Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn in Concert
Venue: Moss Arts Center at Virginia Tech, Blacksburg
Organizations: Béla Fleck
Date: Friday, October 11, 2024
Time: 7:30 - 10:00 PM
Event Types: Music
Cost:

Description:
The Moss Arts Center at Virginia Tech presents Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn in concert on Friday, October 11, 2024.

Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn have a musical partnership like no other. A 15-time Grammy winner, Fleck is considered the world’s premier banjo player, while Washburn is a singer-songwriter and clawhammer banjo player who combines the instrument with Far East culture and sounds.

Using the banjo to showcase America’s rich heritage while pulling the noble instrument into new and unique realms, the duo presents music that feels wildly innovative and familiar at the same time. Fleck and Washburn perform pieces from their Grammy-winning self-titled debut, as well as their newest record, "Echo in the Valley".

Just in case you aren’t familiar with Bela Fleck, there are some who say he’s the world’s premier banjo player. Others claim that Béla has virtually reinvented the image and the sound of the banjo through a remarkable performing and recording career that has taken him all over the musical map and on a range of solo projects and collaborations. If you are familiar with Béla, you know that he just loves to play the banjo, and put it into unique settings.

The recipient of multiple Grammy Awards and nominations going back to 1998, Béla Flecks’ total Grammy count is 15 Grammys won with 30 nominations. He has been nominated in more categories than any instrumentalist in Grammy history.

After graduation he joined the Boston-based bluegrass band Tasty Licks and recorded two albums with the group. In 1979 Fleck made his solo recording debut with Crossing the Tracks. He then toured with the Kentucky-based band Spectrum before joining the progressive bluegrass group New Grass Revival (NGR), with which he performed and recorded throughout the 1980s. While with NGR he also produced a number of solo albums, including the highly acclaimed Drive (1988). Following the release of NGR’s final album, Friday Night in America (1989), Fleck recorded The Telluride Sessions (1989), a landmark bluegrass album, with the all-star acoustic group Strength in Numbers. By this time Fleck’s technical proficiency on the banjo and his adventurous musical experimentation had earned him an international following.

Meanwhile, in 1988, Fleck assembled the Flecktones, the group with which he would record most consistently for the next two decades. In all of its manifestations, the Flecktones blended elements of bluegrass, jazz, rock, rhythm and blues, and world music on albums. The original Flecktones reunited for the first time in almost two decades for Rocket Science (2011), a Grammy Award-winning collection that was equally playful and provocative.

Between Flecktones recordings, Fleck continued to enrich his musical palette. While collaborating with numerous musicians, such as bassist and cellist Edgar Meyer and Indian tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain, he also ventured into classical music with the release of Perpetual Motion, a compilation of interpretations of works by Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, and others. In 2005 he made a pilgrimage to the birthplace of the banjo, sub-Saharan Africa, where he studied, recorded, and performed with an array of locally prominent traditional and popular musicians. The trip yielded the documentary Throw Down Your Heart (2008) and its companion album Throw Down Your Heart: Tales from the Acoustic Planet, Vol. 3 (2009).

He joined clawhammer banjo player Abigail Washburn on Abigail Washburn and the Sparrow Quartet (2008), a bold experiment that fused American roots music and traditional Chinese folk songs. Fleck and Washburn were later married, and the two frequently performed and recorded together.

Links:

• https://www.belafleck.com/
• https://www.facebook.com/belafleckbanjo
• https://www.twitter.com/belafleckbanjo
• http://www.instagram.com/belafleckbanjo

Adults tickets range from $25.00-$65.00 and tickets for Virginia Tech student tickets with ID and youth ages 18 & under are $10.00 each.

To purchase tickets online, visit: https://tickets.artscenter.vt.edu/online/mapSelect.asp?doWork::WSmap::loadMap=Load&createBO::WSmap=1&BOparam::WSmap::loadMap::performance_ids=59DF5542-9807-4375-97AC-6E8456632930.

The Moss Arts Center at Virginia Tech is located at 330 Turner Street NW in Blacksburg, VA.

For more information, visit: https://artscenter.vt.edu/performances/bela-fleck-abigail-washburn.html or https://www.facebook.com/artscenteratvt or https://www.instagram.com/artscenteratvt/ or call 540-231-5300.