Mark Menzies, musician
An extraordinary violinist who plays beyond ordinary limits - San Diego Union Tribune
As a solo performer, I am currently preoccupied with
–4:7–
which indicates an obscure pulse relationship in music:
“four in the time of seven”
—four concerts in seven days, each a separate, unaccompanied, program.
I do not normally pursue egotistical solo projects, or indeed focus my career ‘solo’. Joyfully, I am an educator: currently a Professor of Music at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand; and besides that, lead a greatly varied musical life – with the Formalist quartet and other US-based ensembles; am a composer, conductor, and frequently perform on the piano.
However, over the years my intensely focused interest in music ‘of our time’ and in particular the privilege I’ve had working with a great number of our time’s compellingly creative composers, has led to the idea of presenting, in one week, a sampling of the repertoire I have gathered – to celebrate the extraordinary labyrinth of sound available to the solo violin or viola, with each of the four programs offering a unique solo concert experience.
–4:7– will first be presented in Los Angeles in early 2017.