Koven, Renita

Violist who graduated cum laude from UCLA and went on to carve out a nifty career for herself as a session musician.

In the early ‘70s, she collaborated with Don Ellis on his Connection and Soaring albums. Later that decade she hooked up with Earth, Wind & Fire and appeared on a couple of their albums, All ‘n’ All and Faces. She also appeared on Terry Collier’s Fire on Ice and Frank Sinatra’s 1979 boxed set, Trilogy.

In the 1990s, she appeared on CDs by a wide variety of artists, including David Benoit, Sam Harris, Phyllis Hyman, Michael Jackson, The Jeff Healey Band, Limp Bizkit, Barry Manilow and Mason Williams.

On 12^th September 1999, she performed in a concert with the Southern California Viola Society entitled “Through the Prism: The Many Facets of the Viola”. She also writes for SCVS’snewsletter, Inner Voices. Her other classical endeavours have included stints with the Long Beach Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Music Center Opera, the Pasadena Orchestra, and Symphony-in-the-Glen, for whom she occupied the Principal Viola chair.

In 1999, she performed on the soundtrack of the Martin Lawrence-Eddie Murphy comedy, Life, and would subsequently work on the scores of Far from Heaven and Bulletproof Monk.

Renita certainly hasn’t slowed down in the new millennium: CDs by a wide variety of artists are dotted with her name. She’s celebrated the Yuletide with Christina Aguilera on My Kind of Christmas, Luis Miguel on Navidades, and Linda Ronstadt on A Merry Little Christmas.

Other CDs that have benefited from her viola acumen include Tony Braxton’s More than a Woman and The Collection, James Darren’s Because of You, Gene Harris’s Nexus, Kirk Franklin’s Hero, Lee Ritenour’s and David Grusin’s Two Worlds, Steve Lawrence Sings Sinatra, and Ultimate Mancini. You can also catch her in action on the retro-protest album, People Get Ready.

Here’s Harvey Mason with George Benson on his version of “What’s Going On” from his Funk In a Mason Jar which Renita performs on…

Sources:

Koven, Renita

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