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Grammy-winning violinist and producer Johnny Gandelsman is joined by fellow Silk Road Ensemble member and shakuhachi performer Kojiro Umezaki for a virtual visit to Dartmouth's campus. As a founding member of Brooklyn Rider, Johnny has worked closely with such luminaries as Bela Fleck, Kayhan Kalhor, Yo-Yo Ma, Mark Morris and Anne Sofie Van Otter and has shared the stage with music legends including Bono, David Byrne, Renee Fleming, Rhiannon Giddens and Christian McBride.

Johnny and Ko will visit Music Professor Ted Levin's course Global Sounds, where they will discuss their upcoming Hop commission for 20 new solo violin works from US-based composers reflecting on current issues of the pandemic and racial justice. Johnny will also play "Pallavi: Meditation on Care," by Akshaya Avril Tucker, which was commissioned by the Gabriele Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music and premiered last year.

Hop Members at the Partner level and above have the opportunity to audit the class by RSVPing below. The full class period runs from 10:20am to 12:10pm, with a 10-minute break at 11:10. Members are encouraged to join at the beginning with mics muted and may exit any time. Questions are welcome during the Q&A, though students will be given priority.

About Johnny Gandeslman

Russian-born Johnny Gandelsman integrates a wide range of creative sensibilities into a unique style amongst today's violinists, one that possesses "a balletic lightness of touch and a sense of whimsy and imagination" (The Boston Globe). Johnny's recording of the complete Bach Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin reached #1 on the Billboard Classical Chart and made it onto NY Magazine and NY Times Best of the Year lists. A passionate advocate for new music, Johnny has premiered dozens of new works, including music by Lisa Bielawa, Tyondai Braxton, Daniel Cords, Christina Courtin, Reena Esmail, Bela Fleck, Gabriela Lena Frank, Bill Frisell, Osvaldo Golijov, Gonzalo Grau, Ethan Iverson, Vijay Iyer and Colin Jacobsen. Johnny has been producing records under his label In a Circle, which include Brooklyn Rider's Spontaneous Symbols; Johnny's own recording of the complete Sonatas and Partitas for violin by JS Bach; and 2 albums with Silkroad Ensemble and Yo-Yo Ma. He also worked on Sing Me Home, a Grammy-award winner for Best World Music album produced by Sony.

About Kojiro Umezaki

Kojiro Umezaki is a performer of the shakuhachi, a composer of electro-acoustic works, and a specialist in developing music-technology systems for live performance. Noted by The New York Times as a "virtuosic, deeply expressive shakuhachi player and composer" and the LA Times as one of the "better kept secrets of Southern California music," Kojiro Umezaki (梅崎康二郎) has performed regularly with the Silkroad Ensemble since 2001. He appears on multiple recordings including the Grammy Award-winning Sing Me Home, A Playlist Without Borders, Off the Map, and the Grammy-nominated 2015 documentary film, The Music of Strangers, directed by Morgan Neville. Other notable recordings as performer, composer, and/or producer include Brooklyn Rider's Dominant Curve; Yo-Yo Ma's Appassionato; Nicole Mitchell's Mandorla Awakening II;  Kei Akagi's Aqua Puzzle; The Silk Road: A Musical Caravan (Smithsonian Folkways); and Huun Huur Tu's Ancestors Call. 

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Photo: Shervin Lainez