Benoit, Okura hook up at Norris
Meg Okura lets loose on Benoit's "Freedom at Midnight." Photo
Prior to welcoming violinist and er-hu player Meg Okura to the Harlyne J. Norris Pavilion stage in Palos Verdes on Saturday night, conductor David Benoit told the audience he found Okura on the Internet.
“In keeping with the Asia America Symphony’s mission statement to break down the barriers between jazz and classical music, I was looking for a young, Asian, classically trained violinist who played jazz,” Benoit said.
It’s doubtful he was serious.
The New York-based Okura has performed with musical stars ranging from Philip Glass and Lee Konitz to David Bowie and Ziggy Marley.
“And now I can add the David Benoit Trio to my resume,” Okura would gush after her introduction.
Whether or not Benoit was serious about how the two met for the first time just the previous day, the evening that followed played out like every male musician’s fantasy.
They opened with two Kenny Barron jazz standards that allowed Okura, Benoit and his trio’s bass and drummer, David Hughes and Jamey Tate, to get comfortable with one another.
Then Okura and Benoit began sharing their personal compositions.
Okura led with a score she composed for a movie scene of a woman driving down the highway after learning her boyfriend had been cheating on her.
“We can all identify, I’m sure. I’ve had my heart broken many times,” she said, eliciting nervous laughter from an audience not used to hearing personal revelations from the stage.
“Don’t laugh,” she scolded mockingly, before launching into a soft, melancholic song that suggested the soundtrack for a ‘60s, French New Wave movie.
Okura’s next composition, “Peace in my heart” elicited the same emotions.
“Peace could also be spelled piece,” she said by way of explaining how she became a composer.
“My mother discovered when I was little that I had perfect pitch, but when I was five or six I said I wanted to be a composer. She told me, ‘You’re a girl. Girls can’t be composers.’”
Happily, a composition instructor at Julliard recognized her talent. “Peace in My Heart” was a school assignment.
Conductor David Benoit, guest violinist and er-hu player Meg Okura and violinist Jessie Chen soak in the applause following their performance Saturday at the Norris Pavilion in Palos Verdes. Photo
Benoit countered with one of his own signature pieces, “Freedom at Midnight.” The Dave Grusin-influenced song brought Benoit fame and critical acclaim as both a performer and composer when it was released in 1986. During Benoit’s solo, Okura vamped back and forth across the stage like a Parisian chanteuse.
Then, to give Okura the opportunity to perform on er-hu, Benoit proposed they play his “Suite for er-hu and small ensemble.” Benoit wrote the piece for Chinese er-hu virtuoso Karen Han when she performed with the Asia Pacific Symphony in 2006.
The small ensemble that would fill out Benoit’s trio consisted of Asia America Symphony clarinetist Darryl Tanikawa and members of the Asia America Youth Symphony.
“One of our goals here is to give young musicians the opportunity to play with the pros, something most music organizations don’t have the cojones to do,” Benoit said as the young musicians took the stage.
The “Suite for Er-hu,” a Copland-esque, Pan Pacific composition, showcased the youth symphony’s Sara Sithi-Amnuai on trumpet and its concert master Eleanor Dunbar on violin. Dunbar is a finalist in the LA Philharmonic Spotlight Awards. Together with Christina Tsai on flute, Jessie Chen on violin, Elliot Kwon on viola and Michelle Paik on cello, they mesmerized the audience, validating Benoit’s decision to entrust them with his beautiful and challenging composition.
Okura followed with her choice of the er-hu classic “Horse Race,” by Chinese composer Huang Haihuai. “I like to take a masterpiece and make it more Japanese – that is faster and shorter,” Okura told the audience.
“You’ll see.” And they did.
Meg Okura lights up the Norris. Photo
The native of Japan said she learned to play the two-stringed, Chinese er-hu after composing a song titled “Afrasia.”
“The er-hu player I asked to perform on the song couldn’t get the African sound I wanted. I figured I could learn to play the er-hu faster than she could learn to play African.”
Being a Japanese-born er-hu player does results in some awkward moments, she acknowledged.
“Little old Chinese women on the subway will see my er-hu and try to talk to me. But I don’t speak a word of Chinese. I bought my er-hu from a big importer of Chinese goods – Wal-Mart,” she said.
She continued, “I’m joking. I bought it from a little old Jewish man in Brooklyn. That is true, I’m not joking.”
It was hard tell. She and Benoit were having too much fun to spoil it by getting too serious. At the end of the evening Benoit was quick to extend an offer to her to return. She was just as quick to accept.
Amazingly, when one thinks of music in the South Bay, the exhilarating evening was not an exception for Benoit and the Asia America Symphony Orchestra. They opened their season last month with Los Angeles Philharmonic cellist Ben Hong, who performed on the soundtrack for “The Soloist,” and taught the film’s star Jamie Foxx to look like he was playing the cello. “He actually learned to play quite well,” Hong said.
Next month, on April 18, Benoit will entrust the Asia America Symphony Orchestra with the premier of his newly completed symphony “Native California.” The work was inspired by a drive up the California Coast on his way to a residency program at the Montalvo Arts Center in Saratoga. “I have shamelessly borrowed from my friend Elmer Bernstein, who, I feel, best captured the ‘out west on the prairie’ sound.”
For the Asia America’s final performance this season, on June 5, Benoit said, he “called in a favor.” Platinum selling, six time Grammy nominee saxophonist Dave Koz will join Benoit and his orchestra in a “Tribute to the Movies,” featuring music by John Williams. Williams’ scores include “Memoirs of a Geisha” and five academy award winners — ‘Fiddler on the Roof,” ‘Jaws,” “Star Wars,” “E.T. — The Extra-Terrestrial,” and “Schindler’s List.”
For more information visit www.asiaamericasympnony.org or phone (310) 377-8977. ER