Meadowlark Music Festival, in collaboration with the Glenn Korff School of Music and Lincoln Public Schools, will present a concert with five-time Grammy winner and French jazz violinist Scott Tixier at 7:30 p.m. April 5 in Westbrook Recital Hall, Room 119.
The concert is free and open to the public.
Tixier will be giving workshops with students from the Glenn Korff School of Music and seven Lincoln Public Schools high schools during his visit to Lincoln, in addition to the public concert.
“Having Scott Tixier come to UNL is a phenomenal opportunity for the Glenn Korff School of Music community,” said Hans Sturm, Hixson-Lied Professor of double bass and jazz sudies. “First, Scott’s experiences with such a diverse range of artists is almost unheard of and offers a very exciting set of potential possibilities for students. Second, and perhaps more importantly, Scott is having these experiences, not as a guitarist, but as a violinist. The typical path for a conservatory or school of music trained violinist, or any bowed string instrumentalist for that matter, is to strive to perform and interpret the works of composers at the highest level, to read and interpret sheet music. However, as an improvising string player, Scott chooses his own notes and rhythms. He gets to compose his own part. Improvising is something that string students rarely have the opportunity to do and they now have the opportunity to witness and experience this process first hand.”
Tixier, a 2018 Downbeat Critic Poll Winner, has performed, recorded and toured with jazz legends and music icons, including Stevie Wonder, Adele, Pink Floyd, Jon Legend, Ed Sheeran, Elton John, Christina Aguiliera, Natalie Cole, Earth, Wind and Fire, Coldplay, Ariana Grande, Kenny Barron, Chris Potter and Anthony Braxton.
In addition to his performing, Tixier is known for his work on motion picture scores, such as “The Lion King,” “John Wick,” “Charlie’s Angels” and TV shows including “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon” on NBC, “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, as well as the previous format with David Letterman, “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” “America’s Got Talent,” and most recently with Netflix for Spike Lee’s new film “Da 5 Bloods” in collaboration with composer Terrance Blanchard released in 2020. In 2022, he was the featured soloist for Jon Batiste’s American Symphony premiere at Carnegie Hall.
Tixier studied classical violin at the conservatory in Paris. Following that, he studied improvisation as a self-educated jazz musician. He is assistant professor of jazz violin and director of the Jazz String Lab band at the University of North Texas College of Music.
Learn more about about the festival.
