Carmel Symphony Orchestra Artistic Director Janna Hymes has long wanted to perform with double bassist Edgar Meyer.
“Edgar Meyer has won multiple Grammys and he is someone I have admired for years,” Hymes said. “We were students at the Aspen Music Festival many years ago and his experience as a versatile and virtuosic musician is legendary.”
Meyer, who has won five Grammy Awards, was set to perform with the Carmel Symphony Orchestra March 14, 2020, but the performance was canceled because of the pandemic lockdowns.
Meyer will finally appear with the CSO at 7:30 p.m. April 23 in the Masterworks 5 concert at the Palladium at the Center for the Performing Arts in Carmel.
“We have been performing regularly and have our fingers crossed that the pandemic is behind us, yet we are optimistically cautious,” Hymes said. “This concert means a lot because of the music on the program and the quality of the playing the orchestra has been delivering lately. We have been performing in various ways throughout the past two years and now that our schedules have aligned, we can finally present this concert with Edgar Meyer.”
Meyer will perform during “Bottesini Concerto No 2 in B minor” and “Edgar Meyer Concerto in Double Bass in D.”
“Several years ago, Edgar released a self-titled solo recording on which he wrote and recorded all of the music, incorporating piano, guitar, mandolin, dobro, banjo, gamba and double bass — simply a remarkable demonstration of musical mastery,” Hymes said.
Meyer said he doesn’t have a favorite piece in the Masterworks concert.
“I’m just glad to be playing,” he said.
Meyer said he has never been busier than he ever has been the past six to eight months as more concert venues return to normal scheduling.
“I am ready for a breather,” he said.
Meyer has had several memorable collaborations with singer-songwriter Chris Thile, a duo with Béla Fleck; a quartet with Joshua Bell, Sam Bush and Mike Marshall; a trio with Fleck and Marshall; and a trio with Yo-Yo Ma and Mark O’Connor.
“Collaboration is fundamental to my musical life,” Meyer said. “I could give a hundred examples, but I will stick to a couple. If a person is trying to improve their rhythm, it can help to do basic things like recording practice and working with a metronome. However, there will come a point where it seems like everything is ‘in time,’ yet it doesn’t feel right. All people have blind spots of this nature, and the most effective remedy for this is to play with people who have a better feel than you do. The blind spots will come to the surface in this situation, and one is obliged to correct the things that are not comfortable
“Also, music has been a 61-year educational process for me, and the most important teachers have been the amazing musicians that I have worked with.”
Meyer, a Tulsa, Okla., native, graduated from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music.
“I loved going to school in Bloomington,” Meyer said. “I had a great time and simultaneously learned a tremendous amount.”
Selections scheduled for Masterworks 5 include familiar pieces “The Entertainer” by Scott Joplin; “Lullaby for Strings” and “An American in Paris” by George Gershwin; and “Pirates of the Caribbean” by Hans Zimmer.
For more, visit carmelsymphony.org and edgarmeyer.com.
