Fox Chop on Jazz Radio

This past Tuesday I had the privilege of performing two original compositions live on the air with the Fox Chop Trio. The trio is a fun inspired string trios including myself(Jacques Gadway) and violinist Dr. Steffen Zeichner and cellist Dr. Benjamin Whitman.

We have made many arrangements of popular music and jazz standards, but for this radio appearance we wanted to present a number of originals. Along side a number of covers, we played 4 different originals.

Steffen composed “Cucumber Soda” a fun poppy tune. Benjamin composed a song called “Whatever” which was very rhythmically involved.

I contributed 2 originals to our set one of which was an older composition I originally wrote for string quartet and as a soundtrack to a short film. I took many of the motifs and consolidated them into a somber piece about grief called “Loss.”

The other tune was a new composition but also an older melody I came up with many years ago. Originally I played it on piano and have probably played it every week for the last 8 years. I took the melody and worked it out for string trio with additional sections and its name drew from its conception. I called the piece “String Trio Written for Nonchalant Piano.”

You can watch the stream of our appearance here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-fllBSiRxM

Ft. Lauderdale concert

This Friday I did something I don’t always do. I played Viola! I was asked to perform programs featuring the music of Adele during the early evening show and the music of Classic Rock during the night show.

Adele’s music works especially well for the string quartet and being able to play Viola let me play the rich register for some of the most dramatic melodies. I especially loved the arrangements we played of Chasing Pavements and Skyfall.

In the night show the audience was rowdy and enthusiastic often yelling out their cheers. It was truly a fun concert and another successful evening added to the books.

High Holy Days and Church

This week I had no concerts. Instead I played a wide range of events starting with a wedding at the Four Seasons Surf Club and then I played 3 services for high holidays in Miami Beach. Friday night was the Kol Nidre service and Saturday was a full day of Yom Kippur. The services were quite intense and it was very rewarding playing the ancient melodies on violin to help set the tone.

On Sunday early morning I played for a short church service in a beautiful little chapel in Coral Gables. For the prelude and postludes of the services we played string trio arrangements of timeless music including Borodin’s string quartet and Bach’s Air.

From movies to pop to hip-hop

This weekend I had the pleasure of performing at 4 different programs for Candlelight Concerts in West Palm Beach and Ft. Lauderdale. On Friday at the First Presbyterian Church in West Palm, I got to play second violin for the Hans Zimmer Candlelight program at the 7pm show which included music from the soundtracks of Dune, Man of Steel, Dunkirk, the Dark Night, the Lion King, and many more. Then for the later 9:15pm show we changed gears and we were joined by a drummer to play the Hip-Hop program. This one included many famous songs but among them all my favorite was the Medley we did of some of Dr. Dre’s biggest hits.

On Saturday we played music from one of the best singers of this generation, Adele. For these shows I played Viola which fits so nicely with much of Adele’s vocal range. Among her great songs my favorite arrangement we played was Skyfall. The Viola part gets to really shred! For the late show we played a program of exclusively music by the famous movie composer Joe Hisaishi who most notably has had a long standing relationship with Miyazaki. We played music from some of the best animated movies ever made including Kiki’s Delivery service, Howl’s Moving Castle, and my personal favorite Spirited Away.

Miami Beach: From Synagogue to Church

I spent the morning rehearsing the music for high holidays at the Temple Beth Shalom in Miami Beach. It’s a gig I’ve done and enjoyed for the past three years. Having grown up Christian much of the music was far from familiar to me the first year, but I have found it very fulfilling to participate in such a beautiful series of services each year. It’s fascinating to see the blending of traditions and modern influences in the music and to grow more familiar with the ancient songs every year.

If only I could have left rehearsal and gone straight to the catholic wedding I would be playing later that day. As it would turn out I was scheduled to perform not more than 5 blocks away at St. Patrick’s. It would have been nice to spend the afternoon in Miami Beach killing time until the wedding but instead I scheduled a lesson at home in between. So I rushed home to teach before driving back to Miami Beach to play the beautiful Spanish ceremony.

Period Accurate Music

Yesterday I performed for the morning service at Church by the Sea at St. Regis Bal Harbor. It is always a very pleasant and enjoyable experience, but yesterday included an especially fun twist. The service was a sort of worship through music centered around old music of the classical and baroque periods. So to accommodate the theme, we were provided white powdered wigs and jackets to dress the part. It was truly amusing and provided a light hearted atmosphere to the service that focused on healing and joy.

A Unique Concert

The Fox Chop Trio performed an eclectic program for an incredible audience at the Coral Gables Congregational Church on 8/13/24. The program began with a the famous melody from Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty Waltz but quickly made a turn for a more modern tone. Upon the ending of the A section, the trio vamped a progression while the first violinist Dr. Steffen Zeichner introduced the group and let the audience know that this would not be a typical string trio performance.

It proved to be different. The trio continued on to play songs by many different artists including Fun., Miley Cyrus, Tower of Power, Bacilos, Panic! At the Disco, and even Marc Anthony. It was a truly “unique” concert that left the audience and artists fulfilled by a night of musical diversity.