A Big Weekend of Music!

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_EJ0lIjwuICellosplosion

at S.P.Q.R.; 8 pm, Thursday, August 18th.  $5-7 suggested donation.  Please join us for a great night of music—three out-of-town bands that involve celli!  A rare and sonorous night to be sure!  We’ll have The Loneliest Monk from Chicago, Lisa Show from Denver, and Ian Cooke, also from Denver.

Real-life couple Michelle Morales (master cellist, keyboardist, vocalist) and Miles Benjamin (percussion, vocals, tiny piano) comprise The Loneliest Monk and create an ethereal mix of classical, art-rock and chamber pop that is at once beautiful, sexy, mysterious and cool.

“a masquerade ball… Songs often sound as though they’re cobbled together from old ghosts and memories.” – Chicago Tribune

Hailing from completely different musical backgrounds, Morales and Benjamin have created a sound that is completely unique, simultaneously embracing the past while looking to the future. With her delicate beauty and lovely voice, Morales has played live with legendary artists including Phillip Glass, Kanye West and The Foo Fighters. The masked man Miles Benjamin owns the drum kit, adding mystery and ominous undertones to the party. The Loneliest Monk live performances are not just rock shows…they are happenings. Incorporating cellos, pianos, organs, drums, and samples with elaborate costumes, masks and sets, The Loneliest Monk stand alone by combining the avant-garde, gothic and fantastical to create an entirely invigorating live experience. Be warned: you may fall in love.

Ian Cooke makes art for your ears using his cello and voice as core instruments for songwriting. Components of his style are pulled from classical music, pop, folk, avant-garde, world music, and jazz. Cooke’s recordings also employ piano and percussion. The piano was his first instrument, which he began playing at age 5, and picked up the cello at age 11. Paying special attention to innovative meter, chord progression, and melody, the Denver-based musician breeds a truly original and moving type of music.

Cooke was voted the top musician in the 2009 Denver Post Underground Music Poll. Westword Magazine named him Best Avant Pop, as well as Best Album for 2007 for ”The Fall I Fell.” He has appeared in SPIN magazine, played the Toronto Pride Festival, and has toured Australia and the US playing with The Dresden Dolls, The Decemberists, Flaming Lips, Built to Spill, and many more.

Lisa Show, a former denizen of Colorado Springs, spends her time in Denver these days.  Her unique brand of sexy hate-folk involves the masterful use of her plugged in cello coupled with ethereal vocals.

Then on Friday

The Modbo presents Violin for Vasculitis, an evening of chamber music with violinist Allison Lint and pianist Lauren Andrus on Friday, August 19th, at 7 pm.  Donations accepted.
Allison Lint, an Oberlin Conservatory graduate and Akron, Ohio-based musician, was diagnosed with Wegener’s Granulomatosis at the age of 17.  Now in remission, she is launching a nationwide project to bring awareness and research funds to vascular disease.  “Violin for Vasculitis” or “V4V,” is a 50-state tour.  As a participant in the Colorado College Summer Music Festival in 2010, Lint played a collaborative outreach concert at The Modbo.  She was inspired by her experience there to include Colorado on her tour agenda.  Along with pianist Lauren Andrus, Lint will present a program of works by Schumann, Kreisler, Brahms, and more.
Ohio native Allison Lint is a 2009 graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory, where she studied violin performance and received a minor in Music History. She is an alumna of the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Colorado College Summer Music Festival. In addition to violin, Allison is also a prize-winning violist and piano accompanist in the Akron, Ohio area. She is a regular pit musician for several theaters in NE Ohio; her favorite shows have been My Fair Lady, Fiddler on the Roof and You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown! Allison has been invited to participate in masterclasses with Gil Shaham, Anner Bylsma, Vadim Gluzman, and Midori.

In addition to classical violin, Allison has a strong interest in rock and contemporary styles, and performed live onstage with Los Angeles-based band The Strange Familiar (seen in the top 48 of NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” season 5). Allison is currently the strings instructor at three independent music schools in Northeast Ohio, and also maintains a private studio. When not playing music, she enjoys tennis, classic literature, and traveling. The present year sees her traveling to 7 states to perform, educate, and raise awareness of vascular disease through the Violin for Vasculitis project (www.facebook.com/violin4vasculitis). Allison currently plays on an 1826 Scottish fiddle.

Lauren Andrus (nee’ Ciborowski) began playing piano at the age of 5 and has not stopped since her mastery of “The Little Tugboat.” The daughter of a retired Army dentist and an artist, she has lived, and thus performed and studied, all over the United States and Germany. Lauren graduated cum laude from Colorado College in 2004 with her BA in Southwest Studies and her minor in German. She spent the three subsequent years working as a Native American tribal liaison for a natural gas pipeline company. She is now thrilled to be working in the arts: teaching piano, accompanying for ballet classes at Colorado College, and playing chamber music. Lauren also enjoys dance, and is a member of Sansara, a local modern dance company.   Lauren and her husband Brett own The Modbo and S.P.Q.R., two multi-functional arts spaces in downtown Colorado Springs.  These spaces are home to many musical adventures and collaborations, including nights of opera, Cabaret, and rock/classical mash-ups.