Lionel Young
March 20, 2010
2:15 - 3:30 PM
Itzhak Perlman meets "Gatemouth" Brown, sort of.
Classically trained violinist plays the blues.
First Place winner (Solo/Duo) at the 2008 International Blues Challenge
in Memphis, TN.
Born in Rochester, New York, Lionel Young began taking violin lessons at the age of six with Anastasia Jempelis at the Eastman School of Music. His family moved to Pittsburgh where he studied violin with Herbert Greenburgh, who was the associate concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony then and is
the concertmaster of the Baltimore Symphony now. He won a music scholarship to the University of Indiana where he studied with Josef Gingold. He came back to Pittsburgh and went to Carnegie-Mellon University to study violin with Fritz Seigal, the Concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony and served as Concertmaster at University orchestra for two years, one of which was with Keith Lochhart who is now the conductor & music director of the Boston Pops. He was a member of the Pittsburgh Opera-Ballet Orchestra and the National Repertory Orchestra which commissioned him to play bluegrass and blues for their summer festival and on a tour of Japan, Taiwan, and Korea during the 1988 Summer Olympic Music Festival.
Throughout his career, Lionel has won numerous awards including: The Young Artist Award (Pittsburgh Symphony); The Concerto Contest (Carnegie-Mellon); The Passamenic Award (Branchwood String Quartet); and the award for the Best Blues Band in Westword's Best of Denver in 1989 for his band The Last Fair Deal. In 1992 he won a position with The Denver Chamber Orchestra and premiered a solo piece by William Hill with them in 1994. His current band, The Lionel Young Band, won back-to-back "Best Blues Band" honors in Westword's Best of Denver 1996 and 1997. In 2008, Lionel won the solo/duo competition at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, TN.
The Lionel Young Band released it's first CD, "As the Sun Goes Down" in December 1997. The release has received excellent reviews regionally & nationally.
Among others, Lionel has played in concerts with Count Basie, Stevie Wonder, Jimmy Paige/Robert Plant, James Taylor, Doc Severenson, Linda Ronstadt, Living Color, Billy Taylor, Woodie Herman, Stanley Turrentine, Homesick James, Homer Brown, Hamlet Bluiett, Chief Bae, and Johnny Long.