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Rock/classical 'Interlooping' at Gobin Wednesday evening
Michael Kelsey, a genre-fusing rock guitarist and singer-songwriter, and recent DePauw University music graduate Seth Tsui, a classical trombonist, rock singer and audio engineer, will combine forces in this week's Greencastle Summer Music Festival concert at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Gobin Memorial United Methodist Church.
"Seth and Michael are two of the most amazing creative musicians I know," DePauw music professor Eric Edberg, the festival's founder and director, said.
Since both performers make frequent use of "looping" devices, in which passages of music are recorded in real time and repeated while additional layers are added, the concert has been titled "Interlooping."
The program is another experiment in diversifying the programming of the summer festival, now in its seventh season.
"My biggest professional interest is how classical musicians and institutions can engage new, and younger, audiences while maintaining artistic integrity," Edberg said.
"While on sabbatical this spring in New York, I discovered that for many musicians and audiences, especially under 35, the distinctions between musical genres, like 'classical' and 'rock' and 'blues' and 'folk,' have lost their validity. So in programming this summer's concerts, I've been experimenting with combining genres."
This week there will be rock-inspired music along with some classical music, including a piece in which Tsui will be accompanied by DePauw piano professor Claude Cymerman."
Tsui is one of an emerging class of musicians merging performance, composition and audio engineering. He performs as both a classical trombonist and a rock singer with his band, Addictive Stranger. He also owns his own recording company, Melting Skies Audio.
During this concert, he will be playing his acclaimed composition, "Ghosts of Extinct Elephants for Trombone and Electronics" as well as showcasing his looping abilities in several rock numbers and demonstrating his vision for the trombone as a 21st-century instrument.
Kelsey has been known to blend musical genres with fervor and grace. Born and raised in Lafayette, he began his musical journey in and out of successful area bands as lead guitarist or bassist.
"There is a five-piece band in my head," Kelsey said. "They all have different tastes in music and they are all trying to escape at the same time through my hands, feet and mouth. I hang onto an acoustic guitar and see what happens."
Whether he's creating a song spontaneously, telling a story complete with sound effects, or letting an inspired moment move his fingers around the fret board, Kelsey never performs the same show twice.
After performing an opening set for David Wilcox, the folk artist described Kelsey's show as "Cirque Du Soleil on acoustic guitar."
Kelsey's abilities have enabled him to be noticed by many. A finalist in Guitar Player Magazine's national competition and winner of Guitar Center's "Guitarmageddon," chosen as best unsigned guitarist out of over 3,000 entrants nationwide, says it all. That allowed him to be apart of Eric Clapton's Crossroads 2004 performance where he shared the stage with guitar legends such as Santana, Steve Vai and Clapton.
He has toured nationally with Blind Melon and Dishwalla and has opened shows for artists such as The Doobie Brothers, 38 Special and the California Guitar Trio.