Local indie-pop singer-songwriter Justin Levinson has released a new single, but there’s a twist. The Berklee College of Music-trained musician is trying his hand at composing classical music for piano.
Levinson wrote “Go and Catch That Dream” with fellow local composer Ben Patton. Burlington-based pianist and University of Vermont professor Tom Cleary performs the song — a nice full-circle moment for Levinson, as Cleary was his piano teacher when he was a child.
I’ll leave the proper classical reviews to our expert, Amy Lilly, but “Go and Catch That Dream” is a lovely piece of music, which is good, as Levinson plans to “lean into it heavily in the future,” he wrote in an email to Seven Days. The piece drops on streaming services on Monday, April 15.
Speaking of tickling the ol’ ivories, New York City-based musician and composer Adam Tendler will play a handful of big shows in his native Vermont in the next few weeks.
Tendler, a 2022 recipient of the Lincoln Center Award for Emerging Artists and one of the most buzzed-about up-and-coming figures in contemporary classical music, will perform a brand-new piano concerto composed by Vermont-born Nico Muhly at the Flynn in Burlington with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra on Saturday, May 4. But you can get an earlier, more intimate listen to Tendler this Thursday, April 11, and Sunday, April 14, at the Phoenix in Waterbury as part of a two-show residency.
Performing on the venue’s 1929 Steinway & Sons Model M piano, Tendler plans to showcase other works by Muhly, his longtime friend and colleague, who dedicated his new concerto to Tendler.
Visit flynnvt.org to purchase tickets to the May 4 concert and thephoenixvt.com for more information on Tendler’s Waterbury residency.
The Jesse Taylor Band are back with a new single. “Thinking of You” is the band’s hardest-hitting song to date, featuring snarling, distorted guitars and hard-charging drums behind Taylor’s vocals. The edgier, more punk-leaning tone is no surprise, as Rough Francis and Iggy Pop drummer Urian Hackney recorded the track at his Burlington studio.
A song celebrating the infatuation at the start of a relationship, “Thinking of You” shows off Taylor’s anthemic vocals and the band’s garage-rock-meets-power-pop dynamics. Check it out now at jessetaylor.bandcamp.com.
Listening In
Spotify playlist of Vermont jams
This article appears in Apr 10-16, 2024.
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