World-famous folkloric ensemble performed by Gibaro de Puerto Rico, will highlight the 14^th season of the Main Stage Concert Series presented by Musical Bridges Around the World.  The May 20^th performance “Caribbean Express” creates an unforgettable journey through the history of Caribbean music from its roots to the present.

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From Nextbop.com

Anthony Dean-Harris
Editor-in-Chief
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it / @i_ADH

I am a sucker for piano trios, always have been. Anything on top of the piano/bass/drums combo is just icing on the cake to me. This past Sunday, February 19th at the McAllister Auditorium at San Antonio College, the Geri Allen quartet featuring Allen on piano, Kenny Davis on bass, Kassa Overall on drums, and Bruce Williams on saxophone served up some delicious, straight-up, straight-ahead cake.

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From San Antonio Express-News
By Jim Beal Jr.

Updated 04:45 p.m., Wednesday, February 15, 2012

If Geri Allen complains about not having enough hours in the day, it's not because she's a slacker but because she holds down several full-time jobs including pianist, composer, bandleader, collaborator and educator.

From San Antonio Express-News
Updated 11:52 a.m., Friday, January 27, 2012

Musical Bridges Around the World teamed four Russian classical performers with drummer Darren Kuper and bassist Greg Norris Sunday, transforming a Bach concerto and Mozart's “A Little Night Music” into jazz as well.

From Theater Jones
by Gregory Sullivan Isaacs
published Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Emanuel Borok, the recently retired Concertmaster of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, recently performed in San Antonio, and we happened to catch him in a recital of three Beethoven sonatas. It proved to be a rewarding experience in more ways that just some fine music.

He played on a chamber music series, Musical Evenings at the San Fernando Cathedral, which is one of the concert series of an organization called Musical Bridges Around the World. The energy behind this group with such a far-reaching name is Russian-born pianist, Anya Grokhovski. This is a 14-year-old nonprofit cultural and educational organization. They present a wide variety of concerts feature classical, jazz, and ethnic folk musicians in one-of-a-kind cross-cultural pairings that always has an eye to San Antonio's cultural heritage. MBAW events are specifically designed to appeal to both seasoned concertgoers and to attract new listeners. In this, they are successful as the jam-packed hall ably illustrated.

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Beethoven in the Style of Jazz” was a jewel of a concert that introduced a particularly bright note into the Beethoven Festival. Though not every piece was jazzified, those that were, were real cool and those that weren’t, were wonderfully luscious.

And Beethoven wasn’t the only composer the six talented musicians took on. Bach was invited to this jam session, too, and as far as we can tell neither composer complained as their iconic concertos and sonatas were recast in the American jazz groove. Rhythmically modified and lightly layered with percussion and bass punctuation, the familiar classical themes and cadences seamlessly morphed into something new and fun.

A special treat was the unexpected offering of Shchedrin’s “Russian Fragments” performed in the original form by the excellent cellist Boris Andrianov. Never heard before in San Antonio, the piece imparts to the cello at least ten different voices, creates unusual textures and invokes a complex narrative.

Jasmina Wellinghoff
Senior Writer and Arts Columnist- San Antonio Woman magazine