Cellist Mike Block, who is a cellist with Yo-Yo Ma s Silk Road
Ensemble and who also performs regularly with Grammy Award-winning fiddler
and composer Mark O Connor, will present a free recital at 8 p.m. Thursday,
Feb. 15, in Kemp Recital Hall at Illinois State University.
Admission is free and open to the public.
Block is a graduate of The Juilliard School and the Cleveland Institute of Music, and has performed in Carnegie Hall, Japan, Tanglewood, San Diego, Chicago and the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. He has been cellist in O Connor s Appalachia Waltz Trio.
A founding member of Newspeak, a politically oriented electro-acoustic contemporary music ensemble, Block also performs regularly with the Knights Chamber Ensemble and the Lyric Chamber Music Society of New York. In December 2005, he released his debut album of all original material, The Agony of Modern Music. Block has recorded on albums for Lenny Kravitz, The Working Title and Jaymay, and he has performed on CBS and VH1 with Teddy Geiger.
Block, who is the son of Illinois State University s director of orchestra, Professor Glenn Block, regularly spends his summers teaching and performing at Mark O Connor s String Camps in Nashville and San Diego, as well as the Kansas City Cello Clinic.
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