Fire & Grace Play at Oberlin
New Oberlin violin professor, Edwin Huizinga and his duo partner, steel-string guitarist William Coulter (“Fire & Grace”), gave a riveting performance in Fairchild Chapel this week. Huizinga was added to the Historical Performance faculty for his specialty in Baroque violin, but clearly his current passion includes crossing genres in collaborations with musicians better known for their folk and traditional music making. This duo, featuring guest artist Coulter, does just that, with presentations of Baroque works with a folk/pop twist, new music of a folk music character, and traditional and classical musics of Spain and the British Isles.
Edwin Huizinga, violin, with William Coulter, guitar
I like this kind of creative “blurring” of the lines in our field, and find the fresh take of an outside-the-box approach invigorating to hear. These two obviously love performing and the capacity crowd gave back plenty of love to the artists during the course of the show. The energy on stage was superb and the ensemble coordination perfect. Edwin plays with an irresistible charisma—every phrase delivered with unambiguous musical intent and brimming with the joy of music-making. William proved an excellent partner, giving the music the pop-infused kicks and sometimes unexpected grooves that lifted familiar pieces fully out of their usual slots. Hearing a DADGAD-tuned steel string guitar providing groove-like “continuo” for a Bach Cello Suite movement really put the dance back into the dance suite!
I have some connection to the players, even though I had nothing to do with their performance here—that was Edwin, of course. Bill Coulter is a long-time friend and musical partner of my long-time friend Benjamin Verdery, one of America’s great classical guitarists. I hadn’t met him, though, before this, so it was wonderful to finally meet. Coulter teaches at UC Santa Cruz, a guitar department colleague of Oberlin guitar alum and recent returning guest artist, Chris Mallett. Huizinga in also an Oberlin alum, and knew several of my students during his years here as a student, including Chris, but also Brenden Evans, and others. Small world.
Several of my students attended, along with hundreds of others. It was a memorable concert and a great intro performance for my new colleague Edwin Huizinga. Their program and the cover of the duo’s CD, Alma, is below.
