7 January 2020
6:00 pm
Burlington Violin Shop
Presented by Young Tradition Vermont with the Burlington Violin Shop. $20 suggested donation. Limited seating. Reservations recommended at mark.sustic@gmail.com
Bach Project with Zach Mayer and McKinley James
The Bach project is an initiative to show Bach in a new light- how Bach as another type of folk music. For over a year now Zach Mayer and McKinley James have been composing and rehearsing a duet version of the Bach Cello Suites, with Zach improvising soprano sax over the original cello line. The saxophone sound plays in and around the steady cello, shaking up the familiar music so that you hear the harmonies and the intricacies of Bach's brilliance in an entirely new way. They then composed two more suites each written in our own folk styles. Zach grew up playing klezmer and is writing a suite based off of klezmer dance music and McKinley is writing a suite based from New England traditional music.
With over 7 million hits on YouTube for his "Subway Sax Battle," Zach Mayer has performed with John Zorn, Frank London, Michael Alpert, Joey Weisenberg, and Bobby McFerrin. Zach is the musical director of Kahal B'raira, a humanistic Jewish congregation in Cambridge. McKinley James is a cellist studying at New England Conservatory. After years with the Vermont Youth Orchestra, she joined the Boston Youth Symphony, and then the premier youth orchestra led by Ben Zander, the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra. She now studies with Yeesun Kim at the New England Conservatory.
https://youngtraditionvermont.org/events/bach-project-with-zach-mayer-and-mckinley-james/