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Yellow Lounge brings club style to classical at YoungArts
The “indie classical” crowd doesn’t do things the same way as their predecessors did, when a career in this art form was defined by an elite management agency and carefully chosen appearances in major venues.
While that world certainly hasn’t disappeared, today’s younger classical players are just as happy to bring their art to the confines of any old place that will have them, and in recent years, venues such as Le Poisson Rouge, a bar and cabaret in New York’s Greenwich Village, have become as well known for appearances by classical musicians as for their shows featuring rock bands and comedians.
On Friday, the music giant Universal Music Group, not wanting to miss out on a cutting-edge trend, brings its version of this idea to the YoungArts Foundation on Biscayne Boulevard with its Yellow Lounge series, a classical-meets-club performance project that, until this month, has only been seen in Europe. Yellow Lounge, which will convene on the seventh floor of the YoungArts building, follows other Lounge events in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.
On the bill for Friday’s 8 p.m. concert is Montenegrin classical guitarist Miloš Karadaglić, who released his newest album, “Canción,” this month and just signed off on a forthcoming recording of a concerto featuring two works by Spain’s Joaquin Rodrigo: “Concierto de Aranjuez” and “Fantasia para un Gentilhombre.”
Karadaglić will play selections from “Canción,” which includes everything from etudes by Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos to the 1940 Mexican pop hit “Besame Mucho” and the Antonio Carlos Jobim classic “Girl From Ipanema.”
“I always felt that the guitar is an instrument which you can take into those spaces and it will be enjoyed because it allows you to be a rock star for the night. You play an instrument which is so mainstream at the same time as being classical,” Karadaglić said earlier this month before his Yellow Lounge appearance at Le Poisson Rouge. “It’s almost a match made in heaven.”
Two YoungArts alumni will join Karadaglić Friday night: violinist Andrea Jarrett and cellist Peter Eom. They’ll play music by Kodaly, Johan Halvorsen (the celebrated “Passacaglia” based on a suite by Handel) and a world premiere by the Scottish composer Jay Capperauld. There also will be a guest disc jockey, DJ Tribe.
In addition to YoungArts, Yellow Lounge has teamed with radio station Classical South Florida for this concert. The station also is co-sponsoring Karadaglić’s appearance tonight at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, for a concert in the new Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach series.
Yellow Lounge has seized on the energy of today’s young classical scene, which has drawn strength from the power of technology to get the word out and distribute performances, among other things. Club events such as this also build an audience that isn’t approaching classical music with the kind of deadly serious reverence that put so many people off a vital art form.
“It also shows that classical music isn’t boring. I always say that it is as boring as you make it,” Karadaglić said. “We are playing the greatest music on the planet, and it’s anything but boring. You just have to believe in it.”
Yellow Lounge begins at 8 p.m. Friday at YoungArts Foundation, 2100 Biscayne Blvd., Miami. The concert is on the seventh floor of the Tower Building. Tickets are $20, and seating is limited. Visit www.youngarts.org/yellow-lounge to buy tickets in advance.
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