Portland violinist Aaron Meyer on stage

Aaron Meyer's cosmopolitan music

Portland artist fuses classical, rock with jazz, pop and world

By JILL SIMMONS

article created on: 2008-11-01T00:00:00

Concert rock violin virtuoso Aaron Meyer is well known to Portland audiences as a vibrant performer, composer and arranger. Sharing the stage with major artists such as Smokey Robinson, the rock band Everclear and Portland’s own Pink Martini, Meyer has established himself as a innovative artist in a field where many compete for recognition and opportunity.

He brings to the entertainment industry a bridge between western European art music and the vernacular world. Meyer has traveled throughout Southeast Asia, Mexico and the South Pacific and deftly incorporates traditional world music sources into his original compositions, arrangements and performances.

Aaron Meyer acquired his prowess as a violinist, beginning with musical studies with his father, well known violinist and educator, Julian Meyer. At the age of 11, Aaron debuted as a soloist with the famed Philadelphia Orchestra. He continued his studies with Luis Biava, associate conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra and later attended Indiana University, studying with Yuval Yaron, a student of Jascha Heifetz.

From the conservatory to the world stage, Meyer has continued to expand his work with innovative and cross-cultural themes, bringing to audiences original and high-energy entertainment.

Fusing classical and rock styles with elements of jazz, pop and world music, his work reflects a larger more contemporary view of music. World music and the integration of these traditional sources exemplify well a modern global culture.

Where porous borders have replaced strict cultural demarcations and where the Worldwide Web brings remote voices to our homes, musicians now have available a rich panoply of musical traditions, sources, and diversity from which to choose.

Meyer draws amply on these sources, weaving in superior command of his instrument. Mickey Hart (drummer for the Grateful Dead) beautifully describes this process of exploring traditional world music. In his groundbreaking memoir, “Drumming at the Edge of Magic,” his research of other cultures allowed him to explore musical worlds that existed far outside his life as a “performer of popular music.”

Like Hart, Meyer reaches out beyond the genesis of his earlier musical training and acquires the mantle of ethnomusicologist, exploring non-Western cultures and their music.

Meyer’s most recent CD, “The Journey… not the Destination,” includes a village choir from a remote Fijian island, Irish whistle and flute player Brian Dunning, an arrangement of the Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby,” music of Cat Stevens, and even Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb” (re-titled “Classically Numb” for the CD). Working with guitarist/producer Tim Ellis, Meyer also explores Latin influences with a tango, movie music (theme from “Lawrence of Arabia”), and presents original compositions and arrangements.

His cutting-edge approach to synthesizing diverse styles is truly a feast for the ears. On this newly released CD, Meyer’s lustrous transparent sound along with solid intonation on double stops, cadenzas and virtuoso passages reflect well his classical roots.

Meyer’s credits extend well beyond the concert stage and include original scores for the Public Broadcast System, music for two world peace conferences held at the United Nations in New York and at The Hague, and compositions for numerous educational programs for young people. In 2004, he was commissioned by Oregon Public Broadcast and Lewis and Clark College to create an original soundtrack for “The Unfinished Journey: The Lewis and Clark Expedition.” This retrospective of Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery and their journey west was presented in a 13-part radio series on OPB.

Meyer also has collaborated extensively with pianist Michael Allen Harrison and Thomas Lauderdale of Pink Martini. In 2004, he performed a 90-minute concert of his original work with the Oregon Symphony. One of his recent performances brought Meyer to Bend where he helped launch the first Reform Jewish congregation, Temple Beth Tikvah. Meyer performed “Kol Nidre” for their Yom Kippur services.

Like his father, Meyer is also involved in music education. His Classroom Music Project presents an artist-in-residence program for public schools that melds music composition, technology and performance. Each year, he visits schools around the Pacific Northwest presenting the CMP and assembly style music programs. Additionally, Meyer conducts his own annual summer music camp in Portland where kids ages 8-13 compose, record, perform and produce a CD.

For the past several years, Meyer has presented an annual holiday program that has hosted Fijian singer/songwriter Jale Mareau. This year, he will return to the theme of holiday music from around the world for his annual gala. Along with Tim Ellis and Meyer’s band, this year’s holiday concert also will include special guest artists: the Gothard Sisters, the Brown Sisters, Actor Sam Mowry and Aaron’s father, violinist Julian Meyer.

According to Aaron Meyer, his greatest joy is in sharing live music, experiencing that circular flow of energy from the stage to the audience and back again. To perform with people that you love and to make music come alive is at the heart of Meyer’s musical mission.

Perhaps Meyer’s innovative approach to music can best be summed up by his CD for young violinists entitled, “Practice Classical Violin and Play Like a Rock Star.”

Aaron Meyer lives in Portland with his wife Renée, son Parker and their two dogs Bootsie and Paki.

Aaron Meyer presents his annual holiday concert at 8 p.m., Dec. 19 and 20 at the First Congregational Church of Portland (1126 SW Park Ave., between Madison and Main Street). Tickets are available through TicketsWest.com or call 1-800-992-8499. You can read more about Aaron Meyer’s work at aaronmeyer.com.

Jill Timmons, artist-in-residence at Linfield College, performs internationally as a piano soloist and ensemble artist. She is currently at work with her husband Sylvain Frémaux on a translation of French author Joseph Lewinski’s biography of Swiss-Oregonian-Jewish composer Ernest Bloch.