Steeple Concerts launches new season with Vagabond Duo this Sunday at 5 PM
Steeple Concerts at St. Paul’s is excited to open its 2023-2024 season at 5pm on Sunday, September 24 with Vagabond, a duo performing on violin and accordion. The duo, based in England and opening their current US tour with this concert, features violinist Adam Summerhayes and accordionist Murray Grainger. The concert will be at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 414 East Broad Street, Westfield, NJ. The program will be followed by a reception at which you will have an opportunity to meet and greet the performers.
“Gypsy” music is smoke and mirrors; a virtuoso illusion—we all know what it sounds like, and the music is real enough, but it is not born of an ancient “Gypsy” tradition. Instead, centuries ago, traveling “Gypsies” (or Roma, as they are correctly known) began to twist the local music around them into tantalizing, mysterious and pulsating new versions. Hungarian “Gypsy” music is really mostly indigenous Hungarian folk music. As the Roma traveled west, they adapted their impressive musical skills—particularly on the violin. In addition, the klezmer influence is unmistakable. Despite its varied sources, “Gypsy” music remains one of the world’s most instantly recognizable musical brands: vibrant, expressive, sensuous and fiery.
Adam Summerhayes and Murray Grainger have been playing together for over a decade, performing at many festivals, including Glastonbury, Edinburgh Festival, and Shrewsbury Folk Festival. Their music has been broadcast on BBC Radio and they were awarded the Instrumental Album of the Year 2022 by the prestigious UK music magazine FATEA.
In addition to his career as a folk musician, Adam Summerhayes’s classical pedigree is impeccable, with direct links via his grandfather to the violinists who premiered Brahms’s and Tchaikovsky’s violin concertos. The New York Times has described his performance as “astonishing, all-out virtuosity”. Murray Grainger, one of Britain’s most influential and innovative accordionists, studied at the Royal Academy of Music and has performed with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Liverpool Philharmonic, and Scottish Ballet. An accomplished player of both piano and button key accordions (as well as the bandoneon and the accordina) he has collaborated with composers creating new works for the instrument.
This is sure to be a highlight of the 2023 musical season and a concert you will not want to miss!
Tickets to the concert are priced at $30 for adults and $15 for students, and are available on the Steeple Concerts website at www.steepleconcerts.org. More information about upcoming concerts in the 2023-2024 season is also available on the Steeple Concerts website. Parking for the concert is available in the St. Paul’s parking lot off Euclid Avenue or on St. Paul’s Street next to the church.