Classical inheritance

By EMILY PARKHURST | September 30, 2009

Szemela lives in Brooklyn and performs regularly with a DJ in a hip-hop group, which he says is just one of several chamber-music groups he enjoys performing with. He has also performed with famous interpretive tap dancer Savion Glover. Szemela calls what he does "fusion" and compares the blending of genres to a person who speaks several languages.

"I speak classical, but I can also speak jazz. I can speak rock. I can even speak hip-hop," he says. "At the end of the day, I want to be a musician. Not a classical musician, not a jazz musician. Just a musician."

Emily Parkhurst can be reached at emily.parkhurst@yahoo.com.

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ARTICLES BY EMILY PARKHURST

COOKING WITH STEAM | February 24, 2010
While most of us find the clang and bang of old radiators an annoying aspect of living in an old building, composer Travis Ramsey thought they sounded like music.

TUBA SONG | February 17, 2010
Dan Hunter wants you to know that a tuba is more than an oom-pah-pah machine or the big, shiny bell in the back of the orchestra. To Hunter, the tuba is a storyteller, an opera singer, and a melodic instrument.

HE IS A REAL COMPOSER | October 07, 2009
Joshua Newton wants you to know he doesn't write classical music.

CLASSICAL INHERITANCE | September 30, 2009
A teacher told me years ago that someday "you young people will inherit classical music. Then you can do with it what you want." And so I've been waiting.

STRING VACATION | July 08, 2009
With the Portland Symphony's elimination of its popular, but debt-inducing, Independence Pops concert series, Portlanders will have to travel a little farther to satisfy their classical-music appetites this summer. But it will be well worth the mileage.