Lucia Micarelli
Lucia Micarelli is a magician.
On her debut album, Music From a Farther Room, she casts her spells in sound. Her medium is the violin, the most paradoxical of instruments, feather-light, more air than substance, yet capable of spreading joy or rage … but only when cradled by an artist who knows how to release its spirits.
Even among virtuosos, Micarelli is a rarity. She displays a vast range throughout Music From a Farther Room: exotic rhythms that trace a caravan's journey toward "Samarkand," a slow and sensuous tango on "Oblivion," a smoky tone that takes us to a Parisian cabaret on "My Funny Valentine," a silky rendition, amidst electronic drums and glistening strings, of David Bowie's "Lady Grinning Soul," a performance with Leigh Nash from Sixpence None the Richer of "She is Like the Swallow," that's mountain, mist, and green Irish fields, a Massenet reading with pianist Lang Lang and an unaccompanied bravura rendering from Sibelius that would lift listeners at Carnegie Hall to some plane of wonder.
Premonitions of these tracks flashed earlier this year through the recent Josh Groban tour, on which she assumed the role of Concert Master. Groban's vocals and the show's lavish effects weren't enough to draw attention from her playing and presence. "Barefoot, she strolled the stage with the grace of a ballet dancer," marveled the Arizona Daily Star, "playing with equal parts passion and ferocity," while the London Free Press described her as "Groban's not-so-secret weapon" and livedaily.com noted, simply, that "the diminutive, graceful Micarelli … often stole the show." Even Liz Smith of the New York Post joined the chorus; Micarelli was, in her words, "gorgeous," "unique," and "amazing."
But this was just the warm-up. Response to Music From a Farther Room has gone beyond these accolades -- and, significantly, much of the enthusiasm comes "average" listeners previously unexposed to violin. Comments, for instance, on amazon.com -- "Sensual, passionate, oh so beautiful!" … "It takes your breath away!" … "I may be thirteen but … I knew her upcoming CD would be one to treasure" -- testify that Micarelli is a phenomenon in the making -- an artist whose brilliance is only beginning to show.
Born in New York, Lucia began violin study at age three -- her first "violin" was built from a Crackerjack box -- and continued after her parents retired to Hawaii two years later. She progressed rapidly; at six she took first prize in a statewide competition, defeating other contestants more than twice her age, and as a result won an opportunity to perform as soloist with the Honolulu Symphony.
At age eleven Lucia was accepted to the pre-college division at the Julliard School of Music. She and her family moved into a flat in Queens and for the next five years commuted to Manhattan, where Lucia studied with the renowned pedagogue Dorothy DeLay. Within a year, playing against some of the world's most gifted prodigies, she won the school's concerto competition and settled into a routine that would combine instruction with concert appearances at the Hollywood Bowl, Lincoln Center, and other prestigious international venues.
At seventeen, Lucia left Juilliard to attend the Manhattan School of Music, where she studied with celebrated international violinist, Pinchas Zukerman. "Miss DeLay had been very technical, but Zukerman was more of a philosopher," she says. "He would talk about how the violin should be an extension of my body. He had me stand on a chair as I played, to concentrate on that connection. After a month or so I felt more physically comfortable with my instrument than I'd ever been, as if I'd been born with a violin in my hand."
The one thing she hadn't done in music school was explore beyond a classical repertoire, even though her curiosity was beginning to stir. "By the time I was in high school I was feeling kind of rebellious," she says. "Everybody at Julliard was listening to Bach and Beethoven on their Walkmans, and I was listening to the Who. This was music that seemed to come from another world, but even then I could see a correlation between the power of the Beethoven string quartets and 'Love Reign O'er Me.'"
Eager to expand her horizons and venture into a world outside of classical music, she spent her nights in clubs, sitting in with rock or jazz bands, learning to improvise, to play from the moment as intuitively as from written music. Eventually she landed a gig with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra in time to join the celebrated ensemble on its six-week holiday season tour. At nineteen, she was the youngest member of the group -- by fifteen years. "It was awesome. I played electric violin and ran around onstage in big boots and did the whole 'Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse' up on the monitors with three guitar players and shit exploding behind us and lasers everywhere and people screaming. I loved it."
Then, right before Christmas, Josh Groban called, with an invitation to audition for his show. At his request she videotaped her rendition of "Mi Mancherai," from the soundtrack to the film Il Postino, which Groban had recorded with concert violinist Joshua Bell. Within days of sending him the tape she got the good news and in January 2004, three days after playing the last date on the TSO tour, she left for Los Angeles to begin rehearsals with Groban.
It was inevitable that David Foster, the record industry legend who had mentored Groban, would notice his astonishing new violinist too. His offer to release her first solo album on his label, 143 Records, caught her by surprise. "Honestly, I was terrified," she laughs. "But David was totally supportive. He told me, 'We believe in you. We trust your direction. You have total freedom to record what you want. Trust your gut -- it's your name on the record.'"
Produced by Paul Schwartz, with Groban as executive producer, Lucia recorded Music From a Farther Room at Abbey Road in London. For all the diversity of the material, the album came together with extraordinary unity, as if dissimilar pieces had risen together to form one brilliant picture. Even Lucia senses that something miraculous has taken shape in this music.
"My past two years have been so crazy and so full of coincidence that I feel as if I've been re-spiritualized," she says. "Everything is so beautiful and full of wonder. If I can get out and play in front of people every night, and there's just one person who says, 'You make me want to listen to the violin' --I'm thrilled. That's why I play."
http://www.luciamicarelli.com/