Joshua Bell | Edgar Meyer | Calder Quartet | Calidore Quartet
Press
Violinist Joshua Bell to headline Laguna Beach Music Festival
Edgar Meyer, Calder Quartet return for Festival’s 10th anniversary
Superstar violinist Joshua Bell will serve as guest artistic director for the tenth annual Laguna Beach Music Festival (Feb 6-12, 2012). Partnering with Mr. Bell are composer-performer Edgar Meyer – master of the double bass who, like Joshua Bell, is as comfortable in the concert hall playing Bach as on the front porch playing bluegrass – and the ever-surprising Calder Quartet.
Unique among music festivals for the intimacy of its venues – with music salons filled to capacity at less than a hundred guests, and concert halls where no patron is more than a dozen rows from the stage – Laguna Beach Music Festival fosters meaningful connections between artist and audience and enhances music appreciation with informal discussions, mini-concerts, workshops, open rehearsals and social events.
Grammy Award-winner Joshua Bell has enchanted audiences worldwide with his breathtaking virtuosity and tone of rare beauty. In addition to numerous classical recordings, he has become a household name thanks to his many soundtracks including the Oscar-winning score for The Red Violin. His release Romance of the Violin was named the 2004 Billboard Classical CD of the Year. He has crossed musical borders to work with jazz, folk and traditional artists – notably with Edgar Meyer, banjo wizard Sam Bush and guitarist Mike Marshall in Short Trip Home – and is appreciated by all as a brilliant virtuoso of once-in-a-generation talent.
Equally lauded as classical virtuoso, concert music composer and American roots music wizard, Edgar Meyer owns the double bass like no other American musician. An in-demand collaborator, he frequently works with musicians from diverse traditions who are all masters of their form – like Bela Fleck, Joshua Bell, Zakir Hussain and others. Audiences crossed over from multiple genres in droves to enjoy his Appalachia Waltz project with cellist Yo-Yo Ma and fiddler Mark O’Connor.
Winners of the 2009 ASCAP Adventurous Programming Award, the Calder Quartet has emerged as a leading American quartet – high-profile projects, prestigious commissions, unique collaborations – as comfortable, and as captivating, when performing with indie rock bands like Vampire Weekend and Airborne Toxic Event as in the concert hall. The Calder were featured as “emerging artists” in 2003 at the first-ever Laguna Beach Music Festival; since then they’ve spent time as graduate quartet in residence at The Juilliard School and have earned they way onto the shortlist of cool young quartets whose skill and technique is matched by depth of musical passion. The Calder, wrote a critic in the Washington Post, is “full of flaring drama, furrowed brows and quiet intensity… with the tightest of ensemble playing and well-judged balancing of instrumental voices… which blossomed to full lusciousness.”
Laguna Beach Music Festival is a project of Laguna Beach Live! and the Philharmonic Society of Orange County. Launched in 2003 with pianist Claude Frank as mentor artist and the young Calder Quartet as emerging artists, the Festival has grown to a full week of activities. The 2012 Festival honors the legacy of the late philanthropist and music lover Ed Halvajian.
Concert repertoire and numerous Festival adjunct activities will be announced in the coming months. See below for a complete list of concerts and special events.
Festival ticket packages and VIP packages are on sale now. Single tickets will go on sale September 10. For more information visit the Festival online at www.LagunaBeachMusicFestival.com, call 949.715.9713 949.715.9713 or email us
Festival concerts
Laguna Playhouse
606 Laguna Canyon
Laguna Beach CA 92651
The Genius of Edgar Meyer
Thu Feb 9 at 8pm
A master composer-performer explores the lush, warm sounds of the double bass.
Joshua Bell Recital
Fri Feb 10 at 8pm
Violin pyrotechnics: a recital of gems from the classical repertoire.
Joshua Bell, Edgar Meyer & Calder Quartet
Sat Feb 11 at 8pm
Edgar Meyer and the Calder Quartet join Joshua Bell for a wide-ranging evening of classics, bluegrass and the musical adventures that have made Joshua Bell a household name.
Tenth Anniversary Concert
Sun Feb 12 at 3pm
Festival alumni the Calder Quartet (LBMF ’03) and Edgar Meyer (LBMF ’06) collaborate with Festival emerging artists in an eclectic afternoon celebrating the Festival’s tenth anniversary.
Special events
Opening Night Salon
Mon Feb 6 at 6:30pm
A ‘tasting menu’ salon performance and reception at Laguna’s lovely Hotel Laguna.
Private Salon with Joshua Bell
Wed Feb 8 at 7pm
An intimate salon concert in an elegant private home, followed by a buffet supper.
Festival Feast
Thu Feb 10 at 5pm
The annual Festival gourmet dinner at Claes at Hotel Laguna, followed by Joshua Bell recital and post-concert reception on stage.
Festival alumni, 2003-2011
2003/ Claude Frank, piano, Calder Quartet, Trio Movado.
2004/ Bruno Canino, piano, Biava Quartet, Orion Wind Quintet.
2005/ Christopher O’Riley, piano.
2006/ Edgar Meyer, bass, Mike Marshall, mandolin.
2007/ The Ahn Trio, David Benoit Trio, and composeres Paul Chihara, Fernando Otero, Nguyen Le.
2008/ Turtle Island Quartet, Enso Quartet, Karim Al-Zand, Stefon Harris.
2009/ Lynn Harrell, cello, Victor Asuncion, piano, Colburn String Quartet.
2010/ Paul Chihara, composer, Greg MacGillivray, filmmaker, The Claremont Trio, Maria Bachmann, violin, Jon Klibonoff, piano, Claire Chase, flute, and guest composers Donald Crockett, Pamela Madsen and Sharon Farber.
2011/ Brooklyn Rider string quartet, Kayhan Kalhor, kamencheh, Kojiro Umezaki, shakuhachi, Kelsey Blumenthal, violin, Elicia Silverstein, violin, Christopher Zack, viola, Mindy Pak, cello, Robin Kesselman, double bass.
