Guitarist Julian Lage Performs Mix of Jazz, Blues, Classical and Folk October 13
September 25, 2009
Guitarist and composer Julian Lage, who makes his Penn State debut at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 13, in Schwab Auditorium, is often described as a former child prodigy. But Lage didn’t come out of the womb yearning to play guitar. It was his father—inspired by a 1992 Eric Clapton recording—who piqued the youngster’s interest in the instrument.
The guitarist, who grew up north of San Francisco and lives in Boston, leads the Julian Lage Group in concert at the Center for the Performing Arts. The band, which formed in early 2008, includes saxophonist Ben Roseth, cellist Aristides Rivas, bassist Jorge Roeder and percussionist Tupac Mantilla.
Tickets for the presentation are $25 for an adult, $10 for a University Park student and $18 for a person 18 and younger. Buy tickets online at www.cpa.psu.edu or by phone at 814-863-0255. Outside the local calling area, dial 1-800-ARTS-TIX. Tickets are also available at four State College locations: Eisenhower Auditorium (weekdays 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.), Penn State Tickets Downtown (weekdays 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturdays 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.), HUB-Robeson Center (weekdays 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.) and Bryce Jordan Center (weekdays 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.). A grant from the University Park Allocation Committee makes Penn State student prices possible.
“I never thought of myself as a prodigy at all,” Lage says. “The thing is that my father picked up the guitar when I was like 4. … It was around the time that Eric Clapton’s Unplugged had come out. I think a lot of people of my father’s generation—born in the ’50s—were really kind of rejuvenated [by that CD] as far as their interest in acoustic guitar. … It inspired my dad to get a guitar, which inspired me to get a guitar. I just wanted to do what he did, I guess. He showed me what he would learn at his guitar lessons until I was maybe advanced enough to go learn it myself.
Like Clapton, the young Lage was bitten by the blues. “Yeah, I was a pretty diehard blues player,” he recalls. The blues yielded to classical, which the youngster studied intensively for a couple of years before jazz became his central pursuit.
Today, Lage’s music resides at the intersection of jazz, blues, classical and folk. Only in his early 20s, the guitarist has performed with a who’s who of musicians, including David Grisman, Béla Fleck, Herbie Hancock, Gary Burton, Christian McBride and Chris Thile.
Sounding Point, Lage’s first album as a leader, was released earlier this year to glowing notices. “Here’s a jazz newcomer more interested in elegance than in flash, more interested in instrumental storytelling than in virtuosity,” observes a Washington Post reviewer. “With a fully-formed voice that transcends yet incorporates his multifaceted stylistic interests, Lage’s impressive debut points to a giant in the making,” writes a critic for All About Jazz.
Corvette America underwrites jazz presentations at the Center for the Performing Arts. WTAJ Your News Leader and Jazz Spectrum on THE LION 90.7 FM are the media sponsors. Artistic Viewpoints, an informal moderated discussion featuring Julian Lage, is offered in Schwab Auditorium one hour before the performance and is free for ticket holders.
Contact: Laura Sullivan, 814.863.6379