Events

[CLASSICAL] For those of us—and by “us” I mean anyone who was in their 20s in the 1970s—who recall the record Virgil Fox: Heavy Organ Live at the Fillmore East, you may remember, after taking a couple of tokes, cuing up a disc that you expected to sound like the usual San Fran fare who played that citadel of rock ‘n’ roll. Instead, you got the massive sounds of a Rogers Touring Organ pumping out this incredibly complex and LOUD music performed by a zealot of an organist (who was also prodigiously talented) whose reason for being there was to prove that the composer “Bach has the red blood. He has the communion with the people. He has all of this amazing spirit…” to be absorbed by the unsuspecting throng with the aid of a light show. The audience went wild. Classical crossover had arrived with a vengeance. Something like Fox’s Baroque Psychedelics, but without the lasers, comes to Lippes Concert Hall at UB’s Slee Hall (Amherst campus) this Saturday, November 21 at 7:30pm. Hector Olivera, an Argentine child prodigy, has an international career, a near fanatical fan-base, and the musical chops to bring any thing—light or heavy, Classical or pop or improvised—to life with an infectious élan that gets audiences standing on their seats. This concert is co-presented by the UB Department of Music and the Buffalo Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. Nothing like it is expected to come this way any time soon.