The Thurber Theater: Michael Thurber’s 30th Birthday Concert

Whether playing bass on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, composing music for the Royal Shakespeare Company, or co-founding the smash YouTube channel CDZA, Composer/Bassist Michael Thurber has forged a completely individual path that defies genre and category.  His latest projects include: “The Booty Call”, a one-man musical that he wrote and performed for a 4 week run at The Barrow Group Theater in 2016, and “Love Letters” a new violin concerto for violinist Tessa Lark.  This fall, Michael will write the music for The Public Theater’s production of Twelfth Night, as well as playing the role of Antonio.  

www.michaelthurber.org

Silver Medalist of the 9th Quadrennial International Violin Competition of Indianapolis and winner of the Naumburg International Violin Award in 2012, Tessa Lark is one of the most captivating artistic voices of her time. She has been consistently praised by critics and audiences alike for her astounding range of sounds, technical agility and musical elegance. Tessa is a recipient of a 2016 Avery Fisher Career Grant, and has also received a career grant from the Leonore Annenberg Fellowship Fund.  She plays on the 1683 ex-Gingold Stradivari violin.

Not only confined to classical violin, Mr. Yang’s improvisational crossover abilities as a violinist, electric violinist, and vocalist have led him to featured performances with a variety of artists at The Aspen Music Festival, The Cayman Arts Festival, The YouTube Music Awards, The Moab Music Festival, TED, Caramoor, Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center’s Metropolitan Opera House, David H. Koch Theater, and Dizzy’s Club among many others. He has performed in the presence of two former US Presidents, the Queen of Denmark and has recently shared the stage in collaborations with artists including Peter Dugan, CDZA, Steve Miller, Jesse Colin Young, Jake Shimabukuro, Ray Benson, Michael Gordon, Bang on a Can All-Stars, Marcelo Gomes, Twyla Tharp, Misty Copeland and Jon Batiste.

Praised by Opera News for his “exemplary clarinet playing,” Mark Dover’s vast array of musical experiences have helped him quickly establish himself as one of the most diverse clarinetists of his generation. In January of 2016, Mark was appointed the new clarinetist of Imani Winds. More than North America’s premier wind quintet, the Grammy-nominated Imani Winds were recently named the University of Chicago Don Michael Randel Ensemble-in-Residence, 2016-2018. Currently, Imani Winds are an Ensemble-In-Residence at Mannes College of Music, The New School.

Eddie Barbash plays American roots music on alto saxophone. He is a founding member and the lyrical core of Jon Batiste Stay Human, the house band for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. He has performed with stars in almost every genre, including jazz with Wynton Marsalis, rock with Lenny Kravitz, country with Vince Gill, funk with Parliament, and classical with Yo-Yo Ma. He brings his horn and sensibility to Texas and Appalachian fiddle tunes, bluegrass, old time, R&B, soul, and classic New Orleans.

CATO is a Grammy-nominated and internationally acclaimed multi-instrumentalist, producer, and songwriter. He has worked with some of the most influential acts in music, such as Bobby McFerrin, Snarky Puppy, A Tribe Called Quest, Jack White, Marcus Miller, John Scofield, David Sanborn, and George Duke. Currently, Cato is featured nightly on CBS’s “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” as a member of Jon Batiste and Stay Human.