Smorgasbord Music Column 2022 – William Price King meets the Music Legends – #Classical – Andrea Bocelli – 2000 to 2010

It is eight years since William Price King joined Smorgasbord to share music across the genres. It is six years since we have featured some of the music legends and delighted to showcase them again in 2022.

Welcome to the next part in the Andrea Bocelli story. The multi-award winning cross over tenor has won not just critical acclaim for his beautiful voice, but the hearts of millions around the world.

It is now the new millennium and the next decade was going to be equally as busy. Andrea Bocelli was the recipient of many music awards in the next ten years and it is clear to see the impact this still relatively young artist is making on the industry.

Andrea Bocelli was nominated and won so many awards in the decade that it would be impossible to mention all of them. I have included some highlights, but for the full list I do suggest you go to this link: Wikipedia Awards Andrea Bocelli

In 2000, Bocelli was nominated for two Grammy awards. His song, The Prayer, was nominated for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals and for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. His Sacred Arias album was voted album of the year by listeners of the Classic FM radio station in the UK.

Later in the year he received another Echo Klassik award for Bestseller of the year for Sacred Arias and he received the Goldene Europa for classical music in Germany.

At the Scuola Grande di San Rocco in Venice he was recognized for having sold more than 40 million albums worldwide.

Bocelli also spent a great deal of time in the studio in 2000 with his seventh album Verdi, released in September, and in November, his first complete opera recording, La Bohème.

He did not neglect his fans and he sang at the end of the UEFA European Football Championship. In July in the company of Valery Gergiev and Renée Fleming he performed at a concert on the River Maas in Rotterdam and also in that month, he recorded his third PBS special at the Statue of Liberty in New York City.

In 2001 Andrea received the Platinum Europe Award for one million sales of the album Cieli di Toscana, and at the Italian Music Awards he was given a special award from the Federation of the Italian Music industry for his merits as an Ambassador of Italian music in the world.

Ciele di Toscana which was released in the October spent two weeks at number 3 in the UK albums chart; the highest chart position ever for a foreign language pop album. It also reached number 5 in over ten other countries. Here is a track from the album.

In Melodramma, Bocelli uses his operatic skills sparingly, just enough to secure his sense of pitch and tone. His voice is pure and his interpretation is very pop oriented and unpretentious – a pleasure to the ear.Andrea Bocelli

In February, 2002, he received a Goldene Kamera award in the Music & Entertainment category in Berlin and went on to receive two World Music Awards in Monte Carlo: World best selling classical artist and Best selling Italian artist. In May, Bocelli received a Telegatto Italian Television award for the soundtrack of the series Cuore and the 2002 Classical BRIT Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music.

On 5th November 2002, Bocelli released his ninth album Sentimento which sold an astonishing two million copies in just forty days. The album was conducted by Lorin Maazel with the London Symphony Orchestra and Andrea received two Classical Brit Awards at The Royal Albert Hall in London in 2003 for Best selling classical album and Album of the year.

Here is a track from the album… La Danza by Rossini

Bocelli’s approach to Rossini’s La Danza is in line with operatic tradition. His voice is full of ‘appeal’ and has matured beautifully with a rich and intense timbre. He performs this vigorous and intense aria with assurance. He is certainly in his element.

Not all his awards were from the music industry and he must have been delighted to have a section of the beach in Jesolo, on the Italian Adriatic coast named after him in August 2003.

He released two complete operas in 2003, Tosca and Il Trovatore and on a lighter note he also appeared in Sesame Street singing Time to Say Goodnight as a lullaby to Elmo, good- naturedly revising Time to Say Goodbye to fit.

In December, his first contemporary music concert took place at a Lake Las Vegas village resort in Nevada, US, which was recorded for PBS and released as the Under the Desert Sky DVD.

In 2006, Bocelli influenced the municipality of his hometown Lajatico to build an outdoor theatre, the Teatro del Silenzio. He serves as its honorary president and performs for one night only, every July, the rest of the year, the theatre remains silent. Since the opening in 2006, Bocelli has held 5 concerts, every July, with guests including Plàcido Domingo, José Carreras, Zucchero, and Laura Pausini, as well as instrumentalists Lang Lang, Chris Botti, and Kenny G.

As the world mourned the loss of Luciano Pavarotti, Andrea Bocelli sang Mozart’s Ave verum corpus at his funeral in Modena on 8th September 2007. Here is one of their earlier performances together.. a blending of two magnificent voices. Notte ‘e piscatore  

In January 2008, Bocelli received the Italian TV award Telegatto in platinum for Italian music in the world in Rome. He sang La voce del silenzio – The voice of silence – and Dare to Live during the ceremony.

La voce del silenzio is awesome. Light the candles, sit comfortably with a glass of wine and listen to the beauty of Bocelli’s romantic stylization of this classic Italian song, sung with lush arrangements showcasing an evocative *flautist, and be moved by the music and the emotion even if you don’t understand a word of what he’s singing.
Note: flautist – one who plays the flute.

In 2009 The Andrea Bocelli and David foster Christmas Special was aired from Thanksgiving night in the United States and was broadcast up to Christmas throughout north America and the rest of the world. The album My Christmas, which was Andrea’s first holiday release became the best-selling holiday album of the year.

The decade finished in style when in 2010, Bocelli was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. That same year an orchid in the Botanic Gardens’ National Orchid Garden was named after him.

During the 2010 World Music Awards, Bocelli performed Un Amore Cosi Grande from his 2008 album, Incanto, and received his seventh World Music Award, for Best Classical Artist.

 Present Day

Andrea Bocelli is touring again and here is the link to his tour schedule should you be lucky enough to live close enough to see this amazing artist in person.  Andrea Bocelli Tour

BUY Andrea Bocelli’s Music: Amazon

Official Website:Andrea Bocelli

Additional materialWikipedia

William Price King is an American jazz singer, crooner, and composer.

His interest in music began at an early age when he studied piano and clarinet in high school. At Morehouse College in Atlanta where he grew up, he sang in the Glee Club and studied classical music. After graduation he went off to the Yale School of Music where he earned a Masters degree. From there he journeyed to New York where he created a jazz trio ‘Au Naturel’ which performed in some of the hottest venues in Manhattan including gigs on Broadway and the famous ‘Rainbow Room.’ These gigs opened doors for performances in Montreal and a European tour.

While touring Europe he met a lovely French lady, Jeanne Maïstre, who, a year later became his wife. King left the group ‘Au Naturel’ and settled in the south of France where he started a new life on the French Riviera, opening his own music school – the “Price King Ecole Internationale de Chant.” He has had the pleasure over the years of seeing many of his students excel as singers on a professional level, and some going on to become national celebrities. He continues to coach young singers today, in his spare time.

Blog– IMPROVISATION – William Price King on Tumblr – Buy William’s music: William Price King iTunes – Facebook – William Price King – Twitter – @wpkofficial
Regular Venue – Cave Wilson

 

As always William would love to receive your feedback… thanks Sally.