Music
The best kept secret in music
Press
BOSTON, MA, March 9, 2005 — Song, Delta Air Lines' low-fare subsidiary, and Berklee College of Music are pleased to present "Song's Nothing Conservatory About It," an exciting, eight-concert series. The next concert of the series is the International Folk Festival, Thursday, March 24, 2005, 8:15 p.m., at the Berklee Performance Center, 136 Massachusetts Ave., Boston, MA. Berklee welcomes WGBH-FM 89.7 as the series media sponsor. Brian O'Donovan, host of "Celtic Sojourn" on WGBH, will host the evening. A pair of roundtrip Song airline tickets will also be given away to one concertgoer. Fred Taylor, manager of legendary jazz club Sculler's, will be honored with an award recognizing his tremendous support of education, and for promoting international goodwill and understanding.
General admission tickets are $10 ($7.50 for seniors), and may be purchased at the Berklee Performance Center box office. There is a 10% discount on all tickets for WGBH members. For more information please call 617-747-2261, or visit http://www.berkleebpc.com.
The 19th annual International Folk Festival, a highlight of Berklee's Women's History Month events, will feature artists from around the world performing in a variety of styles, including Klezmer, bluegrass, tango, salsa, Balinese gamelan, and Celtic. The countries represented at this year's concert include Indonesia, Puerto Rico, Argentina, Ireland, Scotland, Colombia, U.S.A., and Mexico.
Performers in the International Folk Festival include:
Natalie Fernandez, from Buenos Aires, Argentina, will bring a breath of fresh air to a remake of the old tango standard "Nostalgias," in which the audience will have the opportunity to hear some of the best musicians in the area. The group includes pianist Zaccai Curtis, who has played with Eddie Palmieri, Donald Harrison, and Andy Gonzalez; Richie Barshay, the current drummer for Herbie Hancock; Luques Curtis, Gary Burton's bass player; and vocalist Fernandez, who has shared the stage with Chaka Khan, Juan Luis Guerra, and tango legend Horacio Deval.
..................................................... - Berklee Press
The Music Is the Message
A few hours after the ceremony, the inaugural celebration changed venues, moving from the Hynes to the Berklee Performance Center, where students, faculty, alumni, and friends of the college performed in a memorable concert that will go down as one of the most wide-ranging and high-energy shows the college has ever presented.
Produced by the Yo Team, the concert was a very direct expression of Berklee's core mission: students making music. In every conceivable style and configuration of players, performers demonstrated over and over what goes on here, from the propulsive concert opener "Falsas Esperanzas," featuring Natalie Fernandez, to the night's encore, "Dance to the Music," a hit by Sly and the Family Stone.
In between were about a half-dozen different groups, including the Bluegrass Ensemble, performing Charlie Daniels's "The Devil Went Down to Georgia;" the Rainbow Band tackling charts by Duke Ellington and faculty member Phil Wilson, who directs the band; and Overjoyed, a nine-member gospel group who performed "Let Go and Let God," a song co-written by student Major "Choirboy" Johnson and Dennis Montgomery III. Overjoyed also accompanied faculty member Livingston Taylor on "Step by Step," a rousing Taylor original.
It was a night for special guest appearances, as Dennis Chambers took over the drums to play with a faculty and student group on Billy Cobham's "Stratus"; Chaka Khan stunned the crowd by stepping onto the stage and singing with a student band on one of her hits "Through the Fire"; and percussionist/vocalist Vinx, an old friend of President Brown's, performed two tunes. Then there was tenor saxophone great Joe Lovano, who has been teaching at the college for the past few years, performing with two recent graduates, bassist Esperanza Spalding and drummer Francisco Mela.
Faculty members shone on one of the crowd pleasers of the night, "Midnight Train to Georgia," featuring Darcel Wilson on lead vocals and vocalists Jeff Ramsey, Nancy Morris, and Jerome Kyles, as the Pips.
...................................................... - Berklee Press
BOSTON, MA, November 24, 2004 — Song, Delta Air Lines' low-fare subsidiary, and Berklee College of Music are pleased to present "Song's Nothing Conservatory About It," an exciting eight-concert series, featuring a wide variety of music styles. The third concert of the series, Thursday, December 9, Singers' Showcase, begins at 8:15 pm at the Berklee Performance Center, 136 Massachusetts Ave., Boston, MA. Berklee welcomes WGBH-FM 89.7 as the series media sponsor. The evening will be hosted by Ron Gill of WGBH's Jazz Gallery. A pair of roundtrip Song airline tickets will also be given away to one concertgoer.
General admission tickets are $10 ($7.50 for seniors). Season tickets to the series, $100 for preferred seating ($75 for seniors), may be purchased at the Berklee Performance Center box office. There is a 10% discount on all tickets for WGBH members. For more information please call 617-747-2261.
Over 100 student singers auditioned for the chance to perform on the Berklee Performance Center stage in the popular concert, which is traditionally presented twice a year. Of this immensely talented pool, eight lead vocalists have been chosen to perform on this show: Jeremy Ragsdale, Evan Baughman, Natalie Fernandez, Melinda Colaizzi, Georgel Arevalo, J.C. Casely, Dave Petrelli, and Maeve Gilchrist. They will be performing the music of Aretha Franklin, Usher, Andrew Lloyd Weber, Janis Joplin, and many others, as well as original music.
Berklee's finest up-and-coming singers and instrumentalists will be under one roof on Thursday, December 9, when Singers' Showcase will mark its 21st year of presenting the best and brightest vocalists the college has to offer. The program for the evening will include an assortment of pop, r&b, Latin, blues, jazz, and folk music. The concert will also feature a 13-piece band, backup vocalists, dancers, lights, and three-camera video with rear projection.
.................................................... - Berklee Press
Discography
"Insanity" is Natalie Fernandez's debut album, named after the versatility that this young singer demonstrates. While all 10 of the 12 songs are originals, she covers the old tango ballad "El Dia Que Me Quieras" where she spices it up with a hint of her now famous 'Latin Tango.'
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
Natalie Fernandez was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, into a family of artists and successful entrepreneurs. From her mother, the actress and tango singer Stella Millano, she inherited her artistic sensitivity that began to show at a very young age.
She and her family moved to United States when she was 4 years old, and by the time she was 10, she was an integral part of her mother’s performances, which introduced her to the world of show business.
Later, she studied dance, corporal expression, and began her musical career playing various instruments from the bass clarinet to the tuba in her school bands.
At the tender age of 15, Natalie began to sing and was selected as the first graduating class of the prestigious STAR Academy (Students Training in the Arts Repertoire) where she refined her natural vocal skills.
Which allowed her to be the youngest member of the show “New Age Tango”, directed by Stella Milano, in which she interpreted her own version of “El Dia Que Me Quieras” by Gardel and Le Pera accompanied by the bandoneonist Richard Scofano.
After graduating from the STAR Academy, she was accepted to study in Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, where she studied for 4 years and graduated with a Bachelor of Music in Music Business and Management.
During her time in Berklee she had the opportunity to share the stage with legendary artists such as Chaka Khan, Juan Luis Guerra, Anita Baker, Sheila E., Eguie Castrillo (percussionist for Jennifer Lopez and Gloria Estefan).
With a solid professional foundation, she accompanied her mother on tours around the US and abroad, places like Los Angeles, Detroit, Washington D.C., and Dominican Republic.
With her first album “Insanity,” Natalie Fernandez shows her songwriting talents, demonstrating her Argentinean origins mixed with rhythmic Afro-Latin influences. The result is a combination of rhythms and colors that she calls “Latin Tango.”
With the collaboration of young talent Zaccai Curtis, pianist and arranger (student of Danilo Perez), they have found the true spirit where tango-candombe, Afro Latin rhythms, and Latin Jazz harmonies combine. Using fresh new talent that have played alongside legends such as Herbie Hancock, Gary Burton, Eddie Palmieri, and Lauryn Hill.
“It’s Insanity! That’s why I called it “Insanity”…. It’s just crazy!! It has everything, jazz, pop, classical, Afro-Latin, tango. Ah! Everything!!!…” Says Natalie Fernandez about her debut album.
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