The preview concert of fellow Socan member and international flute player Ron Korb’s Asia Beauty CD took place Tuesday, July 7, 2015 at Musideum located at Richmond
and Spadina, Toronto, Ontario. The room was at capacity and it was webcasted live internationally. Ron’s PR rep Glenda Fordham was the MC and had set the tone for the event with an entry in her blog . I arrived (one song in) to find Ron accompanied by co-performers Linlin Wang on the erhu (the Chinese two string violin) and legendary keyboardist Lou Pomanti on the Bechstein concert grand piano. Ron explained to me during an interview after the event that the date for the CD preview was chosen for good luck. It coincided with the Japanese Tanabata or Star Festival originating from the Chinese Qixi Festival occurring on the seventh day of the seventh month. The following songs all written by Ron, were performed: Mozart’s Wedding – a song about the circumstances around Mozart’s marriage was performed with Ron playing the gold flute; Little Jade with Ron playing the Chinese flute; St. Johann from the album Europa with Ron playing gold flute; Cuchulainn from the album Celtic Heartland with Ron playing the penny whistle; Forbidden Love from the album Asia Beauty with Ron playing the gold flute; and finally, Beckett’s Whisper – a song about Samuel Beckett from the album Europa with Ron playing the Irish flute. Prior to the publication of this blog, the Asia Beauty CD went on to be nominated for best new age album at the 58th Grammys! It also won five Global Music Awards including: Best in Show, Best World Album at the Zone Music Reporter Awards (New Orleans, U.S.), Best World/Global Fusion Award One World Music Awards (UK), Best Instrumental album from the Akademia Awards in (Los Angeles, U.S.), and Best Instrumental (Two Mountains from Asia Beauty) International Acoustic Music Awards. Ron was also named along with Adele and Keanu Reeves as Brand Laureate 2016 !