by Mike Telin
We’ve all heard the hype — “Trust me, you’ve never heard anything like this before.” At long last that cliché proved to be correct on November 4 when the Buffalo-based Genkin Philharmonic presented a jaw-dropping, undefinable show for a capacity audience at the Bop Stop .
What makes this ten-piece electroacoustic chamber ensemble distinct from other contemporary music ensembles? It’s what they play. The evening’s repertoire included brilliant arrangements by Genkin founder and trumpeter Jon Nelson of music by Jimi Hendrix and Frank Zappa, classical compositions of Bartók and Prokofiev, as well as works written for the group by composers who are still very much alive.
Conductor John Nelson has had a long career. Born in Costa Rica to American parents in 1941, he has been Music Director of the Indianapolis Symphony, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, and the Orchestre de chamber de Paris, has become a renowned opera conductor and interpreter of large Romantic and sacred choral works, won a Grammy for his recording of Handel’s Semele, and helped found Soli Deo Gloria, an organization which commissions sacred choral music from such respected composers as Christopher Rouse and Augusta Read Thomas.