Sostenuto, Thursday, July 24, 7:30 p.m. at the Silk Purse Arts Centre, part of the West Vancouver Community Arts Council's 14th annual Jazz Waves Festival. Tickets: $20 or subscription options available. silkpurse.ca
In search of a name for their duo, violinist Serena Eades and pianist and accordionist Anna Lumière settled on Sostenuto, the Italian musical term for "sustained," viewing it as a double-entendre of sorts, a nod to their style of playing; in addition, speaking to the low-impact manner in which they choose to live their lives.
On Thursday, July 24, Sostenuto will bring their unique sound and perspective to West Vancouver's Silk Purse Arts Centre, part of the West Vancouver Community Arts Council's 14th annual Jazz Waves Festival, running from June through to the end of August. The festival boasts a diverse program of artists, reflecting variety of musical genres.
Sostenuto's performance will mark the duo's first since the launch of their debut album, Pièces, as well, will kick off their summer tour, seeing them traverse the West Coast via bicycle - Eades' violin in a sidebag, and Lumière's accordion in an attached cycling trailer.
This is the third time they've decided to embark on a pedal-powered tour.
"I think touring can be one of the heaviest impacters in ecology just because musicians do so much flying and so much driving and so that's No. 1, we wanted to tread more lightly," says Eades, adding doing so also makes good economical sense and allows them to stay active while on the road, contributing to their overall health and well-being.
Eades, who recently moved back to Vancouver, is excited to be hitting the road, having spent the last two years in the classroom, completing a two-year degree at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Mass., in May.
"It's great. It feels like that is why I holed up for two more years. We both spent a lot of time in music school. I had taken six years off from school to do life, and teach and travel and play. It's a good contrast to go back to school, be a student, be in a classroom a lot. Now I feel like two years is a perfect amount of time to release me back into the world."
The experience had a huge impact on her. "I went to Berklee largely because I wanted to explore improvisation in a variety of realms," she says.
Eades did study some American roots music - some bluegrass and old time music - but primarily took jazz lessons in her private studies and played a lot of Brazilian music outside of school due to the strong local scene in Boston.
"It was a combination of the faculty that I was exposed to and the music community at large in Boston that had a huge impact on where I am now and where I want to go. It opened me up to other ways of playing and ways of thinking about music and ways of thinking about improvising that I hadn't conceived of before," she says.
She's pleased to be bringing her new perspective back to Sostenuto, officially launched three years ago after being formed initially as a four-piece under a different name.
Eades (a founding member of The Rakish Angles), met Lumière (Mimosa) who studied jazz performance at Capilano University and is currently based in Gibson's, after she was asked to teach Lumière's son violin lessons. Further getting to know one another through the local music scene, they started playing together.
"I was very honoured that she asked me to play with her," says Eades.
Sostenuto's debut album, Pièces is comprised of six original pieces written by its two members.
They describe the instrumental pieces as cinematic, world music-inspired contemporary compositions. Examples of songs featured include a Brazilian choro, a French musette and a ragtime swing tune. They recorded the record in March at Boston's Rapid Eye studio and were joined by a number of guests, including percussionist Marcus Santos, cellist Naseem Alatrash, and bassists Nate Sabat and Flavio Lira.
"I'm glad to finally have something to take to shows that people can take away with them. We're both really happy with the result and we got some really wonderful friends and guest musicians to play on it. There's some music we've never performed on it so that's kind of exciting as well. There are brand new songs that we composed and arranged just prior to the album so we haven't toured them yet," says Eades.
Apart from touring and promoting Pièces, the duo members are also offering master classes and workshops to interested musicians.
