CMC faculty Scott O’Day (guitar) and Elyse Weakley (piano) will be joined by Basma Edrees (violin) and Daniel Fabricant (double bass) in a concert of high energy, exciting tango music. This unique formation will feature music specifically arranged for the Scott O’Day Tango Quartet in a combined concert and lecture, with an explanation of the elements and history of tango music. Performers will demonstrate unique techniques of the tango genre, connecting stylistic approaches to the historical context of tango’s creation and evolution.
Saturday, November 9 from 5–6:30pm
CMC Concert Hall
Free
This performance is supported by a CMC Faculty Partnership Grant.
Get inspired and work with Scott in a hands-on workshop earlier that day! Join the free Fretboard Workshop for Guitarists as part of our CMC Sessions series (Saturday 11/9 at 2:30pm) !
About the Performers:
Scott O’Day received a Bachelor’s of Music in guitar performance from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Master’s of Music in guitar performance from San Francisco State University. He attended La Escuela de Musica Popular de Avellaneda in Buenos Aires. Scott has travelled the world to learn flamenco, tango and other folk music. He grew up in North Carolina playing blues and folk. Scott directs and performs regularly with his various tango ensemble projects. He has toured the United States with tango dance bands and is active throughout the country as a musician in the tango dance community. More information can be found at www.scottoday.com.
Currently residing in San Francisco, Elyse Weakley, M.M. has taken part in a wide array of musical projects and has served in many roles including: music director, pianist, educator and composer. Throughout her career she has performed many contemporary works and has frequently collaborated directly with composers and songwriters in recording and presenting their music as a soloist and collaborator including The Hurd Ensemble and Redwood Tango Ensemble.
RTE recently released their latest album, Prizefighter on Ears&Eyes Records and will tour North America in the fall of 2018. The Hurd Ensemble was featured last season at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. and their album Navigation without Numbers is available on Innova Recordings. Other appearances include a concert of Solo Piano and Electronics at the Center for New Music. Read a review of the concert published by the San Francisco Classical Voice here: Switchboard Music Festival. In March of 2014 Elyse was the featured soloist with the Lucas Valley Chamber Orchestra presenting Mozart’s Piano Concerto in F Major, K. 413. Elyse has also developed and released an iPad app to share her unique approach to teaching piano, improvisation and composition called Strike a Chord, the creative approach to mastering music theory!
Daniel Fabricant may be the most versatile bassist in San Francisco—and the most in-demand. Playing upright or electric, he can adapt to a wide range of musical settings, from intimate chamber groups to sprawling dance bands and Latin ensembles. In his decade on the San Francisco scene he has played as a sideman with dozens of San Francisco groups and is a founding member of the award-winning Nice Guy Trio.
Fabricant has performed internationally with Piaf! The Show, The California Honeydrops, Michael Feinstein, Liza Minnelli, Betty Buckley, Joan Rivers, Spencer Day, Ann Hampton Callaway, Petula Clark, Dan Hicks and Mary Wilson of the Supremes, among many others. In the Bay Area, he regularly performs with Rupa and the April Fishes, Redwood Tango Ensemble, The Cosmo Alleycats, Lavay Smith and the Red Hot Skillet Lickers and Gaucho, among many others. He has appeared at SFJAZZ, Monterey Jazz Festival, Yerba Buena Gardens, Yoshi’s, The Freight and Salvage, and the Feinstein’s at the Hotel Nikko, and New York City venues including Carnegie Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Café Carlyle and The Algonquin.
Basma Edrees is a graduate of The Juilliard School where she received her Masters in Violin Performance and Mannes School of Music where she received her Bachelors degree. She studied with Joseph Lin, Laurie Smukler, Sally Thomas, and Catherine Van Hoesen. Basma has performed under the batons of many great conductors including Alan Gilbert and Daniel Barenboim. Basma has served as Associate Concert Master of the Oakland Symphony during their 2015-2016 season. She has also been invited to sub for the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, San Francisco Opera Orchestra,San Jose Chamber Orchestra, San Jose Opera Orchestra as well as the Santa Rosa Symphony.
Basma has performed as a soloist in various countries including the USA, Montenegro, Ethiopia and her native country, Egypt.
Equally at home with Arabic music, Basma is the founder of Music in-Takht; an instrumental ensemble dedicated to preserving Egyptian musical heritage in the SF Bay Area. She performed with renowned musicians from the Arab world and has been invited to give Arabic Music workshops at UC Berkeley and Stanford. She has taught Arabic musicat the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and has also been a member of the Arabic Music faculty at Labyrinth; one of the leading educational institutions of modal music. In early 2023, Basma was invited to play on the sound track of Assasin’s Creed Mirage alongside members of the New York Arabic Orchestra. From 2016 to 2019, Basma Edrees held the position of Music Director of the Aswat Women Ensemble, an all female Bay Area community ensemble specializing in Arab music. She also served as the co-manager and instructor of the Aswat Women Empowerment Program during their 2019 Fall season; a program designed to empower women of Arab descent through the study of their own rich musical tradition.
Through the music of Astor Piazzolla, Basma was introduced to the world of Argentine Tango music where she encountered some of the most beautiful lyrical melodies she had ever heard. Playing Tango, Basma found a medium where her Western classical training and the sentiments of her Arab musical heritage could come together. Basma studied Tango violin with Guillermo Rubino, who is the director of strings at the Orquesta Escuela de Tango Emilio Balcarce. She is currently a member of Lee/Edrees Tango Duo with Bay Area Tango pianist Sumi Lee as well as the Charles Gorczynski Tango quartet West.
Basma’s proficiency in Music Theory earned her assistant teaching positions as well as teaching fellowships at The Juilliard School while she was a student there. She studied Counterpoint with Robert Cuckson and Philippe Lasser. She has passed this knowledge onto her students as a member of the Music Theory facultyat the San Francisco Conservatory of Music where she taught the art of Counterpoint herself. Basma is also a certified Suzuki violin teacher with an expertise in starting beginner students of all ages on the violin. She also teaches the violin at the collegiate level at Santa Clara University.