Garner, Crystal

She is a violist born into a musical family who took her musical studies at the Juilliard School of Music during the 1980s.

Her career as a freelance musician has seen her performing with the New York Pops Orchestra, on Broadway and as a musician and singer in the hit movie Fame in 1980. She is a co-founder of the LonGar Ebony Ensemble led by the soprano Roberta Long and with the percussionist Yvonne Garner, with whom performed in an African-American tribute to President Obama at Symphony Space in 2010. She is also the founder of their offshoot viola ensemble.

The Broadway productions she has worked on include Oh, Kay, The Will Roger Follies, The Who’s Tommy and The King and I in the 1990 and Gypsy and The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess in the 2000s.

She has performed with many artists in the recording studio such as Dream Theater, The Embers, Lyle Lovett, Matchbox Twenty, Rob Mathes, Aaron Neville, Mandy Patinkin, Rihanna, Gilberto Santa Rosa, Brooke Shields, Frank Sinatra Jr. and Three Mo’ Tenors among many others.

Her album output has been quite extensive and some of the recordings she has performed on include Swing Time! by Canadian Brass, Snowfall on the Sahara by Natalie Cole, Songs I Heard by Harry Connick Jr., North by Elvis Costello, Destiny by Gloria Estefan, Before Me by Gladys Knight, At the Movies by David Koz, Songs from the Last Century by George Michael, Radio City Christmas Spectacular by Radio City Music Hall Company & Chorus, Amor by Jon Secada and Romancing the ‘60s by Frankie Valli.

Here is Joe Jackson performing “‘Round Midnight” on the Thelonius Monk tribute album That’s the Way I Feel which Crystal performs on…

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Garner, Crystal

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