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Merging their deep backgrounds in classical violin and cello performance and composition with influences from an array of musical genres, NYC based instrumental duo ARKAI captivated a full house at The Recovery Lounge in Upper Jay, NY on Sunday, September 20.  

ARKAI performed as part of their current world tour and in support of their recently released debut album, Crossroads.

ARKAI is violinist Jonathan Miron and cellist Philip Sheegog, graduates of New York’s renowned classical music institution The Julliard School. The pair met early in their music career and realized that, despite their devotion to classical music, they had a deep appreciation for a wide variety of music as diverse as pop, folk, metal, jazz and rock, giving birth to the fusion that became ARKAI.

Performing a selection of genre-defying music that showcased both their instrumental virtuosity and compositional and arrangement skills, the duo performed with an energy way beyond what one would anticipate being delivered by violin and cello.  Their energy was infectious. Glances around the room showed not only smiles on appreciative faces, but listeners who moved with and to the music, clearly wanting to get out of their seats and dance. 

The pair performed the first half of their show on vintage classical instruments. Miron’s violin was made in Italy in 1709. Sheegog’s cello was made in 1914 in France, where it survived two World Wars. With those instruments they displayed their precise classical training, performing their unique arrangements of songs including A-ha’s “Take On Me”, The Beatles’ “Blackbird”, Charlie Chaplin’s “Smile”, as well as original compositions including “Patchwork”.   

In the second half of the show the pair switched instruments, and delivered an electrifying, high-energy performance on electric violin and electric cello, backed by tracks which they composed and created using a variety of computer and MIDI based techniques to explore and create what might be called soundscapes. Driven by, or perhaps because they are clearly inseparable from the music they deliver, the pair became animated, both facially and in near dance-like movement, during portions of the electro-delivery. And, in a display of technique that might perhaps drive their former Julliard professors to pull their hair out, on one song they used debit cards to play their instruments, Sheegog scraping the strings of his cello with the edge of a card to “swipe” notes or tapping it on the electric cello’s pickup for drum-sounds and Miron tapping the sides and edges of his electric violin to add percussion.

This “electric” portion of their performance included their compositions “Ascent”, which they said was inspired by Stanley Kubrick’s film “2001: A Space Odyssey”, and “Tokyo Sidecar”; their arrangement of Cold Play’s “Clocks”, and a composition they created based upon the melody of Joji’s “Glimpse of Us” which went viral on TikTok.  They also played their composition “Letters”, which came together while the pair was separated during the Covid lockdown period, when Miron and Sheegog would each record themselves on iPhone Voice Memos playing musical “ideas” or contributions and send the recordings back and forth to each other as “audio letters” created in a time of loneliness, sorrow and the hope to be together again. Those bits and pieces ultimately became “Letters” as a musical offering of hope to those in need of being brought together.  

ARKAI’s music, whether their originals or unique arrangements of others, is a signature sound resulting from skilled and exploratory improvisation, a collaborative creative process and pure instrumental virtuosity.  In performance they bring these talents full on, playing true to the score in the tightly composed sections, and following their creative spirit in-the-moment in improv sections, inspiring and feeding off each other and deeply enjoying every moment of their performance. 

Their fusion, both as musician/composers and in the diversity of the music they explore, was born in part out of a realization that, in their words, they were the “weird guys” in traditional classical music; and out of a strong desire “to stay true to your heart” and to “do something not done before”.  And that was the genesis of ARKAI.

Upcoming performances include October 10 at Town Hall, NYC, November 3 at The Strand Center for the Arts in Plattsburgh, NY, and November 14-16, PRISMA, NYC.  Their tour will also take them to other major US cities and Toronto as well as overseas to Berlin, Basel, and Rabat.  Their newly released CD Crossroads is a collection of seven ARKAI compositions ranging from traditional sounding classical pieces to electro-soundscape-emo music that explore a “journey of discovering one’s voice, overcoming adversity, and embracing new dreams”.  ARKAI’s music puts you in touch with your emotions, and if you allow yourself the freedom you “see a video” as you listen.

This review and the photographs presented with it are truly an unintended consequence of attending this performance as a last-minute spontaneous decision, becoming captivated at the outset, capturing images of ARKAI’s performance on an iPhone. 

ARKAI’s performance was presented by Upper Jay Art Center at its “Recovery Lounge” space, where it hosts year-round music, art, and theatre ranging from touring artists and groups to its own productions in an intimate and out-of-the ordinary performance space.