The University of Illinois’ student chapter of the National Band Association and the Sousa Archives are sponsoring a special performance clinic on October 11 in the School of Music Auditorium. This will be a casual performance and conversation with the KASA and Eddie Barbash jazz ensembles for current and future music educators to discuss innovative ways to incorporate jazz, classical, and old-time music traditions into public school music instruction. This special program is connected with this year’s Urbana-Champaign Folk and Roots Festival which will kick off on Thursday evening at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. For further information about this clinic contact either Emily McGovern at NBA or Scott Schwartz at Sousa Archives.
Andy Liang, Aaron Schwartz, Stephanie Price-Wong and Kyle Price founded the KASA Quartet in summer 2016. The quartet earned first prize during the 2017 Coltman Chamber Music Competition. Critics have described KASA as one of the country’s newest rock stars of the string quartet because of its fluency in multiple genre-defining music styles that fuse classical string repertoire with jazz, musical theater, folk, and pop standards. The ensemble has taught and performed as featured artists for the Ravinia Festival, Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Austin Chamber Music Center, Second City Chamber Series, Miami Music Project, and the Chamber Music Connection. KASA holds a regular summer residency at New York’s Caroga Lake Music Festival and the award-winning quartet released its debut album, Forever Wild, Volume 1, in August, which also features Eddie Barbash.
Eddie Barbash, best known for his American roots music performances on the alto saxophone, is a founding member of Jon Batiste’s Stay Human ensemble, the house band for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Eddie’s saxophone performances regularly weave old-time fiddle, bluegrass, rhythm and blues, soul, and classical New Orleans, Texas and Appalachian melodies into colorful kaleidoscopes of sound that meld beautifully with the KASA Quartet. He debuted at Carnegie Hall in 2013, and has performed at major music festivals worldwide since then. Currently living in New York City, Eddie has held regular residencies at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, the Django, and the Manderley Bar in Chelsea.
Listen to the KASA Quartet’s performance of Gershwin’s “Prelude No. 1” arranged for string quartet by Aaron Schwartz.</p>
Listen to Eddie Barbash’s performance of Kyle Athayde’s arrangement of “I’ve Only Got Eyes for You” with the KASA.