Kristina Reiko Cooper

In her new CD “Around the World with Love” available May 10th, acclaimed cellist Kristina Reiko Cooper, performs a collection of love songs from all corners of the globe. “Love songs are the most sublime expression of song; every country, every culture has its own ubiquitous collection of love songs,” says Kristina Cooper. “It is fascinating how each country’s songs of love so aptly illustrate its national characteristics and charms. The French are elegant in their reserved lyricism, the Americans, optimistic, the Japanese quietly tragic, and the hotter countries, passionate and sultry. I am Japanese-American, Israeli, and recently converted to Orthodox Judaism. My cello and I have traveled the globe, so this project has been a project that speaks to my diversity both musically culturally.”

Kristina Cooper has an extensive discography of CD and DVD recordings, including many best-sellers. She has released over two dozen recordings for Arabesque, Pony Canyon Records, Helicon Records, Linus Records and CP2, and 5 DVDs for Fuji Records. In addition to her recent solo recording “Stone and Steel,” Kristina Cooper was featured in the widely broadcast “Quartetto Gelato-A Concert in Wine Country,” and recently released a solo recital DVD through Amadeus Press. Cooper has been heard often on National Public Radio, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, NHK in Japan, KBS in Korea, WNYC and WQXR in New York City, as well as in television broadcasts for CNN, PBS, CBC Television, CBS’s “60 Minutes,” national Chinese Television, KBS Television in Korea, Fuji Television and NHK Television in Japan. T2C sat down and talked with this funny, down to earth talent to learn more.

T2C: Your parents are musicians, when did you find your love of music?

Kristina Reiko Cooper: I was surrounded by music. My parents were young when I was born, my father was still at Julliard. I use to curl up under the piano, as my father played. I loved hearing French music.

T2C: What song made you love music?

Kristina Reiko Cooper: Listening to Bach might have been it, but the first piece that made me love the cello was “Schubert’s Cello Quintet.” It’s sublime and I wanted to play it.

T2C: Why the cello?

Kristina Reiko Cooper: I started with piano. I didn’t want to play what my parents played. The cello is the closest instrument to the human voice. I loved to sing, but have a horrible singing voice.

T2C: What is your go to song that inspires you or just puts you into your special place?

Kristina Reiko Cooper: I have a running play list Prokofiev 3^rd Piano Concerto, Susan Vega, Beyonce’s “Girls,” Ravel “Sonatine.”

T2C: If you hadn’t been a musician, what would you have become?

Kristina Reiko Cooper: I am a hypochondriac, so being a doctor might have been a good thing.

T2C: Your newest CD is14 love songs from all corners of the globe, what made you choose this concept?

Kristina Reiko Cooper: This is my way of singing songs. There are love songs in every culture. It’s universal! I am cosmopolitan, half Japanese, half American and I live in Israel. We also have an apartment in New York as well.

T2C: I am going to go through the countries; can you tell me your favorite composer and song from each one? Let’s start with America.

Kristina Reiko Cooper: Patrick Zimmerli who is on my album. He is a young composer and favorite song “Something Coming” from West Side Story.

T2C: Brazil?

Kristina Reiko Cooper: Song would have to be “Girl From Ipanema” and let’s get eclectic, Villa Lobos.

T2C: France?

Kristina Reiko Cooper: Ravel is my all time composer and Debussy’s “La Mer.”

T2C: India?

Kristina Reiko Cooper: Does Freddy Mercury count? In song Shankar.

T2C: Israel?

Kristina Reiko Cooper: Osvaldo Golijov and the song “My Beloved.”

T2C: Japan?

Kristina Reiko Cooper: Mia Zumi Saqura and the song Saqura

T2C: Mexico?

Kristina Reiko Cooper: Who doesn’t love “Besuma Mucho” and songwriter Carlos Shavez.

T2C: Russia?

Kristina Reiko Cooper: There are so many but I would have to say Rockmonoff and “Shostakovich Cello Concerto No. 1.”

T2C: Spain?

Kristina Reiko Cooper: Manuel deSalla and “Goyesque.”

T2C: What is in your mind for your next album?

Kristina Reiko Cooper: Two ideas I’d love to do an album of contemporary Israeli composers. I would like to do an album based on Haiku. Mu Great Grandfather Takahama Kyoshi was one of the most famous haiku poetry writers of the 20^th Century

T2C: What should our readers know about you?

Kristina Reiko Cooper: That I am really excited to present this album. I picked songs I love, that were not necessary written for the cello. I want the listener to be as joyous as I was to record this. Also I am a harried mess, but I am having fun doing it.

Related Topics:Cellist Cello Israel Japan Julliard Kristina Reiko Cooper New Patrick Zimmerli Ravel Suzanna Bowling Times Square Chronicles

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Suzanna Bowling

Suzanna, co-owns and publishes the newspaper Times Square Chronicles or T2C. At one point a working actress, she has performed in numerous productions in film, TV, cabaret, opera and theatre. She has performed at The New Orleans Jazz festival, The United Nations and Carnegie Hall. She has a screenplay and a TV show in the works, which she developed with her mentor and friend the late Arthur Herzog. She is a proud member of the Drama Desk and the Outer Critics Circle and was a nominator. Email: suzanna@t2conline.com

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Ken Fallin’s Broadway: New York Pops and Marvelous Marilyn Maye

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March 22, 2023

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“The astonishing Marilyn Maye sings with the magnificent New York Pops led by Maestro Steve Reineke this Friday evening, March 24th at Carnegie Hall. They are remarkable talents and remarkable people.

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Cabaret legend Marilyn Maye takes the stage with The New York Pops for a program of standards and musical theater classics that make clear why she’s been celebrated as one of America’s greatest jazz singers for more than 50 years. Hear favorites by composers who include Porter, Lerner and Loewe, Loesser, and Sondheim, as well as Maye’s special version of “Too Late Now,” which was selected by the Smithsonian Institution for its permanent collection of 20th-century recordings.

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The Glorious Corner

Published

1 hour ago

March 22, 2023

G. H. HARDING

G.H. Harding

WOODSTOCK COVER STARS — (Via Best Classic Bands) — Bobbi Ercoline’s name may not be familiar to most, but millions own her photograph: Bobbi, whose last name at the time was Kelly, and her then-boyfriend, Nick Ercoline, were huddled together under a quilt at the 1969 Woodstock festival when photographer Burk Uzzle snapped their picture. The couple, both then 20, were unaware that their photo had even been taken until several months later, when the three-LP Woodstock soundtrack album was released. They were among friends when they first realized the couple on the album cover was them.

“We were passing the jacket around when someone pointed out the staff with the orange and yellow butterfly,” Nick told AARP in 2019 for the organization’s magazine. “That belonged to Herbie, a guy from Huntington Beach, Calif. He was lost and having a bad trip, and we hooked arms with him until he was clear-headed. Then we saw the blanket. Oh my lord, that’s us!”

Bobbi and Nick only lasted one night at Woodstock, and never even got near the stage. They had given it their all trying to get to the festival, ditching their car when traffic became snarled and walking the final two miles. They spent most of their single day there on the hillside where the famous photo was taken.

Two years later, in 1971, they married. They remained together until Bobbi Ercoline’s death Saturday (March 18, 2023).

Nick posted the news on Facebook: “It’s with beyond great sadness that I tell my FB family and friends, that after 54 years of life together, of the death of my beautiful wife, Bobbi, last night surrounded by her family. She lived her life well, and left this world in a much better place. If you knew her, you loved her. She lived by her saying, ‘Be kind.’ As a School Nurse she always championed the kids … ALWAYS! As a person, she always gave. ‘How much do you really need if you have all you need or want?’ So she gave and gave and gave. She didn’t deserve this past year’s nightmare, but she isn’t suffering from the physical pain anymore and that brings some comfort to us.”

We’ve spoken much over the years about how that Woodstock event was so cataclysmic – culturally; musically; and certainly philosophically. Elliot Tiber wrote beautifully about it in his first book Taking Woodstock – a classic if you’ve never read it.

They tried to re-create it in 1994 and though it was good, it just didn’t have that magical flavor of the first one. I wasn’t at either, but as you can imagine, music from that 1969 concert still lives passionately today. I was, however, at Live Aid and that was my Woodstock for sure.

Not to get too poetic, but I came across a great quote yesterday: It’s worth being older now, to have been young then.

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SHORT TAKES — Derek & The Dominoes Bobby Whitlock on Jim Gordon: “Carl Radle and Jim Gordon … Didn’t get any better than that. The only other alternative [for Derek and the Dominoes] was Jim Keltner. And that’s who should have been the guy and who was supposed to be the guy. But it didn’t turn out that way. He was busy. The rhythm section of Carl and Jim propelled the songs we put together. Jim Gordon is the most musical drummer I ever heard. All of the drums were in tune. literally tuned to a key on the piano. Big kit. But Jim had this wonderful ability to interpret the nuances you could feel but not hear. Carl was solid as a rock. A downbeat player and right on it. So, we have Carl who is solid and down and Jim who is up and on it. So, it was perpetual motion” …

The Ides of March

Do you remember “Vehicle” by The Idea of March back in 1970? It became the fastest-selling single in Warner Brothers history. A little-known fact is that 14 seconds of the completed master of “Vehicle” was accidentally erased in the recording studio, (primarily the guitar solo), and the missing section was spliced in from a previously discarded take. The song reached #2 in Billboard, and #1 in Cashbox. The album “Vehicle” reached #55 nationally … Dolly Parton sings with Elton John on “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me” on her forthcoming rock ‘n roll album. I bet it’ll sound great, but how many covers of that song has there been? Maybe they should have picked a John/Taupin deep-cut like “Come Down In Time” or “Amoreena.” Just saying … Does the phrase DLYZECOMKIN mean anything to you?

Micky Dolenz

Believe it or not, in one of those crazy-jumble games online, the phrase translates into Micky Dolenz. Crazy, right? See for yourself: https://invasion24.com/2023/03/19/daily-jumble-puzzle-answers-march-19-2023/

… Speaking of Dolenz, he departs Thursday on a Flower Power Cruise; then starts his Headquarters-tour on April 1 in Orlando …

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Czech Jazz Singer Jan Smigmator to Debut at Carnegie Hall

Published

1 day ago

March 21, 2023

Magda Katz

Jan Smigmator is set to be the first Czech jazz singer to perform at the famous Carnegie Hall in New York. His solo concert will take place on April 29, 2023 during which he will perform the famous repertoire of The Great American Songbook. Smigmator will be accompanied by The New York Sextet which comprises musicians from a band of the legendary American singer Tony Bennett, including two Czech jazzmen.

The band will meet for the first time only a couple of days before the concert in New York. It includes a music producer and jazz pianist Jan Steinsdörfer, an excellent player on Hammond organ Jan Andr and the members of Tony Bennett quartet – double bassist Marshall Wood and guitar player Gray Sargent from Boston, legendary Californian drummer Harold Jones and swing matador, tenor saxophonist Scott Hamilton.The New York concert will also be released as an album Jan Smigmator Live At Carnegie Hall. All details about the concert can be found at www.smigmator.com as well as on the official pages of Carnegie Hall www.carnegiehall.org – tickets to be purchased on this page as well.

“It’s a dream of any musician to have a solo concert at the famous Carnegie Hall. It’s the Mecca of music and also the biggest accomplishment that can be achieved in the music world. It is a reference that opens the doors to the entire world. It signifies that you do your job very well. It is wonderful that we will play alongside the best American musicians,” says Jan Smigmator.