On Thursday, June 17th, the Amicus Music Duo – that’s Howard Meadows and myself – is performing its new “Crossing Over” show. While we are classical musicians at heart, we both love playing a little in the realm of jazz and broadway showtune arrangements. And of course, we both love to improvise. So, it only made sense to create a show which was an inquiry into “Crossover” music and performance. When I looked into the term “Crossover”, I discovered that it has a variety of meanings. Here is what I discovered on Wikipedia.
Crossover is a term used in the music industries in a number of ways.
- It can be a term for a performer appearing on two or more of the record charts which track differing musical genres or tastes.
- It can refer to particular works of classical music that become popular among individuals who mostly listen to popular music. Some classical works that achieved crossover status in the twentieth century include the Canon in D by Johann Pachelbel, the Symphony No. 3 by Henryk Górecki.
- In some contexts the term “crossover” can have negative connotations, implying the watering-down of a music’s distinctive qualities to accommodate to mass tastes.
- Within the classical recording industry the term “crossover” is applied particularly to classical artists’ recordings of popular repertoire such as Broadway show tunes.The Three Tenors was a landmark concert in which Pavarotti, Carreras and Domingo brought a combination of opera, Neapolitan folksong, musical theatre and pop to a vast television audience. This laid the foundations for classical crossover as we know it today. Collaborations between classical and popular performers have included Sting and Edin Karamazov’s album Songs from the Labyrinth. An iconic collaboration between the late Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballé resulted in the worldwide hit “Barcelona”.Sarah Brightman, called the best-selling soprano of all time, is considered a crossover classical artist,[3] having released albums of classical, folk, pop and musical-theatre music. Brightman dislikes the classical crossover label, though she has said she understands the need to categorize music.Italian pop tenor, Andrea Bocelli, who is the biggest-selling singer in the history of Classical music, is sometimes described as the king of Classical Crossover.
Howard and I will be examining the latter two aspects of “Crossover” with an emphasis on crossing over from the Classical genre to the Jazz genre and vice versa.
Crossing Over – Dancing between Classical and Jazz
Howard Meadows, Clarinet – Craig Addy, Piano
Thursday, June 17, 2010- 7:30 pm in the St. Andrew’s-Wesley Narthex
1022 Nelson Street, Vancouver, British Columbia V6E 1H8
(enter on Burrard Street at the entrance near the alley)
Tickets and information
http://amicus-crossing-over.eventbrite.com/
604-662-3053