Virtuoso Violinist - DAVID GARRETT

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SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 28th, 2010 7:00 PM (Doors open at: 6:00 PM)

David Garrett

BALBOA THEATRE
868 Fourth Ave, San Diego, CA 92101 (619-570-1100)
All Ages. Tickets available $32.50 to $42.50 in advance, $3.00 Higher Day Of Show.
Tickets available from TicketMaster

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Advance Ticket Sales at the ticket windows at the Civic Theatre (1100 Third Ave @ B St, Mon-Fri 10a-6p). The Balboa Theatre ticket windows are open on event days only. Charge By Phone at 619-570-1100 (Mon-Fri 10a-6p)

“David Garrett is already the stuff of legend – in him is enshrined an entire corpus of virtuoso violin art, expounded with a fearsome beauty beyond comprehension.” BBC Music Magazine

DAVID GARRETT BIOGRAPHY By the time he was thirteen years old, when most of his peers were whiling away their afternoons on their new PlayStations, the virtuoso violinist David Garrett had a classical music career that would make most artists of any age pea-green with envy. Born in the German city of Aachen to an American ballerina mother and a German father who was a lawyer, David was a true child prodigy. At age eight, he was being booked to play as a soloist in front of some of the world’s greatest orchestras, including the London Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Russian National Orchestra. When he was twelve, he was performing alongside legend Yehudi Menuhin. When he turned thirteen, he was signed to one of the most famous and prestigious classical music labels in the world, Deutsche Grammophon, as a solo artist.

With the demands of his fast-burgeoning career and an ultra-intense focus on classical music, David had barely heard any rock or pop music until he was a teenager. “I’d listened to nothing but classical music until the age of fourteen,” says the now 27-year-old David, who was home-schooled until that age. “So when I started going to regular school, and started to be exposed to all this pop and rock, it was a revelation.”

As a result, David has carved out a unique and wholly new artistic path, one that pays as much homage to Metallica as to Mozart. His daring journey from classical wunderkind to mature and highly adventurous artist has been fulfilling not just for him personally, but clearly resonates with an enormous worldwide audience. David Garrett is already a huge star in Europe, as well as the Far East. He plays nightly to thousands of adoring fans, particularly in Germany where he has already completed a sold-out arena tour, conquered the charts and garnered two gold discs for both of his records released there. On the famous Last Night of Proms in the UK, he played to a crowd of 40,000 people, and also appeared at the legendary Royal Albert Hall in an impressive six concerts in seven days. His sole album released in the UK became a Top 20 chart fixture.

Now, he’s set to conquer a whole new terrain with his first American release, simply entitled, David Garrett. His international career is multi-faceted. With arresting good looks and charisma, David landed a deal as a global brand ambassador for Banana Republic in 2009, and has additional endorsements overseas with brands including Audi and Montblanc. Dubbed, “the fastest violinist in the world,” by German paper Kolner Stadt-Anzeigere, the incredible violinist will be in the 2010 Guinness Book of World Records, as the fastest-ever performer of the Flight of the Bumblebee, clocking in at a blistering 66 seconds.

David has long been one to forge his own path in the world. As a teenager in Germany, with a glorious, but grueling, classical career of international symphony concerts and recordings, he ached to escape the confines of classical music. Without telling his parents, he fled to New York to at last sample the life of a “normal” adolescent, with every temptation imaginable at his fingertips. The classical violin was put aside as he discovered rock music, clubs and girls.

He eventually rediscovered his passion for the violin during his rebellious phase, and decided to audition at the world famous Juilliard music school. He was accepted, and to his surprise, taken on by the legendary violinist, Itzhak Perlman. While at Juilliard, David began taking on odd jobs to pay the bills – moonlighting as a busboy and modeling in his spare time. Not surprisingly, he eventually landed in the pages of Vogue and the Fashion Week catwalks for Armani, all the while pursuing his musical dreams.

“Before Juilliard I’d lived in a shell, spending 24 hours a day with adults,” he reflects. Living in New York and going to Juilliard opened David’s eyes, and ears, to whole worlds he had been missing while he’d been off practicing the classical music canon seven hours a day. He says that coming into his own as a musician was a kind of liberation, one which freed him from the expectations of the small and insular classical music world. “Everyone told me not to make mistakes,” he recalls. “But when I was eighteen I thought, ‘F*** it, I want to make mistakes!’ At that point, I felt a little burned out with classical music and wanted to do something new and fun.”

You know you’re in for a different kind of violin experience as soon as you hear David’s cover of Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal.” At an after-hours party at David’s New York apartment one night, someone shouted out a special request for this song when David was improvising for his guests, and the violinist took on the challenge. He is perhaps the first person to draw a parallel between Michael Jackson and Mozart’s writing styles: “I was working on the Mozart A Major violin concerto around the same time I was working this out, and I couldn’t help but notice an underlying harmonic pattern in ‘Smooth Criminal’ that was similar to the famous Turkish march from the last movement of that Mozart concerto.” At the end of the track, he skillfully combines the two works.

Other influences on David include Queen (“the first non-classical album I ever bought was A Night at the Opera,” the violinist recalls). The band’s ballad “Who Wants to Live Forever” makes its way onto David Garrett, as does AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck.” The violinist draws on a fantastic array of other stylistic inspirations. “He’s a Pirate” was taken from the score for the smash film franchise “Pirates of the Caribbean.” David says, “I’ve always loved film music, and this score just delivered the right amount of power and seriousness to counterpoint the rather funny story.” Bill Withers’ “Ain’t No Sunshine” makes an appearance as well; it’s been a longtime favorite which David always used first as a backstage warm-up before performances, and then as a staple in his dynamic live shows.

Given his enduring commitment to his first musical love, David (who was dubbed “Formula One on the strings” by the major German newspaper, Kölnische Rundschau) still includes some classical selections on this American debut, including the last movement of Vivaldi’s “Summer” from his hugely popular The Four Seasons (“keeping the original structure, but creating a new sound that captures the energy of rock”), and Bach’s Air, which gets a daring modern twist. David argues that so much of Bach’s music was based on the popular dance forms of his time, ones that he says are “actually quite similar to modern dance music”—why not give Air an R&B update?

Not to be satisfied with just doing innovative and imaginative covers of music from such a wide variety of genres, David also displays his own deft writing skills with notable originals, including “Chelsea Girl,” which was inspired by an on-again/off-again flame. “

David says that in many ways David Garrett is the ultimate result of his musical journey. He calls it “one hell of a project,” but he means that in the best way. “I’ve put everything into it,” he recounts, “my time, my emotions, my musical integrity, my technical playing, my arrangements and new pieces—everything.”

The lauded conductor and Kennedy Center Honoree Zubin Mehta put it best when he said, “David Garrett is surely going to have a resounding presence on the music world of the 21st century.”

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Ticket Information – Tickets for all San Diego Theatres’ presented engagements and many other upcoming performances are now on sale.

By Phone: (619/858/760) 570-1100
Online: http://www.sdbalboa.org
In Person: Civic Theatre Ticketing at Third & B Street
Monday through Friday, 10:00 am to 6:00 pm or Balboa Theatre Ticketing on performance days at Fourth & E St. See website for exact schedule or call (619/858/760) 570-1100 for hours.

Convenience charges will be assessed on phone/internet purchases. A Facility Fee up to $2.50 per ticket is included in the purchase of all tickets.

For most San Diego Theatres’ presented engagements, special discounts are available for Seniors, Students, Active Military, and Groups. For more information, call (619/760/858) 570 - 1100

Balboa Theatre Parking Information:

NBC Building Garage at 225 Broadway: Enter Broadway Circle from the intersection of 2nd Ave. and Broadway and follow around to the garage entrance down-ramp on the left, directly across from the Levi's Store. This underground facility offers easy access to the Balboa Theatre entrance, and you can avoid the traffic frequently encountered on 4th Avenue. Multiple parking lots and structures are available in the Gaslamp area, and most are within a few blocks walking distance of the Theatre.

For most events, Advance Parking Passes (valid for the NBC Building Garage only), may be purchased at the same time you purchase your Balboa Theatre tickets. For more information, call (619/760/858) 570 – 1100.

Current parking rates for the NBC Building Garage (rates subject to change) are: Monday through Friday Evening Hours (after 5:30pm) - $10.00 per vehicle, flat rate. Saturday & Sunday - $10.00 per vehicle, flat rate.

Patrons parking in the Westfield Horton Plaza garage are subject to validation ticket policies and/or standard hourly fees as set by Westfield Management. Parking ticket validation is not available at the Balboa Theatre. However, at performances, a parking voucher for 6 hours of parking is available for $10 purchase.
WHERE: Balboa Theatre, 868 Fourth Avenue, San Diego, 92101

EVENT/TICKETING INFO: http://www.sdbalboa.org or (619/858/760) 570–1100

MEDIA CONTACT: Susan Chicoine, PR Manager
schicoine@sandiegotheatres.org 619-325-9416

Photos of “San Diego Theatres Presents” events are available at: http://www.sdbalboa.org/press

San Diego’s historic Balboa Theatre, in the heart of the Gaslamp Quarter, reopened in January 2008 as a premiere site for live performances, after a five year, $26.5 million renovation and restoration by SD’s Redevelopment Agency. The 85 year old Balboa Theatre once again hosts a diverse line up of performances to excite, educate and entertain San Diego audiences. For more information and a schedule of upcoming performances: http://www.sdbalboa.org