In the previous two years, Stone Forest has run a series of relatively glossy performances, which consist of fashion shows (including a request to provide music for a designer at New York Fashion Week), a Wall Street Gala, the Queens Museum of Fine Art, and clubs such as The Supper Club of NYC's notorious Times Square.
At the same time, they have injected themselves with force into the ferociously authentic underground Hip-Hop scene of New York and Brooklyn, their name known to the streets with appearances at such venues as M1-5, the Five Spot, Galapagos, and the Legendary Nuyorican Poet's Café ; even making a few notable rock venues along the way, with stops at Arlene's Grocery, Piano's, Tonic, the Delancey, and others...
They have played every major university in NYC, and have contributed to the cultural expression of the city in playing for such events as The National Black Writer's Conference, the Chinese New Year Parade, the Autumn Moon Festival Festivities, and Chinatown's Soundfest.
The Stone Forest Ensemble is the current Kollaboration Grand Champion as crowned in 2006 (a large Asian-American talent competition), and Jie-Song Zhang took 2nd place at Amateur Night at the Apollo competition at the Legendary Apollo Theater of Harlem , relatively recently. Another shining jewel of the group, is flutist Kaoru Watanabe, formerly of the world famous Taiko supergroup, Kodo, who plays with Stone Forest from time to time.
The Stone Forest Ensemble is a Classical/World Music/Hip-Hop fusion, whose
core consists of Jie-Song Zhang (Emcee and Electric Violinist), Alex
"Krussia" Kalnev (Beatboxer), Varuni Tiruchelvam (Cellist), and Joshua Benson (multi-faceted percussionist).
SFE at The Orpheum Theater, Los Angeles (Kollaboration LA 2008)
[E.Violin/Emcee, Cello, Beatbox, Djembe, Pipa]
Krussia Solo ~ Jie-Song Freestyle
Our project is a cry of life lifting from ground to sky in the city of New York, a fire fueled by the bits and pieces of hardship, vigor, spirit, and love at passion buried into the streets of the mighty city, marked across the surfaces of its weathered walls, beaming as the vertical radiance of towers fashioned to cut the sky above street-lights standing guard alongside the feverish marching forward of humanity below. The Stone Forest Ensemble is the people of New York City as a symbol of the people of the world.
SFE on NY1
New York City, like none other in civilization's record, can be seen as a point of arrival for the history of the world. It is a place where the years that precede us and the stories written by those years have come to converge. From each part of the world and its extending history, people have come, with their God and gods, their ways of raising children, their manners of dining and celebration, their values and beliefs – the patterns of reality's form ingrained into their particular sets of eyes – to gather in one place and contribute the prints of their hands and feet into the foundation of what is one city. New York City is a current and prominent chapter in the world's collection of ideas, a place where humanity assertively and proudly demonstrates to itself that which it has become.
Stone Forest Ensemble is a vocal and unique piece of this statement – this expression of what the world and its people have become and are still longing to become. We are a sampled collection of the many ancestries that have flowed as rivers in the shaping of the terrain that is today's reality; individuals made by differing traditions and ideologies, meeting from varied corners of the world's thinking into the space of one thought, the harmony of one statement. In us is the blood of the Asian Empire, the silken strands of the Ancient East, the elegance of the Middle Eastern Legacy, the pride of the African Lineage, the waving flags of the European Tradition. In us is the elongating cry of the String Symphony, the driving momentum of the Middle Eastern and African Percussion, the weighted meditation of the Traditional Asian Instruments, the rebellion and tenacity of the Hip-Hop voice. In us is the face of the old world that has become new.
STONE FOREST ENSEMBLE @
KOLLABORATION NYC '06 (Grand Champion Performance)
Hiya, thanks for being a friend - I enjoyed visiting YourSpace :-) Keep it up May your life be full of love, light and fun... hugs SOREN - Beats for change - NYERTUN
Salut, c'est Stéphane DEMIRDJIAN, acteur Grosse ambiance sur ma page, viens check !!! http://www.myspace.com/stephanedemirdjian Merci pour le soutien, bonne continuation
Sunday, Nov 8, 2009 Southpaw 125 5th Ave. Brooklyn, NYC 11217 noon-5pm, $10, all ages
hosted by Lyricks and Manifest (Virginia)
performing from Los Angeles: Dumbfoundead, Lyraflip, L. Scatterbrain, DJ Zo performing from New York: Magnetic North, Flowsik, EXP, Christina Chung, Taiyo Na, Stone Forest Ensemble, Decipher, Vinh Hua, Elijah Kuan Wong
Stone Forest Ensemble- Your sound is great. Keep gathering music in and pushing boundaries! All the best to you. Andy Fein Fein Violins FineViolins.com
I'm a friend of Jay. No news from him... You? How he's going?
Let me do my advertising :)
www.flickr.com/photos/elpumadelfuegodestruction/
Some pieces are to sell, the most of them can be printed in good quality colors on good quality t-shirts and more, on order; The details are in the flickr profile.
