NEWS
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Apr 02, 2010
Rock Solid Composition
Kip Winger Feature - Grammy.com
Rock Solid Composition
GRAMMY.com by Bryan Reesman
Veteran rock/pop musicians are charting new courses in the realms of Broadway, film and ballet
Another artist with a classical background is Kip Winger, who rose to fame in the late '80s with his eponymous platinum rock band. A ballet dancer in his teens and a self-taught musician, starting in the mid-'90s Winger supplemented his musical growth with serious composition study. His first classical piece "Ghosts," was written for a ballet choreographed by the renowned Christopher Wheeldon and debuted in San Francisco in February to positive critical reviews. "The coolest thing about this for me was that the big rock radio stations wanted me to come in and promote it," says Winger. "So here I am on a morning drive show on the biggest station in San Francisco, talking about the ballet. I never expected that."
"Ghosts" will make its debut abroad in the ballet "Brilliant Steps" in May in Hong Kong, performed by Tan Yuan Yuan -- who Winger says "is like a national treasure in China"-- and Damian Smith.
Considering Winger is known by his fans for his hard rock songs, he has been slowly opening up minds on both sides of the aisle. "I understand that a lot of people don't know what it is that I do, and especially our band," Winger says of both his outside projects and his band, which released a new album, Karma, last November. "I'm not one of those people that can continue to repeat myself and play the same song over and over again. I'd rather just be this eclectic weirdo that's following the artist's way...I'm basically just a student of music."
