I must have been about ten years old when I discovered Andy Stein on the car radio while my parents were listening to “Prairie Home Companion.” Sure I was young, but I remember his music as a sort of revelation. He was one of the first jazz violinists I’d EVER heard, and I knew then that this was a style that I’d want to play someday. So, years later, when I first met Andy while teaching a camp together, I was thrilled to hear his musical stories and take in his virtuosity and playful sense of humor. It is with great pleasure that I announce him as our SPECIAL SATURDAY NIGHT GUEST ARTIST at Fiddle School’s online Swing Improv Weekend. If you’d like to come to our live conversation with Andy, reserve your spot here.

Our Saturday night interview specials conducted by entertainment professional, Adam Kulakow, have been a smashing success. Come get to know Andy and the legends he’s met along the way.

Join us as a half-day camper or buy a ticket to attend the interview with Andy Stein. To learn more about him, read on and take a listen to this clip of him playing “Sunshine,” originally recorded by Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang His resume is nothing short of extraordinary.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRjmaEj0TVk[/embedyt]

 

Andy Stein is a musician with a “checkered past.” Besides freelancing as a violinist/violist in chamber and orchestra groups in his native New York, he has recorded with Itzhak Perlman, Placido Domingo, Marilyn Horne, Frederica Von Stade, toured China with a string quartet, and performed concertos with orchestras in New York, Chicago, New England, Pacific Northwest, and the South. He has appeared on numerous television programs including Late Night with David Letterman, Saturday Night Live, Great performances (PBS) and As The World Turns (CBS). He has also been a featured soloist in a number of Broadway Shows, including the Lincoln Center production of “Anything Goes,” and the 1990’s Broadway revivals of “Guys and Dolls” and “Fiddler on the Roof.” He has produced records of rock ‘n’ roll and jazz, and conducted on radio and television.

For twenty-two years his violin and saxophone were heard weekly (hopefully not weakly) on public radio nationwide, as a member of the Guys All-Star Shoe Band, the “house band” on A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor.

Andy entered the popular music field as a founding member of Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen, where his distinctive style on violin and saxophone added a swing element to this beloved rock ‘n’ roll band of the early ’70’s. He subsequently worked with Asleep at the Wheel, Emmylou Harris, Bob Dylan, Dr. John, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Charlie Daniels, Marshall Tucker Band, Aerosmith, Billy Joel, Alan Menken, Madonna, Mariah Carey, Smashing Pumpkins, Grover Washington Jr., Chakka Kahn, Diane Reeves, Barabara Cook, Audra McDonald, Dionne Warwick, Ray Charles, B. B. King, Memphis Horns, Eric Clapton, Whitney Houston, Kathie Lee Gifford, Manhattan Transfer, Tony Bennet, Carol King, James Taylor, Michael Jackson, Paul McCartney, etc. and holds a Grammy award for Best Country Instrumental 1978. He has performed for two Presidents of the United States, the President of the Dominican Republic, four mayors of New York, and for the Native American occupying force on Alcatraz.

It’s an honor and a pleasure to welcome Andy as our guest at the upcoming Swing Improv Weekend virtual camp. If you’d like to attend Andy’s talk, hear more about his musical history and philosophy, and pose questions of your own, you can get your ticket here.