• Erik Mongrain & Dave Eggar
• 8:00pm

Barely three years ago Erik Mongrain was still playing in the Montreal subways and soon after the release of his debut album, Fates, he was in demand all over the world. Between Erik’s dexterity & the sheer complexity of his compositions, some of the world’s finest musicians have been drawn to his sound including guitar legend Paul Reed Smith & Paul McCartney and he’s also opened & toured with Derek Trucks. Erik’s sophomore album Equilibrium was discovered by millions on the internet and he now makes his City Wnery debut with the exceptional cellist and fellow composter Dave Eggar. This show is one to be amazed by.

SEE ERIK MONGRAIN PERFORM "AIRTAP"

“Erik Mongrain is a self-taught French-Canadian guitar player that absolutely shreds. It’s like Van Halen meets James Taylor; furious but soothing.” - Boston Herald

“Erik has become a bit of a YouTube sensation ... he is famous because he is an incredible musician and virtuosic guitarist.  - Guitar Noize

ABOUT ERIK MONGRAIN

Exceptional talent, combined with the ability to recall and execute complicated patterns, timings and syncopated rhythms, make up the memorable melodies of Erik Mongrain and his big brain.

Erik Mongrain started his musical life with the discovery of grunge rock, in general, and the guitar playing of Kurt Cobain, in particular. When Erik heard the Bach guitar concertos he abandoned rock music, and started learning Bach on the guitar, before developing the “lap tapping” technique for which he is now famous around the world. Erik is too modest to claim that he is the originator of the technique; he simply gave it the name by which it is now universally known.

Anyone who has heard Erik play will know that the path he has chosen to deliver his compositions to the listening world is far from the easiest – but is exactly the stimulus he seeks. Erik’s working methods consist of finding a new and challenging way of conveying his composition to his audience. This may involve the composition itself, or the technical aspects of physically playing the piece on the guitar. Erik not only shuns the easy well-trodden technical and creative paths used by others, he actively seeks a large degree of difficulty, challenging himself to find a way around the musical obstacles, and then enjoying the satisfaction of beating them.

Integral to Erik’s music is his love of unusual tunings. As with every other aspect of his craft, Erik approaches his tunings from the perspective of locating the challenging path, and then stepping off it at various intervals to explore deeper and more complicated ways of creating his music. In tandem with his playing career, Erik’s tunings were first discovered in the Seattle grunge rock, but he rapidly explored further afield.

ABOUT DAVE EGGAR

Dave Eggar is a Renaissance man in modern times. His extensive classical training and sensitive keyboard expressions make for a well-versed and well-balanced artist. If you include his numerous credits in playing with a broad variety of diverse, top-notch artists, you will also find a well-rounded blend of influences, styles, and contagious inspiration. He has performed and recorded with artists as diverse as the Who, John Denver, Ornette Coleman, Bobby McFerrin, DJ Spooky, Kathleen Battle, Eugenia Zuckerman, Toninio Horta, Buster Poindexter and Ruggiero Ricci as well as members of Phish, Modern English, Living Color, the Spin Doctors and Pearl Jam.

Eggar is a third-generation musician; his grandfather was a violinist and conductor, his grandmother and mother concert pianists. He began performing at age eight as a boy soprano with the Metropolitan Opera and went on to appear in over 800 Met performances. He went on to debut at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center and was named a Presidential Scholar in the Arts in 1987. This distinction is bestowed on 140 high school seniors by a committee established by the United States Department of Education. Dave is a graduate of the Julliard School of Music, where he holds a holds a doctorate degree, and Harvard University, where he was a Leonard Bernstein scholar. He is also an established composer whose cello concerto "Harmonie du Soir" won the 1988 ASCAP Award.

An instrumental switch-hitter, Eggar has won numerous nationwide competitions on both piano and cello, and is the youngest winner in history of the Artists International Competition. Over all, he has chalked up over 50 honors and fellowships in piano, cello, composition, science and languages. Dave Eggar has performed internationally as a solo pianist, cellist and composer including engagements in Carnegie Hall, The Barbican Concert Hall in London, the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Avery Fischer Hall, The Summergarden Music Festivals, Aspen Music Festival, Avignon Festival, Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center's Reel and Real and Meet the Artist Series, the Rainbow Room, Dumbarton Oaks, The Knitting Factory, CBGB'S, the Joyce Theater, Merkin Concert Hall, the Annenberg Center for the Arts and numerous Concert Halls and Festivals throughout the world including the Bowdoin Summer Music Festival, and the Caramoor Festival. In Europe, he has performed at the Chopin Festival in Poland and at the Melbourne Festival in Australia.