MUSE/IQUE, known for its counter-conventional performances that feel more like parties than formal concerts, launches "Summer of Sound" 2013 with "Lost in the Stars with Patti Austin," featuring the Grammy Award-winning legend, tonight, June 29, 2013, 7:30 pm, outdoors at Caltech's Beckman Mall in Pasadena.
Austin joins MUSE/IQUE Artistic Director Rachael Worby, who conducts the MUSE/IQUE Orchestra in a musical mash up of works by Brubeck, Beatles, Ellington, Weill, Paganini and more. Also spotlighted is critically acclaimed Concertmaster Robert Wilke. Gates open at 5:30 pm for dinner (ordered in advance) or bring-your-own picnics, with table and bleacher seating and plentiful free parking."'Summer of Sound' performances are 90 minutes of pure out-of the-box adventures in sound," says Worby, who founded MUSE/IQUE in 2011. "Linking master artists like Patti Austin with unexpected musical pairings represents what MUSE/IQUE is all about."Worby coaxes Austin, a "vocal powerhouse," to explore the far reaches of her staggering stylistic range with repertoire spanning Kurt Weill's Lost in the Stars and Ira Gershwin's Swanee, Slap that Bass and Lady Be Good to Tena Clark's emotional Way Up There (written for NASA's Space Shuttle Challenger), Duke Ellington's apt Sophisticated Lady and the Beatles' Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds. A special Paganini match up also features Austin on Sam Coslo's hip jazz tune Mr. Paganini, which follows a blistering performance by MUSE/IQUE Concertmaster Roger Wilke of the second movement of Paganini's tour de force Concert No. 2, one of the most difficult pieces ever written for violin. Other orchestral works include Glinka's Russina und Ludmilla Overture, a Dave Brubeck medley and Weill's New York Suites: September Song and Mack the Knife.Pictured: Patti Austin. Photo Credit: Carol Friedman.
Videos