Fri, May 03
|Parish Hall
FCB CLASSICAL CONCERTS present Mike Block
Mike Block is a pioneering cello player, singer, composer, and educator. His performances offer a rich mixture of classical repertoire, folk music, and original compositions. Mike is a featured member of Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble, with whom he earned a Grammy Award in 2017.
Time & Location
May 03, 2024, 7:30 PM – 9:30 PM
Parish Hall, 404 Concord Ave, Belmont, MA 02478, USA
About The Event
Mike Block is a pioneering cello player, singer, composer, and educator, passionate about cross-cultural collaboration through music. Acclaimed by the New York Times for his "vital rich-hued solo playing” and by Salt Lake City Desert News as “a true artist... a sight to behold”, Mike Block “is one of the bravest, most intriguing musicians on the American fusion scene.” (Gramophone). Mike's performances offer a rich mixture of classical repertoire, folk music, original compositions, and songs. Since 2005, Mike has been a member of Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble, with which he has been featured as both cello and vocal soloist, contributed arrangements and compositions, and earned a Grammy Award in 2017 for their album Sing Me Home.
Mike is among the first wave of cellists to adopt a strap to stand and move while performing. Using his patented design, The Block Strap. Mike was the first standing cellist to perform at Carnegie Hall, which the New York Times characterized as "breathless ... half dance, half dare." In 2020, Mike founded Play For The Vote, which organizes musical performances at polling locations across the country on Election Day to increase voter turnout by providing a more positive voting experience. As an educator, he is the founder/Director of two summer programs: the Mike Block String Camp and Silkroad’s Global Musician Workshop. Mike teaches online through his Multi-Style Cello School at ArtistWorks.com and is on the faculty of the New England Conservatory.