Gary Prince (guitar) & Sarah Foard (violin)

Black Oranges meets you at the crossroads of north and south, and old and new. This sophisticated duo will take you from the breezy front porches of Dixieland to the milonga dance halls of Argentina. Reputed violinist Sarah Foard invokes her fiddling and classical music background to supply artful acoustic shapes. On electric guitar, jazz specialist Gary Prince picks out riffs that spring from bluegrass to blues, tango, bossa nova, and all points in between. This half-acoustic and half-electric duo expands both genre boundaries and audience expectations. Together, Black Oranges finds the common musical threads from across the Americas and British Isles and the pair proves just how much music can come from ten strings and a bow.

Photo by Isabelle Carbonell

Gary Prince, guitarist, is Program Chair of the Jazz Department at the Levine School of Music, in Washington, DC, and an active performer and educator in all contemporary guitar styles. His guitar style is characterized by a musical range and degree of sensitivity uncommon to the electric guitar, applying a strong background in jazz guitar and improvised music to contexts ranging the gamut from old time to modern. A DC area native, Gary is a graduate of the program in Jazz & Contemplative Studies at the University of Michigan, where he was a member of the Creative Arts Orchestra under the direction of Ed Sarath and Mark Kirschenmann. He has held teaching positions at The Siena School, The Sheridan School, The Capitol Hill Arts Workshop, and was an Artist-in-Bloom Resident Fellow at BloomBars from 2009-2011. Gary released his first album as a leader, Improvised Duets, with saxophonist Kate Olson in 2009, and is continually working on new music with artists located in DC and around the country. For more information and to listen to recordings, please visit http://www.garynprince.com.

Photo by Stephanie and David Cannon

Sarah Foard, violinist, blends the clean sounds of a classical violinist with the energy of Irish reels and the soul of early American jazz. Sarah has performed at many venues throughout the DC area including the Kennedy Center, the ATLAS Theater, THEARC, the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue, and Strathmore Music Center. Sarah began studying the violin at the age of five and completed a music degree at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music studying with Patricia Green, Laura Kobayashi, Piotr Milewski, and Rebecca Henry. She now performs regularly with Black Oranges, the Sligo Creek Stompers, and the Bumper Jacksons. Sarah is also studying jazz violin with Eddie Drennon. Sarah currently teaches violin at the Levine School of Music in Washington, DC where she maintains a vibrant and full studio of students of all ages and levels.