Sybarite5

Hard at work…

louis — Mon, 20 May 2013 03:06:53 +0000

We’re hard at work on a number of new projects that we’re excited to share with you in the coming months. But before we do that, we’d like to extend a special thanks to all those who attended our CD release concert and celebration on April 15. Thanks to you, the event was a rousing success and word is spreading about our new release! We couldn’t do it without our wonderful NYC support system and of course the wonderful staff of the cell. As it happened, that week also included another red-letter day: our own Angela Pickett’s lecture recital! Given in partial fulfillment of a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Manhattan School of Music, the event featured a lecture by Angela about the evolution if the double bass and its role in chamber music, followed by a sampler performance of our unique repertoire. We look forward to officially dubbing her “Dr. Pickett” when she graduates in a few weeks!
So now, looking to the future: We are very lucky to be working with the supremely talented guitarist and composer Joao Luiz, and will be giving the premiere of his “Urbano” at the Look and Listen festival on May 19. the piece is inspired by samba and the rhythms of his native Brazil, and in addition to learning the piece, we’ve been enjoying listening to lots Brazillian music to familiarize ourselves with the style! At Look and Listen, we are honored to be sharing a bill with such diatinguished ensembles as the JACK and Momenta quartets, as well as several outstanding soloists. Check out our mention in the New Yorker here. We’re also getting really excited about our last NYC appearance of the season, at a brand new underground venue called SubCulture. This venue is so new, in fact, that it hasn’t even opened yet! Please come be a part of the birth of a new venue with us on June 8.
Also if you happen to live over the river and through the woods (or just over the river…), we’ll be making two appearances in New Jersey in Weehawken and Freehold! Check our tour page for details. Thanks for reading and for your continued support!
Until next time,
SYB5

Setlist: the cell CD celebration

louis — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 01:42:15 +0000

Setlist: the cell NYC 4/15/13

Paranoid Android- Radiohead (arr. Paul Sanho Kim)
Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box Radiohead (arr. Paul Sanho Kim)
Pyramid Song-Radiohead (arr. Paul Sanho Kim)
Motion Picture Soundtrack- Radiohead (arr. Paul Sanho Kim)
Weird Fishes-Radiohead (arr. Paul Sanho Kim)
No Surprises- Radiohead (arr. Sybarite5)
2 + 2 = 5 - Radiohead (arr. Paul Sanho Kim)

Setlist: East Meadow, Long Island

louis — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 01:36:44 +0000

Setlist: East Meadow, Long Island, NY

The Rebel- Piotr Szewczyk
Paranoid Android- Radiohead (arr. Paul Sanho Kim)
Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box Radiohead (arr. Paul Sanho Kim)
Black Bend- Dan Visconti
Dixie Twang- Dan Visconti
No Surprises- Radiohead (arr. Sybarite5)
2 + 2 = 5 - Radiohead (arr. Paul Sanho Kim)

Intermission

Blue Rondo a la Turk- Dave Brubeck
Motion Picture Soundtrack- Radiohead (arr. Paul Sanho Kim)
Pyramid Song-Radiohead (arr. Paul Sanho Kim)
Weird Fishes-Radiohead (arr. Paul Sanho Kim)
Two Armenian folk songs- Komita
Milonga del Angel-Piazzolla- (arr. Bragato/Syb5)
La Muerte Del Angel- Piazzolla- (arr. Bragato/Syb5)

Spring updates- where did the time go? …oh wait

louis — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 15:15:38 +0000

Well, it’s spring in the city even if it doesn’t quite feel like it yet! We’re excited about this season because we have a number of local appearances coming up. Most notably, the official CD release concert and party for our latest album, Everything In Its Right Place, on CAG Records, will take place on April 15 at our NYC home, the cell. The album is the culmination of our Radiohead Remixed project, in which we commissioned composers to interpret our favorite songs by the band Radiohead, and even did one transcription ourselves as a quintet. On the 15th, we’ll play selections from the CD and have a chance to celebrate the wonderful efforts of everyone involved in making it! We hope you can join us. Get your tickets here.
We’re still processing a massive tour that included concerts in San Diego and Lancaster, CA; Lakewood, Basalt and Carbondale, CO, and Salt Lake City, UT. We had a great time bring our music west, and had the opportunity to work with a large number of students in all of these areas, which is always so meaningful for us. Next up, in addition to the CD release on the 15th, we’ve got several more concerts closer to home. We’ll play the East Meadow Library on Long Island April 14, and head north to the Caramoor Festival in Katonah, NY later this month. Plus, we’re hard at work learning a brand new piece written for us by the multi-talented Joao Luiz, a fellow Concert Artist Guild artist! Please check our tour dates page for full details. We hope to see you at the cell on the 15th, or elsewhere very soon!

UTAH… review & setlist are in!

louis — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 23:25:32 +0000

Sybarite5 plays experimental and impressionistic music to a sold out crowd

By Shad Engkilterra

Shad Engkilterra

Violinists Sarah Whitney and Sami Merdinian, double bassist Louis Levitt, Cellist Laura Metcalf, and Violist Angela Pickett performing for students for an evening of dinner and music.

Sybarite5 showed off their diversity in a concert at Salt Lake Community College on March 4, 2013.

Sybarite5’s music is available on CDBAby.com

The group played to a sold out audience as part of Student Life and Leadership’s dinner and concert.

The all-acoustic show featured songs from Radiohead, Armenia folk, Led Zeppelin and an encore that consisted of A-Ha’s Take on Me mixed with Rimsky-Korsokov’s Flight of the Bumblebee.

“We want to be the first string quintet to play in all 50 states,” says group founder and double bassist Louis Levitt. “Tonight is our Utah debut.”

It is inspiring to watch someone who is so good at what they do that they make it seem effortless. Sybarite5 didn’t look like they were playing a concert so much as they looked like they were having a jam session for some of their friends.

Had there been a campfire and marshmallows, I wouldn’t have been surprised

Sarah Whitney seemed to dance with her violin during Led Zeppelin’s Heartbreaker like she was engaged in a complicatedly beautiful conversation that made her instrument sing.

Angela Pickett’s fingers walked across her viol as she made seamless transitions with cellist Laura Metcalf, each plunking her strings at the right time during Sybarite5’s arrangement of Radiohead’s No Surprises.

The group was clearly having fun with each other and with the music. Their facial expressions glowed with smiles and concentration and laughter.

They used parts of the instruments that I didn’t even know could make music. The percussion section was surprisingly robust for a bunch of stringed instruments. Pickett even borrowed a mechanical pencil from someone in the crowd for Radiohead’s 2+2=5, a song that couldn’t have been played otherwise.

Sybarite5 plays music that is experimental, impressionistic and avant-garde, but it is done in such a way that you will still feel comfortable with the sound. And unlike the symphony, Sybarite5’s music will keep you awake with its pulse quickening beat.

Setlist:

Setlist: The Shuffle Effect, Lakewood Cultural Center 3/2/13

louis — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 23:20:23 +0000

The Shuffle Effect, Lakewood Cultural Center 3/2/13

The Rebel- Piotr Szewczyk
2 + 2 = 5 - Radiohead (arr. Paul Sanho Kim)
Two Armenian Folk Songs- Komitas
Milonga Del Angel- Astor Piazzolla (arr. Sybarite5/Bragato)
Weird Fishes-Radiohead (arr. Paul Sanho Kim)
Adagio for Strings- Samuel Barber
Muerte Del Angel-Astor Piazzolla (arr. Sybarite5/Bragato)

INTERMISSION

Blue Rondo a la Turk- Dave Brubeck (arr. Cohen/sybarite5)
Dixie Twang- Dan Visconti
Paranoid Android- Radiohead (arr. Paul Sanho Kim)
Black Bend- Dan Visconti
Heartbreaker- Led Zeppelin (arr. Reed)
No Surprises- Radiohead (arr. Paul Sanho Kim)
Turceasca- Taraf De Haidouks (arr. Matt Van Brink)

*encore: Take On Me/Bumble Bee (arr. Paul Sanho Kim)

Setlists: Basalt & Carbondale CO

louis — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 21:29:09 +0000

Basalt Library, Basalt CO 2/27/13

The Rebel- Piotr Szewczyk
Paranoid Android- Radiohead (arr. Paul Sanho Kim)
Black Bend- Dan Visconti
Dixie Twang- Dan Visconti
Milonga Del Angel-Astor Piazzolla (Sybarite5/Bragato)
Weird Fishes-Radiohead (arr. Paul Sanho Kim)
Two Armenian Folk Songs- Komitas
No Surprises- Radiohead (arr. Sybarite5)
Turceasca-Taraf De Haidouks (arr. Matt Van Brink)

3rd Street Arts Center- The round Room Carbondale CO: 3/1/13

The Rebel- Piotr Szewczyk
Black Bend- Dan Visconti
Dixie Twang- Dan Visconti
Weird Fishes-Radiohead (arr. Paul Sanho Kim)
No Surprises- Radiohead (arr. Sybarite5)
2 + 2 = 5 - Radiohead (arr. Paul Sanho Kim)
Adagio for Strings, Samuel Barber
Turceasca- Taraf De Haidouks (arr. Matt Van Brink)

*encore: La Muerte Del Angel- Piazzolla- (arr. Bragato/Syb5)

Setlists: La Jolla, & Lancaster CA 2/22 & 24/13

louis — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 20:48:24 +0000

The Loft, UCSD LA Jolla, CA 2/22/13 & LPAC Lancaster CA 2/24/13

The Rebel- Piotr Szewczyk
Paranoid Android- Radiohead (arr. Paul Sanho Kim)
Black Bend- Dan Visconti
Dixie Twang- Dan Visconti
Two Armenian Folk Songs- Komitas
Milonga Del Angel-Astor Piazzolla (Sybarite5/Bragato)
Muerte Del Angel-Astor Piazzolla (arr. Sybarite5/Bragato)

INTERMISSION

Blue Rondo a la Turk, Dave Brubeck (arr. Cohen/syb5)
Weird Fishes-Radiohead (arr. Paul Sanho Kim)
No Surprises- Radiohead (arr. Sybarite5)
2 + 2 = 5 - Radiohead (arr. Paul Sanho Kim)
*New York Minutes- Mohammed Fairouz
Adagio for Strings, Samuel Barber
Turceasca- Taraf De Haidouks (arr. Matt Van Brink)

encore: Heartbreaker- Led Zeppelin (arr. Reed/syb5)
*only performed at Jolla 2/23/12

Setlist: Nightingale Concert Hall, Reno NV 2/7/13

louis — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 10:15:40 +0000

Nightingale Concert Hall, Reno NV, 2/7/13

The Rebel- Piotr Szewczyk
Paranoid Android- Radiohead (arr. Paul Sanho Kim)
Black Bend- Dan Visconti
Flight of the Nazgul, Jeff Depaoli (New Music Idol Winner)
New York Minutes- Mohammed Fairouz
Milonga Del Angel-Astor Piazzolla (Sybarite5/Bragato)
Muerte Del Angel-Astor Piazzolla (arr. Sybarite5/Bragato)

INTERMISSION

15 Step-Radiohead (arr. Paul Sanho Kim)
No Surprises- Radiohead (arr. Sybarite5)
2 + 2 = 5 - Radiohead (arr. Paul Sanho Kim)
Two Armenian Folk Songs- Komitas
Adagio for Strings, Samuel Barber
Turceasca- Taraf De Haidouks (arr. Matt Van Brink)

*encore: Take On Me/Bumble Bee (arr. Paul Sanho Kim)

Setlist, Milwaukee: 2/2/13 The Shuffle Effect

louis — Sun, 03 Feb 2013 18:22:13 +0000

The Shuffle Effect, 2/2/13
South Milwaukee Performing Arts Center

The Rebel- Piotr Szewczyk
Two Armenian Folk Songs- Komitas
Heartbreaker- Led Zeppelin (arr. Reed)
Black Bend - Dan Visconti
Paranoid Android- Radiohead (arr. Paul Sanho Kim)
No Surprises- Radiohead (arr. Sybarite5)
Muerte Del Angel-Astor Piazzolla (arr. Sybarite5/Bragato)

INTERMISSION

Blue Rondo a la Turk- Dave Brubeck (arr. Cohen/sybarite5)
Motion Picture Soundtrack-Radiohead (arr. Paul Sanho Kim)
2 + 2 = 5 - Radiohead (arr. Paul Sanho Kim)
New York Minutes- Mohammed Fairouz
Milonga Del Angel-Astor Piazzolla (Sybarite5/Bragato)
Turceasca- Taraf De Haidouks (arr. Matt Van Brink)

*encore: Take On Me/Bumble Bee (arr. Paul Sanho Kim)