On June, 14 at the Oktyabrsky Grand Concert Hall in St. Petersburg and on June, 15 at the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow the Musical Olympus Foundation for the first time in Russia arranges unique duo concerts performed by recognized jazz music geniuses of the recent decades - Bobby McFerrin and Chick Corea. These concerts promise to become one of the year’s most exciting music events.

Bobby McFerrin and Chick Corea have long ago formed a creative duo. The musicians released two joint albums: the first one, Play (1992) resulted in stormy delight among jazz fans and brought another, the tenth in a row, Grammy award to McFerrin’s ‘piggy bank’. The second album was called The Mozart Sessions (1995). It presented original interpretations of the two piano concertos by Mozart.

Bobby McFerrin and Chick Corea have repeatedly arrived to Russia with solo concerts. But the upcoming duo concerts by McFerrin and Chick Corea will become their first joint performances in our country.

‘Presenting in Russia the duo of Bobby McFerrin and Chick Corea, we continue following our principle to invite the most prominent and interesting musicians. Bobby McFerrin’s creative work every time amazes with its versatility, and Chick Corea is definitely one of the best jazzmen of our time,’ – says Irina Nikitina, president of the Musical Olympus Foundation.

Bobby McFerrin is a brilliant American jazz vocalist, improviser, and also composer and conductor, mostly famous with the public as an author and performer of the Don't Worry, Be Happy song. The Musical Olympus Foundation arranged Bobby McFerrin’s solo concerts in Russia three times – in 2004, 2005 and 2008. And in January, 2010 the Musical Olympus was a Russian stage producer of McFerrin’s improvised opera Bobble. United in three persons, Bobby masterfully manages not only with pop music but also with any variations of jazz and classical music. ‘I do not want to be only a pop artist, to be only a jazzman or a classical performer. I am interested in everything at once, I am interested to be an inquisitive researcher in the music world,’ – states McFerrin. His special puzzling jumps over an octave, adventurous switches from falsetto to deep bass seemed to require at least two or even three performers. But McFerrin copes with it alone – a unique, inventive singer, composer and a brilliant conductor who has made an impressive collection of ten Grammy awards and has shown to people the abilities of a person being master of his voice and body movements. Recently Bobby joined his love of improvisation with the conductor's skills, spreading his vocal experiments on large groups of singers, both professionals and amateurs, including ordinary people. At his concerts McFerrin always engages the audience, involving people in the live process of creating music.

Chick Corea is a jazz pianist and composer, one of the most influential and respected jazz musicians in the world. He was nominated for over 50 Grammy awards, 18 of which he successfully put ‘in his pocket’. For more than forty years of his career this musician has released a countless number of records, repeatedly changing his style. He started learning to play the piano at the age of four, and preferred listening to such performers as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Lester Young. He was also strongly influenced by the works of Beethoven and Mozart that awoke Chick’s instincts of a composer. Corea is one of the most significant persons among jazzmen of recent decades. Never satisfied with the achieved results, Corea is always entirely dedicated to several musical projects at a time, and his musical curiosity has ever known no limits. A virtuoso pianist, Chick Corea is also one of the few 'electric keyboard players' with an original and distinctive style of performance.

In a special Jazz review for a respected American edition of the Los Angeles Times the duo performance got such assessment: ‘Stunning music. McFerrin's pitch-precise vocals twisted in and out of Corea's lush chording and hand-plucked piano string sounds’. Artistry, wit and magicism of the duo by McFerrin and Chick Corea defy description. Only a visit to their performance can create a real picture of their inimitable style and incredible improvisations, their spontaneous and contagious treatment of music and feel how both duo participants every time inspire each other for new music achievements.