![]() Lazarus began collaborating with Barbarella, including producing shows at the Minnesota Orchestra and playing at St. When he first moved to the Twin Cities from New York, he met keyboardist Tommy Barbarella, who played with Prince for about 10 years. Meanwhile, Lazarus has been inspired by the work of AIAIA through his connections with St. Music is such a part of their culture there. “And yet, these schoolchildren came and they sang for us, and they danced, and we played for them,” Lazarus recalls. In another township, some of the homes were simply made of boards, with no plumbing or electricity. “I did see a lot of that poverty.” At one point, he played at a school that had been partially burned down and vandalized, with a playground covered in barbed wire. “It was just amazing to see people there, particularly the children there that are just absolutely not defined by their circumstance,” Lazarus says. While the Minnesota Orchestra’s trip was focused on cultural exchange, he saw some of the need in the country as they were traveling to different townships. Traveling in Africa, Lazarus says he saw up close the gaps between extreme poverty and extreme wealth and how that affects society. They also made connections with a South African group called 29:11 International Exchange with members from Cape Town, that helped share South African culture with the touring musicians during the trip. At the time, the Uptown Brass did a lot of outreach on their own, playing at places like the University of Pretoria, where Nelson Mandela went to college. On Minnesota Orchestra’s tour in 2018, Lazarus traveled with his wife, Mele Willis, artistic operations manager for the orchestra, and their then-11-year-old kid, where Lazarus and the other musicians played not only in concert halls but in various townships. The Chuck Lazarus Band has performed with the orchestra and elsewhere, playing everything from originals to reconditioned covers of older tunes. Lazarus has been a member of the Minnesota Orchestra since 2000, and also has a career as a soloist, composer and bandleader with his ensemble. “It’s an exciting kind of serendipitous convergence of various relationships I’ve developed over the years,” Lazarus says. Michael Rambo, and other musicians and performers. ![]() On July 11, Lazarus will be helping to raise funds for their work at a performance featuring his group, the Chuck Lazarus Band, including former Prince keyboardist Tommy Barbarella, singer/actor T. Meanwhile, Lazarus is involved with Arm in Arm in Africa (AIAIA), an organization that supports food, health care and education in African townships. He and the orchestra’s Uptown Brass Quintet are traveling back to South Africa this summer with Classical Movements, which also organized the 2018 tour. When trumpeter Charles Lazarus traveled with the Minnesota Orchestra to South Africa in 2018 as part of its historic tour to that country, the first major American orchestra to go there, it was just one step along a journey. Sign up to get Artscape in your inbox every Friday afternoon.
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