Beautiful Music and
The Amazing Photography of Clouds
Ralf Illenberger and Eric Zang
Friday, April 9th 7:30PM
$12 advance $15 door, $12 Seniors
Two of Arizona’s most outstanding musicians come to the Old Town Center for the Arts in Old Town Cottonwood, when Ralf Illenberger and Eric Zang take the stage on Friday, April 9th at 7:30PM.
Composer, producer, guitarist Ralf Illenberger’s experience spans a varied and successful thirty-year career that includes hits in Europe and the US, sales of over 400,000 CDs, and performances in more than 50 countries. Ralf has received a Grammy nomination as well as the German Record Awards nomination (the German Grammy equivalent).
Illenberger is known for his extremely dynamic instrumental music that is both accessible and experimental. His orchestral acoustic guitar-stylings create a unique woven tapestry that places him in the category of guitarists whose sound and technical mastery form a recognizable individual genre. In concert, he will present his favorite compositions for solo guitar from his CDs Sedona, Spirit Skies, The Kiss, Emerge and new unreleased material.
Ralf will be joined by the electrifying Eric Zang on percussion, voice and various ethnic instruments. Eric Zang is a multi-instrumentalist world musician, with an emphasis in percussion. An explorer of traditional music around the world, much of his experience has been within flamenco and Middle Eastern music, along with a foundation in West African and Latin American and East Indian forms. He can be found performing with a variety of musicians from styles such as flamenco, Greek, world and jazz-fusion. Eric Zang has performed in Turkey and other far away places and is simply one of the finest musicians in Arizona.
To add to their exploration of the senses, Ralf will present a series of his stunning photographs of ‘clouds’ and ‘sky’ projected onto Old Town Center for the Arts back wall cyclorama, as a complement to the music. Ralf had this to say about his inspiration and the evolution of his musical style, "Since I've been living in the Sedona Red Rock region my relationship to Nature and Spirit has become more important. I am very interested to explore more and more the magical and mystical side of music, the technical aspects are secondary, music has the ability to be a gateway to other worlds, I want to create music that appeals not only to the ear, but also mostly to the heart and soul."
Born in Stuttgart Germany, Ralf Illenberger started to perform in 1977. His first album Waves (with fellow Guitarist Martin Kolbe) was released in 1978 and was nominated for the German Record Awards. Critics called them, “The Best German Guitar Duo.” Illenberger released seven European recordings during the next nine years, exploring styles that ranged from new-classical to avant-garde to progressive jazz.
In 1987, he formed the band Circle. Their eponymous album was released by Narada in 1988 and was a top-10, year-end pick in Pulse! Magazine. Circle's follow up album was Heart & Beat (1990). Its title song became a major radio hit and captured the No. 1 spot on three major airplay charts.
In 1994 Illenberger released a collaboration with multi instrumentalist Buedi Siebert. SERENADE is a beautiful and quiet album. Since 1991, Illenberger has worked closely with former Paul Winter singer, Susan Osborn—touring Japan five times and recording several albums with her (Susan Osborn won the Japanese Granny in 1992 and is currently on the Pony Canyon label). Illenberger arranged music on her recent release The Pearl, which they performed live on Japanese TV in 1996. Since 1995, Ralf has been working in his studio in Sedona, Arizona. There he recorded Sedona and Still Waters (with David Friesen), which was voted “audiophile recording of the month” by Stereoplay magazine in May 1997. With The Gateway, Illenberger has created a timeless masterpiece, crafted like a magnificent landscape.
Ralf Illenberger
Eric Zang
websites: Illenberger, Zang
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