Edgar Meyer (musician)

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Edgar Meyer

Edgar Meyer (*  24. November 1960 in Tulsa , Oklahoma ) is an American bass - virtuoso , composer and arranger .

Meyer is the son of a double bass player; Edgar Meyer, Sr. directed an orchestral program for high school students in Oak Ridge, Tennessee and provided his son with a solid foundation of his instrument. Edgar, Jr. completed his formal music education. with Stuart Sankey , at the time one of the most respected double bass teachers in the USA, and with a degree at Indiana University in Bloomington .

Meyer began his actual professional career as a studio musician in the country metropolis of Nashville . In his distinctive personal style, he combines influences from several genres that initially appear to be quite disparate, which are usually connoted as distinctly "American" or "European". He is one of a small group of contemporary musicians who have initiated new developments in bluegrass since the mid-1980s .

Meyer has also interpreted important works of the Baroque , in particular his recordings of Johann Sebastian Bach's Suites for Solo Cello (BWV 1007, 1008 and 1011) on the double bass received wide international attention. The music of European Romanticism was an innovative artist in Meyer: The published by it on CD "showpieces" for double bass are among the Trout Quintet (D. 667) and the Arpeggione - Sonata (D. 821) by Franz Schubert . Meyer combined two of the most important compositions by the Italian double bass virtuoso Giovanni Bottesini ( Concerto No. 2 in B minor and the Gran Duo Concertante ) on a CD published in 2002 with two solo concerts of his own .

As a composer and as an instrumental musician, Meyer refuses to categorize himself simply because of his eclectic way of working. Relatively characteristic of his previous work, however, is a preference for small, chamber music -oriented ensembles. In addition to the compositions already mentioned, he created - in addition to numerous " improvisation vehicles" based on common American song structures - a solo concerto for violin , a double concerto for double bass and violoncello and a string quintet , which he himself premiered and recorded together with the Emerson String Quartet .

The bassist's long-term, close companions include artists such as the cellist Yo-Yo Ma , the banjo player Béla Fleck and the violinist Joshua Bell , who, like Meyer himself, have worked to overcome stylistic boundaries between the “classical music” of Europe and the “urban, black” music " Jazz and the" provincial "bluegrass of rural America. It was with such musicians that he achieved his greatest success with the general public: Short Trip Home from 1999 was nominated for a Grammy , Appalachian Journey from the following year was awarded once and Perpetual Motion , again a year later, even twice.

In 2002 he was awarded a $ 500,000 MacArthur Fellowship . On the CD , simply titled Edgar Meyer , published in 2006, the musician recorded all the pieces himself - without exception his own compositions - on various instruments (in addition to the double bass, mandolin , dobro , guitar , viola da gamba and piano ). In 2008 he recorded an album ( Edgar Meyer & Chris Thile ) with mandolinist Chris Thile , who also received the so-called Genius Award in 2012 . The Goat Rodeo Sessions , released in 2011 (with Yo-Yo Ma and Chris Thile, among others) were awarded a Grammy for the best folk album in 2013.

In September 2014, Bass & Mandolin was released as the successor to the album from 2008. For this, it received another award in the category Best Contemporary Instrumental Album at the 2015 Grammy Awards .

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  1. ^ Sitch Sessions: Chris Thile & Edgar Meyer Perform 'Why Only One' in the Colorado Mountains. February 14, 2017, Retrieved February 13, 2020 (American English).

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Commons : Edgar Meyer  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Meyer, Edgar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American double bass virtuoso, composer and arranger
DATE OF BIRTH November 24, 1960
PLACE OF BIRTH Tulsa , Oklahoma