BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – A merging of musical worlds comes to IU Auditorium Saturday, October 5 at 8 p.m. with Béla Fleck, Zakir Hussain and Edgar Meyer with special guest Rakesh Chaurasia. The trio of maestros, along with Chaurasia, will create an exhilarating evening of cross-cultural music with this exquisite performance.

 

Three masterful virtuosos on their respective instruments, Fleck, Hussain, and IU graduate Meyer move with ease among the worlds of classical, bluegrass, and world music. The trio has never before performed together on the IU Auditorium stage. While Fleck will be returning for his fourth time and IU alum Meyer for his second, this will be Zakir Hussain’s first Auditorium performance.

 

The trio is apt to traverse every geographic and stylistic corner of the globe, from classical to bluegrass to world music, which is made possible by the musicians’ mastery in their singular talents. As the world’s premier banjo player and a 14-time Grammy Award winner, Fleck brings sound steeped in jazz, funk and bluegrass. The international percussion phenomenon and a chief architect of the contemporary world music movement, Hussain is known for his uncanny intuition and masterful improvisation. Indiana University’s very own, Meyer is a MacArthur Award winner for his combination of incredible double bass technique and musicianship with his unique gift of composition.

 

“We are thrilled to bring a trio of Grammy Award-winning artists to IU Auditorium to kick off our 2019–2020 season,” IU Auditorium Executive Director Doug Booher said. “Béla Fleck, Zakir Hussain, and Edgar Meyer are world-renowned instrumentalists and bringing the three of them together on our stage is sure to be a treat for our audience as they create an evening of incredible musical fusion.”

 

In 1980, the trio’s story began when Meyer and Fleck were introduced by Meyer’s musician friends Sam Bush and John Cowan. Meyer and Fleck first played together in Aspen, where they found a groove from the beginning, shaping each other’s musical development during this formative stage as musicians. Later on, Meyer and Fleck met Hussain at a festival workshop where they recognized the vast knowledge they could gain from him. The Nashville Symphony asked Meyer and Fleck to write a triple concerto where they decided Hussain would be the perfect musician to complete the trio. In their initial experiences composing together, the trio found that their different musical masteries “opened up a whole new avenue to explore,” as described by Hussain.

 

Béla Fleck, Zakir Hussain and Edgar Meyer with special guest Rakesh Chaurasia at IU Auditorium is supported by Lennie’s, Bucceto’s, and Bloomington Cleaners. IU Auditorium’s 2019–2020 season is presented by B97, Curry Auto Center, The Herald Times, CFC Properties, World Arts Inc., and Indiana University Residential Programs and Services.

 

For more information on this performance and the rest of the 2019–2020 season, visit IUauditorium.com.