Brooklyn Conservatory presents Violinist John Blake Saturday, November 3, 2007, 8pm

[Brooklyn Conservatory]

Brooklyn Conservatory of Music Presents Violinist John Blake Saturday, November 3, 2007, 8pm

John Blake continues BQCM’s “Jazz at the Conservatory” series on Saturday, November 3 at 8pm. Tickets are $25 for adults and $15 for students/seniors. Tickets can be purchased in advance by calling Zerve Ticket Services at 212.209.3309.

John Blake has, over the last twenty years, attained a unique position as the premier mainstream jazz violinist in the world. In addition to performing with his quartet and as a soloist, he has appeared with the Duke Ellington Orchestra, the McCoy Tyner Trio, the Turtle Island String Quartet, Quartet Indigo, the Steve Turre Sextet, and the Billy Taylor Trio. Blake first drew international attention as a sideman in the ground-breaking Grover Washington, Jr. group, the hugely popular "crossover" jazz group of choice in the mid-70s. After three years of recording and touring with Washington, Blake did, for a violinist, the unprecedented: a five-year stint in John Coltrane alumnus and seminal jazz stylist McCoy Tyner's ensemble. Tyner's music has always been some of the most challenging and powerful in jazz, and Blake rose to that challenge and became one of the strongest string improvisers ever.

"John Blake is a warm effervescent performer who seems destined to be a force in jazz for many years to come...he is the best new jazz violinist of the decade." —Russell Shaw, Billboard

Blake has augmented his work as an instrumentalist, composer and producer by becoming an author, teacher and lecturer, passing on his unique and hard-won knowledge. He presents hundreds of workshops annually to musicians on all levels. He has co-written, with Suzuki teacher Jody Harmon, the definitive beginning string jazz method book and CD, in use all over the world. He also lectures on campuses all over the country and is a faculty member at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and at the Manhattan School of Music in New York, and he has been a guest lecturer at Berklee School of Music in Boston. He was the winner of the 2004 winter semester Basler Chair of Excellence at East Tennessee State University, and the 2004 winner of the Chamber Music America – Jazz Composer Grant/Award.

He currently gives hundreds of educational concerts and workshops each year in Philadelphia and New Jersey through an organization called "Strings for Schools." For many years, he has taught at numerous jazz string summer programs such as Jazz in July, String Fling, Montclair University Jazz Camp, Mark O'Connor Fiddle Camp, and Madeline Island String Camp. His concerts, seminars and workshops have taken him all over the United States, South America, Europe and Japan.

Brooklyn Conservatory of Music is located at 58 Seventh Avenue at Lincoln Place in Park Slope, and is accessible by the Q or B trains to Seventh Avenue, or the 2 or 3 trains to Grand Army Plaza.