REVEL was formed in 2008 by pianist Carla McElhaney and cellist Joel Becktell to fill an abandoned niche in classical music. Their musical heroes – Beethoven, Schubert, Mozart, Brahms, Rachmaninov, Shostakovich, Piazzolla… (the whole list is extremely long) – would never have recognized the formal (some would say “uptight”) classical music scene of the mid- to late 20th century, and frankly, it wasn’t doing much for Carla and Joel either.
So they established REVEL to re-introduce informal, music-and-conviviality-focused events (they call them “revels”), like those in which the historic musicians they admired most would have participated. In 2010 they were joined by musical soulmate, violinist Cármelo de los Santos, and they began to collaborate in concert with other favorite musicians.
The result has been inspiring. Classical music lovers have found in REVEL a new expression for their passion, and non-classical audiences have woken up to a genre and repertoire far more rich and inspired than they could previously have imagined.
For more information about the artists, visit www.revelmusic.org.
REVEL Classical Band
Saturday, February 9, 2013
7:30 PM
Uptown Blanco Ballroom
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A Treasure
What they did was the highest creative effort a human can do. Each of them was excellent in their own way and then they put it all together. It blew me away!
Revel was amazing!
The sound was so amazing that I felt like the roof of the ballroom was coming off its hinges.
This music helped me realize that I listen to the same music over and over. But this really moved me out of my rut.
