Barefield's Music & the Cosmos

Read more at artxdetroit.com/artist/a-spencer-barefield/
Photo: ©2011 Barbara Barefield 

ArtXDetroit: Jazz Meets Classical
A. Spencer Barefield's Music & The Cosmos

When internationally renown jazz guitarist and composer A. Spencer Barefield is not creating music, he is researching Black Holes, String Theory and other mysteries of the universe. As a 2010 Kresge Arts Fellow, Barefield had the opportunity to merge these passions with two unique presentations of his Music & The Cosmos project at the ArtXDetroit Festival and perform with other worldclass musicians, such as Detroit Symphony Concertmaster Emmanuelle Boisvert and Canada's Juno Award-Winner bassist David Young.

Night One, Music & The Cosmos, Thursday, April 7, 8:30 pm, First Congregational Church (33 E. Forest at Woodward—a station of the Underground Railroad): Barefield's nine-piece chamber jazz ensemble "Super String Symphonica" features violinists Detroit Symphony Concertmaster Emmanuelle Boisvert and Jannina Barefield Norpoth, bassist Dave Young and guitarist A. Spencer Barefield. Other musicians included violists John Madison (Detroit Symphony, Michigan Opera Theatre and Sphinx) and James Greer (MOT and Sphinx), cellists Sarah Cleveland and Martin Torch-Ishii, and percussionist Djallo Djakate Keita. A three-decade retrospective of Barefield's compositions arranged for classical strings and jazz trio take listeners on a journey into outer and inner space.

"This is an amazing opportunity to perform my music with spectacular musicians such as Emmanuelle Boisvert," said Barefield, "Emmanuelle and I share several things in common in addition to our love of music: we both play instruments handmade by Troy-based luthier Peter Psarianos, and we both long to perform on the stage of Orchestra Hall, the original site for my concert. I have dreamed about presenting my music for strings in the acoustically magnificent Orchestra Hall. However, we are honoring the DSO musicians' strike, so the concert is being held at the grand, historic First Congregational Church."  (note: after 6 months, the strike ended several days prior to the concert)

Night Two, Music & The Cosmos, Friday, April 8, 7 pm, Science Center Planetarium (5020 John R Street, Detroit): A multi-media visual and audio journey through the universe with photos, videos, light, sound, music, jazz and discussion exploring the relationships between music and the cosmos. A great event for families to introduce young people to the relationships between music and science. A. Spencer Barefield on guitars and narration with Dave Young on bass and Djallo Djakate Keita on percussion.

Art X Detroit was a free, five-day series of exhibitions, presentations, readings, discussions, concerts, and dance performances for the Detroit community. Art X will showcase newly commissioned works from the 36 winners of Kresge Artist Fellowships — including 2010 Kresge Arts Fellow A. Spencer Barefield — and its two Eminent Artists, renowned visual artist Charles McGee and iconic jazz musician Marcus Belgrave. This first-ever public celebration of the 2008-2010 Kresge Artists will take place from April 6-10, 2011, in many cultural organizations located in Midtown Detroit.




For information regarding presenting Barefield's Music and the Cosmos programs, call 313-891-2514 or email barbarabarefield@aol.com.