Youth Orchestra 2 since its 2016 inception.” Included is a brief interview with Spalding. Q: So much of your music feels so complete unto itself, I can’t imagine anything being added to it, much less a symphony orchestra. Spalding: As Wayne Shorter says, every project is a dialogue with the unknown. And he’s right. But it’s not like you’re adding anything. It’s like more branches have grown on the same tree. Q: My guess is that the orchestral world is not so alien to you.… You grew up in Portland, Ore., playing a lot of chamber music. Spalding: In high school, I was a classical bass major, and we all played in the orchestra. Much of what you practice is orchestral excerpts as well as soloistic pieces. So, yeah, it does feel very familiar.”
Posted July 18, 2017
