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Béla Fleck & Abigail Washburn

Friday, October 28, 2022 @ 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

Adult: $39-$55 • Student: $17.50 • Youth (18 & under): $7.50

Buyers choose their own assigned seats for this presentation at Mechanics Hall.

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Music Worcester thanks the following sponsors of this presentation:

Mass Cultural Council logo
Mass Cultural Council logo

Béla Fleck & Abigail Washburn

Béla Fleck & Abigail Washburn, “the king and queen of the banjo” (Paste Magazine), have a musical partnership like no other. Béla Fleck is a fifteen-time Grammy Award winner who has taken the instrument across multiple genres, and Abigail Washburn a singer-songwriter and clawhammer banjo player who re-radicalized it by combining it with Far East culture and sounds. The two met at a square dance, began collaborating musically and eventually fell in love. Over the years, they played together most visibly in the Sparrow Quartet alongside Ben Sollee and Casey Driessen and informally at a pickin’ party here, a benefit there, or occasionally popping up in each other’s solo shows. Fans of tradition-tweaking acoustic fare eagerly anticipated that Béla & Abigail would begin making music together as a duo.

Fleck has the virtuosic, jazz-to-classical ingenuity of an iconic instrumentalist and composer with bluegrass roots. His collaborations range from his ground-breaking standard-setting ensemble Béla Fleck and the Flecktones to a staggeringly broad array of musical experiments. From writing concertos for full symphony orchestra, exploring the banjo’s African roots, to jazz duos with Chick Corea, many tout that Béla Fleck is the world’s premier banjo player. Washburn has the earthy sophistication of a postmodern, old-time singer-songwriter who has drawn critical acclaim for her solo albums. She has done fascinating work in folk musical diplomacy in China, presented an original theatrical production, and has contributed to singular side groups Uncle Earl and The Wu-Force. In addition to being named a TED Fellow in 2012, Abigail was recently named the first US-China Fellow at Vanderbilt University, in addition to Carolina Performing Arts/Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s DisTil Fellow for 2018-2020.

On stage, Fleck & Washburn will perform pieces from their Grammy-winning self-titled debut as well as their new record, Echo in the Valley (Rounder 2017). With one eye on using the banjo to showcase America’s rich heritage and the other pulling the noble instrument from its most familiar arena into new and unique realms, Bela & Abigail meet in the mean, head-on, to present music that feels wildly innovative and familiar at the same time. Whether at home, on stage or on record, their deep bond, combined with the way their distinct musical personalities and banjo styles interact, makes theirs a picking partnership unlike any other on the planet.

Pre-Concert Talk

From the Plantation to the Concert Hall: Hearing The Art of the Banjo
7:00 PM in Washburn Hall (2nd Floor of Mechanics Hall) — Free Entry

In this pre-concert talk, Taylor Ackley will present a brief history of the banjo and its role in American music. He will trace the instrument’s journey from its origins among enslaved people into the hills of Appalachia and its recent emergence as a tool for creative expression by celebrated, contemporary artists like Abigail Washburn and Béla Fleck.

With a specific focus on the banjo’s shifting cultural iconography and the evolution of wildly different playing styles, this talk wild guide the audience beyond knowing the story of this instrument to hearing the many stories the banjo can tell.

Paste Magazine

…the king and queen of the banjo…

ON Youtube

Béla Fleck

Enjoy Béla Fleck’s full collection of live performance videos and more on his YouTube channel:

Details

Date:
Friday, October 28, 2022
Time:
8:00 pm - 10:00 pm
Event Category:

Venue

Mechanics Hall
321 Main Street
Worcester, Massachusetts 01608
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Phone
508-799-1463
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Organizer

Music Worcester