Fri 2/28 @ 7:30PM
The members of Russian Renaissance come from all parts of that vast nation but they came together, not surprisingly, in Moscow. Using traditional folk instruments — balalaika, balalaika contrabasso, domra and button accordion — they do far more than play Russian folk music. In addition, they toss in some classical music, jazz and tango to come up with a hard-to-define mix. They might play anything from J.S. Bach to Duke Ellington to Bela Fleck to Django Reinhardt to Pyotr Tchaikovsky.
Founded in 2015, the group really launched when it won the $100,000 M-Prize Chamber Music Competition at the University of Michigan, demonstrating that their chops and their creativity are both on a really high level. They’ll be performing at Oberlin College’s Finney Chapel as part of its Artist Recital Series. Tickets are $35; $30 for seniors, military and Oberlin staff, faculty and alumni; $10 for all students.
In addition, the group will do a talk called “World Music with a Russian Soul: What We Do and How We Do It” in the Birenbaum Innovation and Performance Space n the lower level of the Hotel at Oberlin) from 12:30-1:30pm the same day. That’s free and open to the public.