Sunday, March 21, 2021 - 4pm
$15 youth, $20 Senior/Student, $25 general admission
Tickets available through Eventbrite
You can sample some of their work here.
VITAMIN EM: Formed in 2015 by Grammy®-nominated and award-winning musicians from around the Bay Area, Vitamin Em celebrates jazz, funk, R&B, soul and fiddle music with verve and enthusiasm. The band is serious about having fun, and its members, steeped in an abundance of musical traditions – jazz, funk, blues, Klezmer, indie, rock, Balkan, fiddle, classical – bring a wealth of experience, creativity and fearless improvisation to each performance. For their 2017 debut CD “Shake it Up”, Vitamin Em put their creative spin on the music of Tower of Power, Blood Sweat and Tears, Väsen and Duke Ellington along with their own hip-hop and contemporary music-inspired originals. This band is about sharing with audiences a fun-loving spontaneity and exhilaration for the groove. Vitamin Em has appeared around the Bay Area as featured artists with: Mason Bates and Mercury Soul; Berkeley Symphony & Friends; Pt. Richmond Jazz. Members can also be found performing with the Hot Club of San Francisco, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, The Brothers Comatose, Randy Brecker, the Klezmatics, at SF Jazz or in the pit of Hamilton and the San Francisco Ballet.
The concert will be broadcast via YouTube Premiere, which feels just like a live concert, with all the features of a live broadcast you've come to expect from Calliope -- high-quality audio and video, synchronous viewing, live chat with the artists and other music lovers -- but allows us to capture Vitamin Em's performance a few days in advance when they had an opening in their calendar, then "air" it for all of you with a watch party on concert day.
THIS CONCERT WILL ALSO BE AVAILABLE "ON-DEMAND" for the week following the premiere. After the initial broadcast, you may watch it as often as you like, whenever you like.
Concert Program:
(Subject to Artistic Inspiration in the Moment)
Fanclub - E. Onderdonk
The Phoenix - A. Lien and B. Ole Rasch; arr. E. Onderdonk
Money - P. Brezina ; arr. E. Onderdonk
Hasse A’s M. Marin ; arr. E. Onderdonk
Never Tear Us Apart - A. Farris/M. Hutchence
Mercy, Mercy, Mercy - J. Zawinul ; arr. E. Onderdonk
Tongue in Cheek - E. Onderdonk/ Beautiful Child E. Onderdonk
Shake it Up - P. Taylor ; arr. E. Onderdonk
Artist Profiles:
Emily Onderdonk: Viola Emily began her career as a violist while getting her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at the Manhattan School of Music. Her first major gig was a New York City Opera tour around the country, one of eight tours she performed in altogether. Orchestral highlights include stints with the New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Opéra National de Lyon, New Century Chamber Orchestra, San Francisco Opera and Ballet orchestras. Especially memorable was a trip to Brazil with the Women’s Philharmonic, performing on the Copacabana Beach to a crowd of 80,000 people.
A founding member of Quartet San Francisco, Emily was nominated for classical crossover GRAMMY® awards in 2007 and 2008 for the quartet’s jazz and Latin CD’s, “Latigo” and “Whirled Chamber Music”. The quartet also performed at the famous Café Tortoni in Buenos Aires, after winning the Grand Prize at the 1st International Tango Competition in NYC. Since then, Emily has led jazz and tango workshops at the Manhattan School of Music and at fiddle and jazz camps led by Alasdair Fraser and Christian Howes. She has performed with the Real Vocal String Quartet, Lesa Terry, John Santos, and her playing can be heard on numerous jazz and pop albums. Emily also has several Broadway shows under her belt from The Scarlett Pimpernel, Phantom of the Opera, Fiddler on the Roof, to Les Miserables,Wicked, and most recently, Hamilton.
A diverse career has given Emily opportunities to work with many extraordinary artists, including Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo, Dawn Upshaw, Anne Sophie von Otter, Joshua Bell, Leon Fleisher, Nadja Solerno-Sonnenberg, Simone Dinnerstein, Daniel Hope, Mark O’Connor, Clarice Assad, Billy Childs, Hubert Laws, McCoy Tyner, Bob James, Diana Krall, Tower of Power, Santana, Peter Gabriel, Josh Groban, Johnny Mathis, Smokey Robinson, and Rupa and the Fishes.
In addition to writing for and performing with Vitamin Em, Emily is principal violist with the Sacramento Philharmonic and the San Jose Chamber Orchestra, performs often with the San Francisco Ballet and New Century Chamber Orchestra, is on the faculty at California State University East Bay and records pop, movie, and video game soundtracks at Skywalker Ranch.
Matthew Szemela: Violin Praised by the New York Times for his “outrageous fiddling,” Matthew Szemela is a violinist who crosses musical genres with ease. He has performed as soloist, chamber and orchestral musician in several renowned concert halls both domestically (Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully, Merkin Recital Hall, Library of Congress, Kennedy Center), and abroad (Japan, China, Korea, Belgium, Luxembourg, Australia, Italy).
Matthew has collaborated, recorded, and performed with a myriad of artists including Jay-Z, Questlove of The Roots, Beyonce, Rihanna, Savion Glover, Sting, Lana Del Rey, Josh Groban, Garth Brooks, Placido Domingo, Warren Haynes, Bob Weir, Dave Stewart of Eurythmics, Billy Childs, Lisa Fischer, Laurence Hobgood, Marcus Lovett, Mark O’Connor, Brian Blade, Cassandra Wilson, the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, Vernon Reid of Living Colour, Susan Sarandon, Johnny Mathis, Andrea Bocelli, Il Divo, and Olivia Newton John.
In the fall of 2007 Matthew portrayed an Irish rock violinist in the Warner Brothers film August Rush, working with famed music producer Phil Ramone. TV appearances include Good Morning America (with Josh Groban), The View (with Rihanna), and American Idol (with Lana Del Rey).
Upon moving to Berkeley, CA in the summer of 2011, Matthew began performing with the Berkeley Symphony. As of 2017, he is the assistant concertmaster of the Opera San Jose Orchestra. Matthew maintains a busy domestic and international touring schedule with Rupa & The April Fishes, as well as with Tango Del Cielo. An active member of the Bay Area music scene, he can be often be seen collaborating with such groups as Vadalma (Hungarian Folk), Incognito Express (Balkan), Musical Art Quintet (Nuevo Chamber), and Classical Revolution.
Michael Graham: Cello - Michael has been hailed by the San Francisco Classical Voice for his “almost painfully pretty…expressive richness”, and by the San Jose Mercury News as “super-good”. He has toured and recorded with Van Morrison, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg , and John Densmore of the Doors, and has appeared and performed on ABC’s Regis and Kelley and NBC’s Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. He is currently a member of the Oakland Symphony, and appears frequently with the New Century Chamber Orchestra, the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, the Midsummer Mozart Festival, and other ensembles throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Mr. Graham can be heard on New Century’s recently released albums “Live” and Together”, and on Van Morrison’s “Astral Weeks Live from Hollywood Bowl.”
Michael studied at the Eastman School of Music and Yale University, where he was a founding member of that institution’s first secret chamber music society, Skull and Bows.
Evan Price : Violin Evan is steadily gaining recognition as one of the world's most confident voices in extra-classical string playing. A native of Detroit, MI, his musical background includes some earnest dues-paying in a variety of genres. From square dance bands to string quartets, from jamming with blues bands to busking in Greektown, Evan's youthful pursuits all informed his violin-playing and left him with a deep love of chamber music in all forms. As a young competitive fiddler he won his share of awards, having been named the U.S. Scottish Fiddling Champion, the Kentucky State Fiddle Champion, Canadian Junior Fiddle Champion, and Canadian Novelty Fiddling Champion. He also performed with some of the masters of fiddle lore—Stephane Grappelli, Johnny Frigo, Claude "Fiddler" Williams, Johnny Gimble, Buddy Spicher, and Vassar Clements—as well as a diverse array of pop icons from Stevie Wonder and Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page and Robert Plant to comedian, Steven Wright. Evan's college career included stints at both The Cleveland Institute of Music and at Berklee College of Music, and has himself served as a member of the music faculty at Wellesley College, The California Jazz Conservatory, and The University of California, Berkeley.
Evan is a ten-year veteran of the world-renowned, paradigm-shifting jazz ensemble, the Turtle Island Quartet. During his tenure in Turtle Island, Evan gave over five hundred performances in concert venues from Latvia to Australia and had the opportunity to collaborate with many musical luminaries, such as Cuban clarinetist Paquito D'Rivera, The Ying Quartet, pianists Dr. Billy Taylor and Kenny Barron, and classical guitarists, Sergio and Odair Assad. He recorded five CD's with Turtle Island, two of which—"Four + 4" and “A Love Supreme: The Legacy of John Coltrane”—received GRAMMY® awards in 2006 and 2008 in the Classical Crossover category.
Since 1998, Evan has been proud to call himself a member of The Hot Club of San Francisco, perhaps the most venerable gypsy jazz band in the US. During his tenure, the group has thrilled audiences from Iceland to Mexico and across the United States, and has released seven CD's which feature Evan on violin.
Dan Cantrell: Accordion is an Emmy award winning composer and multi-instrumentalist known for his innovative film scoring approach, and his virtuosic abilities on the accordion, piano and musical saw. “Hauntingly beautiful…quirky and energetic” says the San Francisco Bay Guardian. His extensive scoring catalogue spans a wide range of emotion and style. Dan’s compositions for film and television have earned him numerous awards including an Emmy Award for KQED’s Home-Front, a Golden Gate award for the soundtrack to the documentary Divided Loyalties, and an Annie nomination for his work on three seasons of Cartoon Network’s the Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack.
His Orchestral music was recently featured by the Oakland Symphony, and his chamber music was performed at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the arts, and in Washington DC’s Kennedy Center. Dan also recently composed a suite of choral music performed by the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir as part of their yearly concert series.
Dan received the Gerbode grant to create the Rootabaga Opera, (a multi-media fire opera setting of Carl Sandberg’s classic American fairy tales) as well as the MAP grant to create Musical Fortunes, informed by Klezmer and Romani music, and performed by Kitka Women’s vocal ensemble.