Fusing classical music with a modern twist the musical group Bach to the Future will perform at 7:30 p.m. Friday in Jefferson City at the Miller Performing Arts Center.
The band has combined tunes from well-known composers such as Bach, Beethoven and Mozart with modern jazz, rock and Latin rhythms.
Musical arranger and pianist Michael Silverman, has had 14 No. 1 albums on i-Tunes, spanning from classical, New Age, world music and children's tunes. Some of his hit songs have also been used in TV and film productions including "Two and a Half Men," "The Good Wife," "American Horror Story: Asylum" and "Major Crimes."
Rob Silverman, Michael's brother and the band's drummer, has also had one of his solos used in the Martin Scorsese movie "Silence," which released last December.
The pair who grew up in St.Louis learned to love classical music with the influence of their parents, and then began combining styles of music when they formed their own jazz band.
"We grew up with two classical parents," Michael Silverman said. "My father played cello in the St. Louis Symphony and my mother was a piano teacher and cellist. We grew up with classical music (when) we were just teenagers playing rock and roll and then evolving into jazz, we always had that classical musical background but we really didn't perform it even though we took lessons and so on.
"Then as we had a jazz group in St. Louis for a long time that did lots of interesting things with combing styles of music. About 15 years ago, we began playing with classical pieces and we found it to be so much fun and people really enjoyed it," he said.
The first combined piece the band wrote was called "Bach to the Future," which eventually led to an entire album fusing the sounds of Bach with artists like Santana. As they decided to form an entire band around combination pieces they also began experimenting with new electrical instruments such as their Drum-itar, a six-string electric violin that sounds like the guitar playing of Jimi Hendrix.
Their innovative instruments have also caused a bit of comical confusion when trying to play at venues that are not within driving distance.
"We've had a lot of trouble from TSA with weird instruments," Silverman said.
In one funny instance the groups was stopped by the TSA when they found gun powder on the case of his brother's Drum-itar.
"My wife found a case that looked like it would be the perfect shape in a thrift store and she said, 'I don't know what this case was for' and he used it and said 'Man I can't believe it it's a perfect fit,' then he gets to the airport and it was covered with gun powder because it was a rifle case," Silverman said. "So he got questioned and luckily one of the TSA officers who came in for questioning recognized my brother and said, 'No that really is an instrument;' so it was really lucky."
Silverman also mentioned another nice thing about performing in the region is that they like to see some of the same people being able to travel short distances to come see them play.
The group often likes to play in central Missouri and at music festivals such as the Wine & Jazz Fest in Hermann. However, this will be the first time the band will play in Jefferson City.
"We had heard they had a wonderful concert over in California (Missouri) at Finke Theatre and we've never had a classic cultural concert. I had thought we had overlooked that music genre and I thought classical with a twist might be very appealing to our community," said Claudia Cook, director at the Missouri River Regional Library, who is hosting the event.
The band's music is enjoyable for all ages and incorporates many cultural aspects, which is something the library strives for when choosing music for their cultural concerts.
"This is definitely something that has been near us but not here in Jefferson City," Cook said. "I'd really like to see a big crowd for this."
The concert is free to all ages and will be 7:30-9:30 p.m. Friday at Miller Performing Arts Center, 501 Madison St. in Jefferson City. More information about the concert can be found on the library's calendar at mrrl.org/events or by calling the library at 573-634-6064. For more information about Bach to the Future, visit bachtothefuture.net.