World Tour of Music: Fire & Grace
SUNDAY, April 21, 2024 @ 2pm
Akron-Summit County Public Library
60 South High Street, Akron, OH
Fire & Grace is an eclectic collaboration between guitarist William Coulter and violinist Edwin Huizinga. This unique duo explores the connective musical elements of classical, folk, and contemporary traditions from around the world. Fire & Grace’s repertoire is vast, ranging from Bach to Vivaldi, tango to Celtic tunes, traditional Bulgarian to American fiddle tunes and waltzes, all played with a sense of discovery and commitment to the elements of passion and virtuosity — fire and grace — found in these diverse traditions.
Recent and upcoming performances have included engagements at the Carmel Bach Festival, the Mozaic Festival, the Santa Cruz Baroque Festival, the Electric Earth Concerts, the Monterey Museum of Art, and with Tomaseen Foley’s A Celtic Christmas. In March and April 2017, Fire & Grace toured to New Zealand with appearances at the UPSURGE Festival, the Festival of Colour, and the New Zealand School of Music. The group’s self-titled debut album combines melodies from Argentina, Bulgaria, and Western Europe with dance elements from baroque and folk musical traditions.
About The Musicians
Performing both baroque and modern repertoire, Canadian violinist Edwin Huizinga has appeared alongside Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Dawn Upshaw, Mike Marshall, and Stevie Wonder, and has been featured as a soloist with the San Bernardino Symphony, the Sweetwater Music Festival, the Trinity Alps Chamber Music Festival, and the Banff Summer Arts Festival. Edwin is a founding member of the baroque ensemble ACRONYM which has released six full-length albums of previously unknown and unrecorded baroque music. Edwin also performs all over the world with Tafelmusil Baroque Orchetra. As a modern violinist, Edwin has performed in the US and Germany with The Knights NYC, and occasionally works with A Far Cry. Edwin is also a member of the Juno-nominated indie rock band The Wooden Sky, and has recently been commissioned to write a piece for Canada’s 150th anniversary. He is a founding member of the Classical Revolution –an organization dedicated to shaping the future of concerts and jam sessions in alternative locations around the world–and serves as Artistic Director of the Big Sur Music Camp.
William Coulter is an internationally acclaimed, Grammy award winning master of the steel-string guitar. His most recent recording, The Rolling Waves, was released in December 2022 on the Gourd Music label. This solo project is a collection of original arrangements of folk and original music from the Celtic lands and beyond. Coulter has been Music Director for Tomaseen Foley’s A Celtic Christmas since 1998, and has performed with the Santa Cruz Baroque Festival, Apollo’s Fire and many other ensembles. In March of 2016 he debuted Celtic Journey, a full length pops concert with the Omaha Symphony featuring Irish singers, dancers, musicians and story-teller. Collaborations have been a mainstay of his career including tours and recordings with Gourd Music artists Neal Hellman and Barry and Shelley Phillips; classical guitar virtuoso Benjamin Verdery, and Irish flute wizard Brian Finnegan. Tours have taken him around the states and to Ireland, Europe, Taiwan, New Zealand, Chile, and most recently Australia. Coulter teaches classical guitar at UC Santa Cruz and at many summer camps and festivals. Coulter earned degrees from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the university of hard knocks.