Art Garfunkel Comes to MPAC Tonight

Art Garfunkel, who has one of the most distinct voices in the history of pop music, performs at Mayo Performing Arts Center tonight, October 10, 2015 at 8 pm. Tickets are $39-79.

Although it has been 40 years since Bridge Over Troubled Water was recorded, Art Garfunkel's image and signature vocal remain among the most instantly recognizable in popular music. His "beautiful countertenor," as Neil Strauss described Art's voice in The New York Times, is clear and resonant, surely one of the finest instruments in all of popular music, and a time-honored friend to a world of listeners.

The dialogue began for Art at age four, when his father brought home one of the first wire recorders. "That got me into music more than anything else," he recalls, "singing and being able to record it." Seven years later he was singing Everly Brothers songs at school talent shows with a partner, Paul Simon, from his Forest Hills neighborhood in Queens, New York. "Then rhythm 'n blues, rock 'n roll came along." He and Paul set their sights on the Brill Building. "We practiced in the basement so much that we got professional sounding. We made demos in Manhattan and knocked on all the doors of the record companies with our hearts in our throats." In 1957, 'Tom and Jerry' (as they were called then) landed a recording contract. Their first 45, "Hey, Schoolgirl" (which they wrote together) scored a moderate hit and they appeared on "American Bandstand" as high school seniors. "

They started performing as Simon & Garfunkel at the height of the folk music boom in late-1963. Simon & Garfunkel maintained a tireless pace in the recording studio and on the road, reaching a wide and loyal international audience. From 1964 to 1970 they recorded a groundbreaking string of classic albums (Wednesday Morning 3 A.M., Sounds Of Silence, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, The Graduate, Bookends, and Bridge Over Troubled Water) and an equally impressive body of songs, many of which became pop standards, among them; "The Sound Of Silence," "Homeward Bound," "I Am a Rock," "Kathy's Song," "April Come She Will," "For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her," "At the Zoo," "A Hazy Shade of Winter," "America," "Scarborough Fair/Canticle," "Mrs. Robinson," "The Boxer," "Bridge Over Troubled Water," "Cecilia," "El Condor Pasa," and "My Little Town."

Garfunkel's solo works include Angel Clare, Breakaway, Watermark and Scissors Cut. Regarding Scissors Cut, Stephen Holden in Rolling Stone wrote, this is "Art Garfunkel's finest album, easily justifies his unfashionable formal approach to pop music by its sheer aural beauty." Shortly after the release of Scissor Cut, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel reunited for a concert in New York's Central Park before a crowd of 500,000. Following up on the success of the concert, HBO special and live album (Platinum), the duo undertook a worldwide tour in 1982-83.

In the mid-1980's, Art's obsession with long-distance walking began to come into focus, starting with a three week hike across the rice paddies and back roads of Japan in 1982. By 1984, his walk across America was a major part of his annual schedule. Concurrently, "I became a writer for the first time in my life," he says, "not a songwriter, but a literary guy." A collection of his prose poetry, Still Water, was published in 1989.

In 2003, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel accepted the Grammy's Lifetime Achievement Award and performed "Sound of Silence" to open the live broadcast. Paul and Art decided the time was right for a reunion and announced a worldwide tour that would continue into 2004.
Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel performed together at Madison Square Garden on September 20, 2005 in "From The Big|Brave Apple to The Big|Brave Easy," a concert for long term relief and rebuilding in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The duo sang "Bridge Over Troubled Water," Homeward Bound" and "Mrs. Robinson." The concert raised $9 million for long-term relief from the hurricane.

"I feel somewhat different from many people in the extraordinary amount of good fortune that fell into my lap and made up my life," Art muses. "I rehearsed a lot in my teenage years and really sought after what this country holds, good fortune for those who go after it with hard work. But I do feel as I pass through the country, it's a charmed life. I grew up with a lot of love in my family, so I have the five senses with which to glean the richness of this land as I pass through it."