MEDIA RELEASE

www.banffcentre.ca

For Immediate Release
November 29, 2001

Edgar Meyer, the double bass virtuoso who has made waves as both a vibrant performer and an accomplished composer, performs at The Banff Centre on Friday, December 7 at 7:30 pm in Rolston Recital Hall. Edgar Meyer has had a long association with the Centre, and first came as faculty in the music program in 1987. He performs on Friday with musicians currently in residence at The Banff Centre. Repertoire includes Richard Strauss' Metamorphosis Suite, Schubert’s Trout, and Meyer’s own Trout Variations.

A master instrumentalist and chameleon of styles, Edgar Meyer has established himself as a performer and an innovative composer in a variety of arenas from classical to bluegrass. His virtuosity and musicianship inspired one critic to call him, "quite simply, the best bassist alive."

As an exclusive Sony Classical artist, Meyer energetically explores new musical territory, blending his own unique style with classical and folk traditions. Meyer’s collaboration with Yo-Yo Ma and Mark O-Connor on the widely acclaimed Appalachia Waltz was immensely popular, winning the Grammy Award for Best Classical Crossover Album in 2001.

More recently, Meyer collaborated with bluegrass musicians Mike Marshall and Béla Fleck to produce Uncommon Ritual, which blended bluegrass (and other folk styles) and classical music.

Meyer began studying bass at the age of five under the instruction of his father, and continued later with Stuart Sankey. He is the winner of numerous competitions and in 1994 he became the first bassist to receive the Avery Fisher Career Grant. Meyer premiered his Bass Concerto in 1993 with Edo de Waart and the Minnesota Orchestra, and in 1995 he premiered his Quintet for Bass and String Quartet in collaboration with the Emerson String Quartet. With a grant from the Meet the Composer/Reader’s Digest Commissioning Programme, Meyer composed his Double Concerto for Bass and Cello, which he premiered in 1995 with Carter Brey on cello and Jeffrey Kahane conducting the San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival Orchestra.

Collaborations have always been the cornerstone of Meyer's work. From 1986 until 1992 he was a member of the progressive bluegrass band Strength in Numbers, with members Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Béla Fleck and Mark O'Connor. Today he performs regularly in a nouveau bluegrass trio with guitarist Russ Barenberg and dobroist Jerry Douglas, and he works regularly with pianist Amy Dorfman, his long-time accompanist, on solo recitals of classical repertoire and his own compositions. In addition, Meyer has appeared as a guest musician on a wide assortment of recordings, with such artists as Garth Brooks, Bruce Cockburn, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Hank Williams, Jr., Emmylou Harris, James Taylor, Lyle Lovett, T-Bone Burnett, Reba McIntyre, the Indigo Girls, Travis Tritt and the Chieftains.

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