EPK - arco belo

EPK (Electronic Press Kit)

“music that truly synthesizes traditions rather than simply flirting with them…ego-less, genre-agnostic and without expectations; it’s the sound of the future, today”

“listeners who seek to explore far-flung musical vistas might want to stamp their passport for a border-hopping trip with Arco Belo. ”

“not a crossover between “classical” and “jazz”, but fully in both, all at once…complex and compelling string arrangements…yet there is a spark in their playing that guarantees each performance will be different from the next”

“… the lushness and epic sweep of classical music, the edge of the Balkans, the rhythmic complexity of jazz and the vividness of a film score…a tour de force“

Biography

ARCO BELO is a group of high-energy improvisers dedicated to redefining the concert form. Drawing its name from the words bow and bellow, the GenreFluid ensemble captures an irreverent sound melding reeds, strings, and percussive timbres. Led by pianist, accordionist, and composer Simone Baron, their adventurous compositions reimagine a sound at the junction of avant-garde chamber music, creative jazz, Brazilian music, and Jewish diasporic music. Together, they skip effortlessly from long-form Neo-baroque string counterpoint to sludgy hip-hop pads. Post-romantic cadenzas collide in moments of spontaneous noise with reedy prepared piano; guttural bow noises and cascading plectrum bring color to plush hypnotic grooves and sharply angled linear phrases.

Since 2016, the ensemble has performed for audiences across the US, including at the Kennedy Center, Strathmore, and Brevard Music Center. Arco Belo has toured the West Coast and Southeast to critical acclaim, and won grants from South Arts / Jazz Roads, the Maryland State Arts Council and Chamber Music America’s inaugural Performance Plus grant, working with internationally acclaimed bassist and composer Linda May Han Oh. Their debut album, The Space Between Disguises was released in November 2019 and lauded as editor’s pick in both Downbeat and JazzTimes magazines. In 2023 they will release their long-awaited second album, featuring collaborations with bassist Petros Klampanis, violinist Sara Caswell, percussionists Keita Ogawa and John Hadfield, and Christylez Bacon.

Videos

Album | The Space Between Disguises

General Contact | Personnel

booking (at) arcobelo.com

Arco Belo is:

Simone Baron, piano & accordion

Carrie Frey, viola

Minnie Jordan, violin

Raphael Boden, cello

Eli Heath, double bass

Patrick Duke Graney, percussion

Lucas Ashby, percussion

special guests:

Christylez Bacon, beatbox, spoken word

Petros Klampanis, double bass

Sara Caswell, violin

Keita Ogawa, percussion

John Hadfield, percussion

Mark Schatz, banjo and bass

Educational Offerings

Arco Belo is dedicated to working with emerging composers, performers, and audiences. They have given concerts and workshops for undergraduate and graduate students at institutions including Georgetown University, the Boulanger Initiative’s inaugural board retreat, the Composers Online Institute, and elementary, middle and high school programs across the country.

The following classes and workshops are offered as stand-alone events or in combination with public performances:

Hands-on workshops, coachings and masterclasses for composer-performers of varying levels on contemporary repertoire and techniques with an emphasis on genre-fluid improvisation, dramaturgical approaches to more open improvisations, and crafting solo cadenzas * ( see below for details)

Readings, workshops, and recordings of student composer works at the undergraduate and graduate levels

Graphic score notation workshops * (see below for details)

Pre-concert talks / Post-concert talkbacks

Seminars on entrepreneurship and professional development

Hands-on workshops focusing on the collaborative/creative process, including samples from notation explanations, and staging demonstrations

Demonstration of active listening techniques, with live interpretation of graphic and/or text scores and discussion of music as a medium for communication

Public or private chamber music coachings or masterclasses

Public or private individual instrument lessons and studio masterclasses in violin, viola, cello, accordion, piano, bass, drum set & percussion

SAMPLE WORKSHOP OFFERINGS

COMPOSER READINGS

The ensemble offers reading sessions and feedback meetings with student composers, discussing a wide variety of topics ranging from notation, fluid compositional forms, and textural/instrumental possibilities to multimedia integration.

GENREFLUID IMPROVISATION WORKSHOP

A holistic and multi-pronged approach to improvisation targeted specifically for classical or jazz performers at high school and undergraduate levels:

-developing your own cadenzas

-investigating dramaturgical approaches to free improvisation

-theatrical and performance art aspects of free improvisation

-growing and strengthening our relationship with groove/time through groove meditation exercises and polyrhythmic exercises

-soloing over complex subdivisions/odd meters while maintaining melodic construction and space

GRAPHIC SCORE NOTATION WORKSHOP

How to unlock / demystify the role of the composer? Graphic notation can empower everyone to connect to their inner creativity.

Participants are handed paper and coloring materials and guided to represent an improvised sound/gesture in two dimensional form. The ensemble then workshops and performs the scores. Participants are invited to the performance, where the ensemble will perform one of the pieces from the workshop live in the concert.

Note: This workshop has been offered to a wide variety of age groups and is highly customizable