Urbanicity - Concerto for Electric Guitar and Orchestra - The New York Variations David Chesky, Bryan Baker, The Urbanicity Orchestra of New York

• David Chesky (b. 1956): Urbanicity:
• 1 Chesky: Urbanicity: Movement 1 06:42
• 2 Chesky: Urbanicity: Movement 2 06:25
• 3 Chesky: Urbanicity: Movement 3 07:57
• Concerto for Electric Guitar and Orchestra:
• 4 Chesky: Concerto for Electric Guitar and Orchestra: Movement 1 06:29
• 5 Chesky: Concerto for Electric Guitar and Orchestra: Movement 2 06:17
• 6 Chesky: Concerto for Electric Guitar and Orchestra: Movement 3 06:35
• The New York Variations:
• 7 Chesky. The New York Variations: Movement 1 06:53
• 8 Chesky: The New York Variations: Movement 2 10:05
• 9 Chesky: The New York Variations: Movement 3 05:51
• Total Runtime 01:03:14

Info zu Urbanicity - Concerto for Electric Guitar and Orchestra - The New York Variations

There have been ambitious attempts in the past at marrying the audacious power of electric guitar and the throbbing rhythms of rock music with a classically-trained, through-composed sensibility. Sixties rock guitar hero Frank Zappa, leader of the irreverent Mothers of Invention, composed large scale symphonic works like 1967’s Lumpy Gravy, 1979’s Orchestral Favorites and 1983’s London Symphony Orchestra, Vol. 1, though none of those prominently featured the electric guitar.

One-time No Wave guitarist and composer Rhys Chatham explored the concept of large guitar ensembles on his 1982 ballet Drastic Classicism, then later assembled 100 guitars for 1989’s An Angel Moves Too Fast To See and 400 guitars for 2005’s A Crimson Grail.

His colleague Glenn Branca explored the density and dissonance of alternate tunings in large guitar ensembles on majestic works like 1980’s Lesson No. 1, 1981’s The Ascension and 1983’s Symphony No. 3 while later composing for the traditional orchestra and guitar on 1987’s Symphony No. 7.

Others have tried their hand at this bridging of rock and classical worlds (Norwegian guitarist Terje Rypdal achieved a successful blend on his Double Concerto/5th Symphony with the Riga Festival Orchestra of Latvia and his Undisonus with London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra).

But none (save Zappa) has possessed the classical pedigree and compositional integrity to pull off this melding as honestly and organically as Grammy-nominated American composer David Chesky does on his Concerto for Electric Guitar and Orchestra. "My feeling is, we live in a contemporary age and we need to treat the electric guitar just like a violin," says Chesky. "It’s part of our vocabulary today. And for the orchestra world to survive, it needs to be contemporary and reflect the world around it."

"David Chesky deserves major props for writing one of the best "classical" pieces yet to incorporate the electric guitar--a wonderful instrument that lots of modern composers use, mostly terribly. Leonard Bernstein managed it, and a few others, but Chesky's concerto is at once excitingly virtuosic, cogently structured, and true to the instrument's roots in rock and popular music. It's exceptionally well played by Bryan Baker, who in the notes says he spent eight hours a day learning it. The effort shows, but only in a good way.

"Urbanicity and The New York Variations are ballets, which explains their rhythmic charge, but not their eclectic mixture of idioms and references, which are pure Chesky. Both have three movements. Urbanicity lives up to its title with a vengeance: the music might strike some listeners as overly relentless, but The New York Variations has more variety and (it seems to me) a wider expressive range. The performances, as in the concerto, are tip-top, and the sonics stunningly lifelike, with the electric guitar particularly well-balanced. A very enjoyable release by a distinctive compositional voice." (David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday)

"Composed by David Chesky, with 24 year-old Bryan Baker in the electric guitar chair, this very contemporary and arguably landmark orchestral work incorporates numerous cultural threads-including bits of, funk, metal, and '60s pop and rock-with Baker's exciting and virtuosic playing showcased throughout. This challenging but ultimately accessible music rewards with repeated listening." (HQ)

David Chesky, piano, musical director
Bryan Baker, guitar
The Urbanicity Orchestra of New York

David Chesky
Grammy-nominated David Chesky is a composer of orchestral works, operas and ballets, an author of children’s books, a jazz pianist, and a world-renowned innovator of audio technologies. Critics describe his music as “highly individualistic,” “memorable,” “dynamic” and “exotic.” David Chesky has earned great respect for his fresh and unique approach to musical compositions, which span the jazz and classical genres. Captivating audiences around the world, The New York Times raves, “Chesky combines a gritty sophistication with street-level energy and currents of exotic folkishness.”

Chesky developed his own style of composition heralded as “Urban Orchestral” music, merging classical techniques with sounds emanating from the streets of New York. This unique style has critics raving, “Chesky fuses diverse influences into a musical language all his own.” (Gramophone Magazine). This style produced genre-bending works including his Rap Symphony, and Concertos for electric guitar, piano, violin, and a double concerto for violin and cello, featured on 2011 albums Urbanicity and String Theory. Classics Today praised String Theory, “This music has integrity, and it gets under your skin.” His solo piano album, The New York Rags, was cited by The Absolute Sound as "being one of the best piano albums ever recorded." Chesky’s ballets, including Hope, commissioned and toured by Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, as well as his Central Park Dances, Urbanicity, and The New York Variations, reflect modern life in a fast city. His full-length children’s ballets, The Zephyrtine, and The Snowbears of Lake Louise, explore fantasy worlds while reinforcing the importance of cultural diversity and acceptance.

His distinctive sound has attracted numerous accolades, including Opera News giving David's Excommunication Mass for orchestra, choir and soloists its Critics pick of the month. Chesky received nominations from the Independent Music Awards in 2017 & 2018 for his recordings of The Venetian Concertos, and The Spanish Poems. His comedic adult operas, La Farranucci, Juliet and Romeo, and The Pig, the Farmer, have left audiences in laughter-filled tears. Opera News praised that “Chesky could turn out to be a one-man Brecht-Weill for the twenty-first century.”

Internationally renowned, Chesky served as the Composer-in-Residence for the National Symphony of Taiwan and in 2023 will be the featured composer at the Dresden Festival with his White Rose Trilogy Oratorio. His children’s opera The Mice War has been performed in Poland at Teatr Muzyczny, and at The National Theater of Taiwan in Chinese to sold-out audiences. With such a positive response, the libretto has been translated into Polish, Italian and Portuguese, and the DVD received accolades at the Newport Beach Film Festival, Dallas Kid Film Festival, and the Madrid International Film Festival and since has been turned into a full length animated film.

Chesky is committed to fostering music education in young children, fully aware that our audiences tomorrow depend on introducing classical music to today’s youth. Consequently, Chesky created the album Classical Cats™, a fun, endearing story that gives children an introduction to the orchestra and classical music, awarded Dr. Toy’s Recognition of Excellence. The Mice War reached international acclaim as an opera and film, and his children’s ballet Zephyrtine was reviewed as “Intended for children but musically sophisticated…” (Fanfare Magazine). Chesky is also the author of The Snowbears of Lake Louise™, a book and audio book that educates children about the importance of preserving the environment.

Miami native Chesky moved to New York in 1974 to officially begin his career as a musician. With an interest in both classical and jazz, he immediately began studying composition with Pulitzer Prize winner, David Del Tredici, and piano with John Lewis of the Modern Jazz Quartet. His blending of genres was first reflected in the culmination of his big band, The David Chesky Big Band, where he performed at every major jazz club and festival including The Village Vanguard, Storyville, and the Newport, JVC and Monterey Jazz Festivals. Still active as a jazz pianist today, Chesky plays and composes for his new group, Jazz in the New Harmonic, incorporating 12-tone and contemporary classical harmonies into jazz, and his Grammy-nominated Latin-jazz fusion, The Body Acoustic. David's latest jazz trio album is The Great European Songbook, in which he reharmonizes the music of Bach, Beethoven, and Chopin and sets them into a jazz palette.

Bryan Baker
has inspired and amazed audiences, reviewers and musicians alike since he began his professional career at the age of 12 with his utterly singular, versatile, and technically ferocious guitar style. Often blurring the lines between genres and idioms, Bryan's guitar style has carved out an immovable and impossible to replicate place for himself within the modern music scene.

Having received a full-tuition scholarship to attend the Los Angeles Music Academy at the age of 13, as well as a full-tuition scholarship to attend the renowned Berklee College of Music at the age of 16, Bryan's destiny as an artist to be reckoned with seems to have been written since his earliest days.

With nine critically-acclaimed solo albums to date, five world tours, a widely-sold instructional book and numerous performances with internationally recognized artists, Bryan's foothold in the international guitar scene is well placed, immovable, and ever-growing.

As Bryan develops both personally and musically, his relationship with teaching, and its ability to engender within his students the same fire, passion, and love for music that he feels daily has developed as well, leading Bryan to increasingly focus on that area of his musical life.

To take a lesson with Bryan is to go on a journey of philosophical, musical, and personal development; a journey where your growth as an artist is of the utmost importance; a journey from which you will leave refreshed, inspired, and renewed for new musical mountains to climb.

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