If you have an appetite for edgy progressive rock with worldly flavors, you’ll not want to miss violinist Aaron Meyer in concert at the Key City Theatre on Thursday, February 20.

Brought to you by the Cranbrook Violin Club (which also presented hip hop violinist Lindsey Stirling to Cranbrook in 2012), Concert Rock Violinist Aaron Meyer performs cutting edge original music and contemporary arrangements with virtuosity and passion.

Aaron Meyer began his musical journey at the young age of five and his classical violin training enabled him to debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the astounding age of just 11. One might be surprised to learn that, at the age of 19, Aaron closed his violin case and began a new journey, which would ultimately lead him back to his musical roots with a few new branches. He embarked on an 11-month expedition following college graduation to some of the most remote regions of Southeast Asia and the South Pacific.

Every village, every island, every culture he encountered provided “a powerful and awakening education,” according to Aaron. This together with the experience of a Grateful Dead concert, which he describes as being “the antithesis of what I was taught as a classical violinist-chaos and energy,” he found himself opening his violin case back up again and creating a unique musical style of his own. A style that bridges world, contemporary progressive rock and classical genres.

Since returning to his hometown of Portland, Oregon, Aaron has soloed with major international symphony orchestras and ballet companies as well as performed for numerous world leaders and dignitaries including the Dalai Lama. He has worked with a wide range of artists including Smokey Robinson, Aaron Neville, Everclear and The Temptations. Having recorded 10 CDs to date, Aaron generates excitement with his fresh and invigorating instrumental style of violin performance.

However, it is his devotion to musical education for children in addition to his generous donation of time to the causes he believes in which inspired the Cranbrook Violin Club to bring Aaron Meyer to our community. Started in 2010 by music teacher Kim Lutz, the goal of the Cranbrook Violin Club is to make music accessible to all local families with children. Similar to Aaron, who has taught violin to children in remote areas of

Southeast Asia and the South Pacific, director Kim Lutz also volunteers hundreds of hours to the teaching of violin to children within our community. In addition to learning the violin, which fosters confidence and self worth, another important goal of the Cranbrook Violin Club is to provide children with the opportunity to give back to their community. The Violin Club members perform every year at local seniors homes as well as for the Sam Steele Parade and the Relay for Life. Last year, the students in the Cranbrook Violin Club raised more than $2,000 for the fight against cancer.

In a world of athletes who take performance enhancing drugs and pop stars who fall from grace under the pressures of fame, it is so important for our children to have strong, positive role models.

This is why the Cranbrook Violin Club brings artists such as Aaron Meyer and Lindsey Stirling to Cranbrook. It is the club’s vision to inspire as many children and their families as possible through music. To achieve this, it is our goal to enable a family from every school in School District No. 5 to come to the Aaron Meyer Concert through sponsorship from community businesses and organizations.

Please contact the Cranbrook Violin Club at (250) 417-9543 if your community organization or business would like to sponsor a family in our school district so that they may attend the Aaron Meyer Concert. Sometimes it takes just one event in a child’s life to inspire them down a path they might not otherwise have chosen.

Tickets for the Aaron Meyer Concert are only $25 per person and can be purchased through the Cranbrook Violin Club (250-417-9543) or the Key City Theatre (250-426-7006).

Click to see and hear him play

Cranbrook Violin Club

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