Dmae Roberts features Classical Revolution PDX presenting the Lyrical Strings Duo CD Release. We'll talk with Lucia Conrad and Stephen Osserman about their new CD and get a live concert.
Portland-based Lyrical Strings Duo (Lucia Conrad on violin and Stephen Osserman on classical guitar) perform works from their debut album Evening Songs. Their CD features a variety of 19th and 20 century music including Chopin, Mendelssohn, Faure, Ponce and Kreisler. Their show also presents acclaimed cellist/singer Ashia Grzesik to open the evening.
They perform two beautiful songs live! More highlights from the show:
They both find Portland's indy music scene to allow them outside the box music opportunities...
Stephen: "Not a lot venues and space for those kind of activities back east but here now...it seems like every week there's a new interesting opportunity coming up."
Lucia's biggest challenge was to learn to improvise: "Because we are glued to the page. This is how we were trained. Since I was five, I've had a page in front of me."
Lucia's advice to young musicians: "Be professional. This is a small community and people will know if you're not being professional especially young people. Be serious about your art."
Listen this live concert and interview as they push the envelope in Classical music!
Concert info: August 23rd, 8pm at the Secret Society, 116 NE Russell St., Portland, OR
Tickets: $12 including copy of CD ($7 without CD).
For more info and CD, visit their site at: LyricalStringsDuo.com/EveningSongs/
About the duo:
Lucia and Stephen met through Classical Revolution PDX. In 2010 they formed the Lyrical Strings Duo, and they’ve been taking their music to the churches, parks, halls, and living rooms of the Northwest ever since. Lucia was born and raised in Czech Republic and is a graduate of the Prague Conservatory. She has appeared in both the United States and Europe as a soloist and chamber musician. Now based in Portland, she is the Concertmaster of the Willamette Falls Symphony, Assistant Concertmaster of the Salem Chamber Orchestra and the first violinist in many other regional orchestras and chamber groups.
For over a decade, Stephen has worked to take classical guitar to new places. As a student at the Yale School of Music – where he earned a Masters of Music in Guitar Performance – he collaborated with a wide array of artists, combining traditional guitar repertoire with dance, poetry, and theater. Recently he has focused on arranging Romantic Era works for the duo, many of which they plan to publish in 2013.
Evening Songs includes many of these arrangements. With a foundation of three Chopin Nocturnes, the album is a dark fantasia that weaves together a set of Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words, Ponce’s Mexican folk-inspired Estrellita, Kreisler’s nostalgic gypsy-infused La Gitana, introspective works by Satie, and more.
About Classical Revolution PDX
Classical Revolution PDX, a non-profit organization founded in 2007, has grown to a network of over two hundred musicians with a shared desire to make classical music a part of people's daily lives and chamber music a vibrant part of Portland’s artistic community.
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