[Dixielandjazz] Jamie Cullum or Rob McCallum?

[Bill Gunter]

Hi all,

Steve B wrote:

>Some, like Sacramento, or the Baltimore Symphony are
>trying different approaches to reverse that trend.

Does anyone recall the name of the young "hippy" concert violinist?  I can't 
remember his name, but he came to Sacramento (where I live) and performed 
with the Sacramento Symphony (r.i.p.) about 10 or so years ago. I believe he 
played one of the Mozart string concertos.

The program notes indicated that he had not only performed with many of the 
county's leading symphony orchestras, he has also performed with the 
Beatles!

He was dressed in a pretty outlandish fashion, the overall look derived from 
the "punk" fashion of the day and, as I recall, his hair was dyed some 
bright color and styled in a rather extreme "do." He was not dressed 
anything like anyone else on the stage all of whom wore the standard tuxedo 
with black bow tie . . . I believe the conductor, Carter Nice, got to wear a 
tux with tails and a white bow tie.

The logic of this escaped me, because the people he was impressing with his 
appearance were already at the concert. The people he wanted to "reach" and 
attract to the symphony (the young and the hip) were all somewhere else.

They should have ADVERTISED the event and splashed his "hipness" all over 
the entertainment sections of all the local media and maybe even  put up a 
billboard with his picture printed in vivid colors.

As I recall, he was a competent violinist (perhaps lacking a bit of the 
virtuosity of Zucherman or Perlman) and he gave an enjoyable concert.

For an encore he played a Beatles tune (don't remember which one) and 
sprinked it with lots of quotes from classical melodies. I enjoyed that part 
a lot because he did it with a flair and a smile and we all knew what he was 
playing.

Damn . . . can't remember his name - anyone know who that might have been?

Cheers,

Bill Gunter
jazzboard at hotmail.com