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Multi-instrumentalist and composer Izaak Atlas Schwartz brings his debut album release to Godfrey Daniels on Wednesday, April 29 at 7PM. Born in Portsmouth, Virginia, Izaak began playing piano at age five, astonishing audiences with his ability to perform complex classical works entirely from memory. After moving to Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains, he immersed himself in the region’s Appalachian bluegrass culture, where the banjo quickly became his musical calling. Now an award-winning young musician with first-place honors in Bluegrass and Clawhammer banjo competitions, Izaak has already performed on major festival stages and shared bills with leading artists in the genre. For his debut album release show, he’ll be joined by members of Serene Green—Quentin Fisher, Michael Johnson, and Sam Zolla—along with recording artist and producer Tom Mindte and champion fiddler Emily Roeder for a memorable night in Godfrey Daniels’ Live Music Listening Room, where the Intimate Atmosphere offers Your Backstage Pass to the next generation of bluegrass.
IZAAK ATLAS SCHWARTZ
Multi-instrumentalist and composer Izaak Atlas Schwartz was born in Portsmouth, Virginia, in 2011, and began studying piano at age five after displaying a rare ability to memorize entire classical works by ear.
In 2017, his family relocated to the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania, where immersion in Appalachian traditional music at local festivals deepened his connection to his ancestry in North Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee. Living just twenty minutes from the historic Wind Gap Bluegrass Festival and the Appalachian Fiddle and Bluegrass Association gatherings, Izaak grew up playing, steadily mastering multiple bluegrass instruments as he attended the Kids' Academies and joined the jam culture. When he first picked up the banjo, the bond was immediate, and it remains the driving force behind his creative voice in bluegrass today.
Izaak currently studies with Berklee graduate Trevin Nelson (formerly of the Ruta Beggars), Tony Trischka, and has recently begun studying Classical banjo, theory, and counterpoint with Cassidy Beentjes out of Philadelphia. Izaak has earned multiple First Place awards in both Bluegrass and Clawhammer banjo at Union Grove, Deer Creek, and Galax, and currently plays banjo with Full Steam, as well as with his all-sibling ensemble, the Cattywampus Quartet. Izaak has also been employed as the organist and pianist at Knowlton Presbyterian Church in Columbia, New Jersey, since the age of ten, and is sponsored by the Susquehanna Organ Company.
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Event Venue
7 E 4th St, Bethlehem, PA 18015, USA, United States
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