BBC Music Magazine

Arias with a groundhog bass

Bill Murray and Jan Vogler team up for concert tour

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In his long and distinguis­hed film career, Bill Murray has done his bit for the cause of classical music. This, after all, is the man who hunted down the paranormal for cellist Dana Barrett in Ghostbuste­rs and who, in Groundhog Day, took advantage being stuck in an eternal time loop to learn the 18th variation from Rachmanino­v’s Paganini Rhapsody on the piano. And now we learn the great actor is set to pursue his musical enthusiasm­s in real life too. Following up an idea that began with a chance conversati­on on a plane, Murray has joined German cellist Jan Vogler for New Worlds, a recording and concert tour project that sees him singing songs from Bernstein’s West Side Story and reading passages from Whitman and Hemingway interspers­ed with Schubert, Bach and Piazzolla played by Vogler’s piano trio. The New Worlds tour begins at Festival Napa Valley in July and ends at New York’s Carnegie Hall in October. Groundhog Day fans, meanwhile, will doubtless be hoping that Murray’s next project will be with the Punxsutawn­ey Phil-harmonic.

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