Cellist as Social Connector
Tickets are $37 a pop to see 28-year-old Joshua Roman play his cello (with pianist Andrius Zlabys) at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music next Sunday — and you can be assured of splendid delivery of a tantalizing program: sonatas by Debussy and Brahms, a tango arrangement by Piazzolla, and a thoroughly modern selection from Americana, by Roman’s friend and peer, Dan Visconti. But the Oklahoma-bred Roman is at least as eager to play as he is to deliver some verbal wisdom along with his music at San Francisco’s Community Music Center on Friday evening. And that’ll be for free, thanks to San Francisco Performances.
“Central to my message is the experience of music itself, what it can mean and what expectations we have of it,” says the boyishly ingenuous cellist, who’s been dubbed “a classical rock star” by journalists fond of attention-getting sobriquets. “If you start to find what you care about in music, how much you care about it, and in what way you care about it,” Roman continues, “then you start to see what avenues that opens up for you, and what things you don’t have to worry about so much. A lot of people don’t realize that music can be a great social force, to play in an amateur group, in a string quartet with your friends, or just at home. There are much more beautiful things about music than just having to feel like a performer.” To help elasticize the art form, “I play in living rooms, I play for kids, in schools, in bars, in restaurants. And I also play on concert hall stages,” Roman points out. “For me, it’s always been about connecting with other people.”
New Adventure Rolls in From Seattle
When guitarist Brian Waite and his Band — drummer Todd Gray and bassist Clif Swiggett — return from their Seattle home base for a weekend of round-the-Bay gigs next week, they’ll be staying with folks whose kids have grown up over the past 10 years with the Band’s colorful and adventurous performances and CDs. They’ll be welcomed, as their music has been, by the entire family. “One of our goals for the dads and moms who come to our shows,” says Waite, “is that we want them to go away saying, That was cool! That wasn’t like kids’ music; that was just good rock ‘n’ roll! Of course, the kids love it too, it gets into their bodies and they do a lot of imagination with the lyrics, a lot of participation. I guess we don’t really believe that kids have to just have ‘kiddie music’.”
Those lucky enough to get the music live in Danville (on Feb. 5), at the Discovery Museum in Sausalito (Feb. 4), at The Buddy Club in Berkeley (Feb. 5), or at the San José Children’s Museum (Feb. 11) will also experience a new story, to go along with the Band’s brand new recording, The Land That Rock Forgot. “It starts off with us zooming through the air in our high-tech jets that are taking us to our hot gig in Silicon Valley,” relates Swiggett. “Later we find ourselves in this beautiful jungle, take a mud bath together, and have a bug party.” “And there’ll be times when we’re in trouble,” adds Gray. “It’s usually a disco band which is trying to get us. We have to unplug, and at the end we come home to Mother Nature.”
Kid Choristers Around the World in Song
Mariel McCutcheon is only an 8-year-old third-grader at The Academy in Berkeley, but she’s already noticed her voice change in the three years she’s been with the Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir. “It used to be sort of high,” she points out, “but now I’ve discovered I’m an alto.” She’s also a veteran of the Choir’s collaboration with the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, which will team up next month for Around the World in Song concerts in Oakland, San Mateo, and San Francisco. “It makes me feel sort of small,” McCutcheon testifies about vocalizing in front of several score older instrumentalists. “But I also feel I’m part of something different than I’ve ever been part of before, and that I’ve gotten somewhere else.”
The young choristers, with support from tenor Brian Thorsett, will get their audiences to evocative territory with songs like Edelweiss, Shake the Papaya Down, and The Circle of Life. McCutcheon credits the Choir with teaching her a level of music theory she can’t get in school, but she hopes to some day be a doctor. Maybe, though, “I can bring all those skills together, and have that be helpful.” That would be good medicine indeed. See the following links for more information on the concerts in February: Feb. 4, Feb. 5 at noon, and Feb. 5 at 3 p.m.