Sonic Escape Friday Night Concert
February 22, 2019
Who is Sonic Escape? Fiddle-dancing for thousands in Tiananmen Square. A flute concert on skis in
the mountains of Vermont. Couchsurfing parties in the Arctic Circle. A cross-coun- try caper in a busted $500 minivan. Adventure abounds when art rules life, and sharing it with the world is what Sonic Escape’s about! Shawn Wyckoff and Maria Millar founded Sonic Escape in 2009. Armed with flute & violin, their game plan – use hyper-instrumentals to fill hearts with inde- scribable joy – has landed them on hundreds of stages across 40 North American states, provinces and beyond (click to see where)! Maria and Shawn push themselves to the brink – singing, dancing, telling stories, and above all, playing their hearts out with a “wonderfully imaginative… anything goes sense of fun.” (The Washing- ton Post)
They met at The Juilliard School. A love of blading the streets of New York (and a
spring break in Ireland) forged a romance powered by fun. But playing the flute & violin together? No way! Too shrill, hard to tune. Temptation kicked in, though, and
Shawn and Maria gave it a go. Tuning took 2 years; matching breath & bow took even longer. Composing music that amplifies the virtuosity, range and emotion of the flute & violin – that’s when the real fun began. They knew they’d arrived when an audience exclaimed, “Hurry, lock the doors! Don’t let them leave!” After several years of frenzied, fabulous touring, Maria and Shawn reflected. “How can we further connect with communities to make a lasting difference?” Their answer: Four Seasons Rising (4S), a project that combines music + activities to inspire action for Earth. Featuring The Symphony, a concerto for flute, violin and orchestra composed by Maria and funded by Canada Council for the Arts, 4S is rooted in the belief that music should unite and ignite. Performing Arts Centers such as Lincoln Center
(NYC), Chautauqua Institution (Chautauqua, NY), Irish Arts Center (NYC), Oxnard Performing Arts & Convention Center (Oxnard, CA) and the Impe- rial Theatre (Sarnia, ON) have provided formidable stages for Sonic Escape’s larger-than-life sounds and moves. Concerts and workshops at the University of Missouri (St. Louis, MO), University of Wiscon- sin (Whitewater, WI), Penn State (Erie, PA), Hofstra University (Hempstead, NY) and The Juilliard School (NYC) have enabled them to share with audiences and students alike! Then there’s festivals… whether thou- sands camp without running water or gather in idyllic town squares, Sonic Escape loves them all and has performed at the Summer Arts Festival (Huntington, NY), Blue Skies Music Festival (Clarendon, ON), Elora Festival (Elora, ON) and Cherry Blossom Festival (Philadelphia, PA). Lastly, Canada Council for the Arts, Chamber Music America and the Puffin Foundation have generously funded Sonic Escape’s compositions, travels, and the creation of a 5-day com- munity residency. So look out! When you see that green minivan rolling into town, make way for the 2 nomads (and maybe even 2 traveling cats) that are Sonic Escape. Good times and superb music are sure to follow!
TEMPO 40 JANUARY 2019
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