Simone Baron / Simone Baron & Arco Belo
Potomac, MD
Grant amount: $15,000
Performances
The Hambidge Center for the Creative Arts and Sciences. Rabun Gap, GA. 3/6/2022
Ginger's Revenge. Asheville, NC. 3/8/2022
Sharp 9 Jazz Gallery / Durham Jazz Workshop. Durham, NC. 3/9/2022
Capital Bop. Washington, DC. 3/12/2022
About the Artist
Arco Belo, which draws its name from the words bow and bellow is a genre-fluid chamber jazz ensemble dedicated to refining the concert form.. Melding reeds, strings and percussive timbres, the ensemble reimagines a sound at the intersection of creative jazz and avant chamber music. Led by pianist, accordionist and composer Simone Baron, the ensemble skipseffortlessly from long-form neo-baroque string counterpoint to sludgy hip-hop pads. Post-romantic cadenzas collide with reedy prepared piano; guttural bow noises and cascading plucking bring color to plush hypnotic grooves and sharply-angled linear phrases. Since forming in 2017, the ensemble has performed for audiences across the US, including at The Kennedy Center, Strathmore, and the Brevard Music Center. In 2018 they toured the west coast, appearing in the Cotati International Accordion Festival. Their debut album The Space Between Disguises was released in November of 2019 and lauded as editor’s pick in both Downbeat and Jazz Times magazines. The group has been awarded funding from the Maryland State Arts Council and Chamber Music America to record a new album in New York City in 2022 under the mentorship of internationally-renowned bassist Linda Oh. Simone is a 2021 alumnus/mentee of Dee Dee Bridgewater's Woodshed Network and a 2019 alumnus of the Banff International Workshop in Jazz & Creative Music led by Tyshawn Sorey and Vijay Iyer. Committed to building a more inclusive musical community, she is a founding member of the Boulanger Initiative, a DC based nonprofit advocacy group that fights gender discrimination in concert programming. Simone is an endorsed Victoria Artist and plays a Poeta XB Accordion.