Jazz Articles about Maureen Choi
About Maureen Choi
Instrument: Violin
Article Coverage | Calendar | Albums | Photos | Similar ArtistsTake Five with Maureen Choi
by Maureen Choi
Meet Maureen Choi Now residing in Spain, this Korean-American violinist is sparkling a revolution in the improvised music scene in Spain. Her band Maureen Choi Quartet is creating a sound that they describe as, “Spanish Chamber Jazz." After winning several international violin competitions starting at age five, Maureen has performed as a soloist across Australia, Asia, Europe and North America. A graduate from Michigan State University and Berklee College of Music, she has performed with artists like Rodney ...
read moreMaureen Choi: A Fusion of Passion and Intent
by Jim Worsley
Maureen Choi is certainly not the first musician to find their way into the improvisational jazz world after years of training as a classical violinist. It was an unlikely direction for a woman who grew up with formal classical training and further had never really listened to jazz. Fast forwarding to the present, we now have the Maureen Choi Quartet. A nothing-short-of-brilliant ensemble of musicians who play and compose with intense and fiery passion. Choi's music is a seamless symmetry ...
read moreMaureen Choi Quartet at BacchusLIVE
by Jim Worsley
We live in an era where chit chatting now, most annoyingly, rivals actual listening to the music at many concerts. It is with supreme delight then, that I share my enthralling experience of an evening of musical brilliance that was free of any such boorish clutter. You could have heard a pin drop at Bacchus' Kitchen in Pasadena, California during the Maureen Choi Quartet performance. A virtuoso violinist, Choi, and her bandmates treated an attentive and appreciative audience to two ...
read moreMaureen Choi Quartet: Theia
by Geno Thackara
It is appropriate that Maureen Choi's career has included extensive teaching stints in jny: New York City and her newer home base, jny: Madrid. Both have a rich musical history bridging the body-moving and the cerebral. The Choi quartet honors both on their third outing Theia; it's a work overflowing with smarts which never forgets to aim for the heart and/or the feet as well. “Phoenix Borealis" sets the tone right away by simmering in chamber jazz and ...
read moreMaureen Choi: Theia
by Jim Worsley
Maureen Choi's classical training and leanings are at the forefront and provide a substantial foundation. The palette is then wide open to incorporate jazz, flamenco, and fandango. Theia has a distinctive array of colors and has profoundly compelling undertones. Each song is its own unique journey with unknown passages, trap doors, and idiosyncratic paths leading to seamless tempo changes and unrestrained exploration. Theia opens with its most spacious and exhilarating piece. Choi's epic composition “Phoenix Borealis" traverses ...
read moreMaureen Choi Quartet: Theia
by Friedrich Kunzmann
On the third outing with her quartet, American violinist and composer Maureen Choi perfects the style she has been developing over the past albums with much love for detail and an awareness of the catchy and the danceable. In a mix of originals and interpretations of Spanish and Latin American classics, Choi's quartet presents over an hour of enticing rhythms and melodies, with an invigorating energy that is an invitation to join in. Born in Michigan, and having ...
read moreMaureen Choi Quartet: Theia
by Jakob Baekgaard
These days, it's the rule rather than the exception to mix different traditions of music, and the result is sometimes a postmodern grab bag without aesthetic direction. Transgressing genres isn't inherently a sign of quality. In fact, it can be a symptom of shallowness--something that surely isn't needed in these fast-clicking times. But then again, it also happens that an artist digs deep into different traditions of music in order to refine a personal language. This is ...
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