Beatboxing and classical music don't usually go together well. But on Saturday, Kandinsky Beatdown will combine the two genres with lyrics.
The Beat Down Project, led by the Kandinsky Trio, is a group of classical performers looking to do something a little different with their music.
Elizabeth Batcheldoer, Benedict Goodfriend, and Alan Weinstein form the Kandinsky Trio, a classical piano trio consisting of piano, violin, and cello.
“We are a classical chamber music group,” said Weinstein, the group's cellist and music professor at Virginia Tech.
The trio actually lives at Roanoke College. This group has played together for 23 seasons.
“We are one of the longest-running chamber music groups with original members,” said Goodfriend, the trio's violinist. He says he has been playing the violin for nearly 50 years.
After meeting at college in Boston, Weinstein and Goodfriend discussed forming a chamber orchestra someday. Weinstein then moved to the Roanoke area and met with Batcheldore, the group's current pianist. Weinstein then called Goodfriend and said he thought they could all “get along” as a group.
“The rest was history,” Goodfriend said.
Now, the trio is expanding their resume.
“What we did was we commissioned five composers to write the music: a beatboxer and four soloists. One of them is a singer and the rest are jazz musicians,” Weinstein said.
They also include hip-hop dancers.
The trio, along with other musicians and dancers, make up the eclectic musical group Kandinsky Beat Down.
“This is classical music meets jazz meets hip-hop culture,” Weinstein said.
Composers write a variety of songs that incorporate different elements of the group in different combinations.
The performers are from the tech community and beyond.
“The trombonist is famous New York jazz artist Joshua Roseman. Trumpeter John Diaz runs a great jazz program at UVa. The guitarist is from Roanoke and singer Arianna Wyatt is from Tech University. ,” Weinstein said.
The two hip-hop dancers, known as the Boogaloo Crew, are from Philadelphia.
“This will be the third performance of this project,” Weinstein said.
The group worked with several different people on each performance, making each show a little different from the last, while trying to keep the same idea in each show. The Beat Down's past two shows at Roanoke's Jefferson Center were sold out. A national tour is also planned.
Weinstein said the idea for Kandinsky Beatdown came to him about two years ago.
“This group was formed for the annual Arts Fusion kickoff event here at Tech University,” Weinstein said.
Five years ago, Weinstein went to see a performance in Washington, D.C., with his nephew's Dance Crew members, who are members of the Boogaloo Crew, and they met with Shodeke, who currently handles the group's beats.・I saw Kei for the first time. -boxer.
“We just started talking a little bit,” Weinstein said of the cast. “And then when Arts Fusion came along, I wrote some grants to help make that happen, and that’s what sparked this project.”
“Alan's nephew Jake is actually my best friend,” said William Robinson, a member of the Boogaloo Crew and a Kandinsky Beatdown dancer. “He was actually the one who got me into dancing and we did the last two shows together.”
Robinson is a classically trained dancer with 11 years of experience in various types of dance, including hip-hop and break dancing.
The dancing in the show is “very inspired by the music,” he said.
“I try to always be as open and ready as possible to improvise and react to the music, just like a hip-hop dancer would do in a club or on the street. Especially since we don't have a lot of rehearsals, that's what happens right in front of me.” It’s an honest response to the situation.”
Robinson says the group is more prepared at this point than they were during their last performance, but still enjoys “the rawness of being in the moment.”
“There's so much going on that pretty much anyone can get something out of it, no matter what you think it is. It's something to watch,” Robinson said.
“I think it represents each genre: classical, hip-hop, jazz,” Weinstein said. “The performances are really strong, the writing is strong, and the dancing is great. So it's like a celebration of each discipline. It's not a crossover. It combines all three to create its own new language.”
