777 N Tamiami Trail
Sarasota
FL 34236
“Moved to Music: Violin on the Bay”
with Hermitage Fellows Rebecca Crenshaw and Mazz Swift
Presented in partnership with Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall.
Rebecca Crenshaw’s Hermitage Residency generously sponsored by Carol White Bold & Larry Bold.
Friday, May 26 at 6:30pm
Van Wezel Terrace (entrance at 777 N Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, FL 34236)
Register here.
Registration is required. $5 per person.
The ability of music to elevate our moods, build community, and express big ideas is central to the work of acclaimed musicians and Hermitage Fellows Rebecca Crenshaw and Mazz Swift. Juilliard-trained violinist Mazz Swift is a returning Hermitage alum and a 2022 finalist for the Hermitage Greenfield Prize. Hailed as “soaring and lyrical” by Jazz Right Now, Swift’s style encompasses a wide range of established genres as well as unique improvisational techniques Mazz has created. Rebecca Crenshaw balances the skillsets of modern rock-folk performance with a pedagogical and yoga practice to create a holistic experience rooted in creativity. Listen to selections of original work on the violin and hear what is inspiring these two remarkable performers.
A New Orleans-based teaching artist and violinist/violist, Hermitage Fellow Rebecca Crenshaw combines knowledge, connection, expression, and balance in all of her work, whether teaching private violin or viola lessons, performing on a concert stage, developing arts-integrated curricula, or leading a yoga class. Her passions and talent for building community, promoting playful expression, and healing the mind and body continue to afford her professional opportunities that benefit the local and global music communities while fostering self-awareness, enrichment, and creativity in people of all ages. In addition to active collaborations with New Orleans artists and musicians, Crenshaw has performed and recorded with artists such as Arcade Fire, Mumford & Sons, Hurray for the Riff Raff, Samantha Fish, Judith Owen, Ronnie Spector, and more. She has 15 years of teaching experience and, in 2021, earned an Executive Graduate Degree from the Global Leaders Program’s 360° Executive Education Program for Arts Innovators. She is registered with the Yoga Alliance as an RYT® 500 instructor and has been teaching yoga since 2015.
Critically acclaimed as one of America’s most talented and versatile performers today, Violin/Vox/Freestyle Composition artist and Hermitage Fellow Mazz Swift has engaged audiences all over the world with the signature weaving of song, melody and improvisation that they call MazzMuse. As a singer, composer, and Juilliard-trained violinist who plays electronic and acoustic instruments, Mazz has performed and recorded with a diverse accumulation of artists including The Silkroad Ensemble, William Parker, Butch Morris, Jason Lindner, James “Blood” Ulmer, Vernon Reid, Valerie June, Whitney Houston, DJ Logic, Kanye West, D’Angelo. Mx. Swift is a 2021 United States Artist and 2019 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, currently working on a series of compositions that involve conducted improvisation, and that are centered around protest, spirituals, and the Ghanaian concept of ‘Sankofa’: looking back to learn how to move forward.