Kubecca returns to Washington
Published 6:30 pm Thursday, January 30, 2020
- WELCOME BACK: The dynamic husband-and-wife duo of Kuba Kawnik and Rebecca Lowe, known together as Kubecca, will take the stage at the Turnage Theatre as a part of the Beaufort County Concert Association’s annual concert series. The couple will also perform for local students while visiting Beaufort County. (Kubecca)
By KAREN THIEL
For the Daily News
The concert they performed three years ago was so highly praised that Kubecca — the husband-and-wife duo that combines classical and jazz backgrounds with musical theatre panache — has been invited back to Washington. They will perform at the Turnage Theater on Tuesday, as part of the 43rd annual concert series of the Beaufort County Concert Association.
“The audience response was just unbelievable after their first concert,” said BCCA Board President Alma Friedman. “People have been asking ‘when are you going to bring them back’ ever since that night.”
The couple also performs separately — with Kuba Kawnik being a favorite among cruise ship patrons and Broadway favorite Rebecca Lowe staying mainly on land.
“But when they’re together, they are magic,” Friedman said.
Other than their work as a popular musical duo, Kawnik’s musical credits include performances with the Warsaw Philharmonic and several other international orchestras. Lowe is best known for her roles in musicals throughout North America and Europe, including “Jekyl and Hyde” as well as “Evita” — where she played the lead role of dictatorial character Eva Peron.
Friedman said Saturday’s energetic show will not be the duo’s only local performance. They will be doing an outreach for local students — which also received rave reviews when they did the same three years ago.
Friedman added that Kubecca is among several of BCCA’s scheduled performers who, over the years, have donated extra time with Beaufort County youth in an effort to broaden their knowledge and appreciation of different styles of music.
“They’re really good with the kids,” Friedman said of Kubecca. Some students get to be on stage with them, and “one little boy just wanted to stay up there so long that Kawnik had to gently convince him to let other kids up there” to imitate Lowe’s singing and try to play her husband’s exotic instruments.
Kawnik’s accompaniment to Lowe’s singing talents are a highlight of the show. Many in the music community consider him a “virtuoso” on the vibraphone, a percussion instrument with a double row of tuned metal bars; that are placed above a tubular, motor-driven soundbox chamber that gives it a vibrating effect.
Friedman said he is equally inspiring on the theremin, which is an electronic musical instrument that sounds like a violin. Without touching it, Kawnik controls the instrument with his carefully moving hands.
BCCA’s information about the group calls their performance a “completely unique, feel-good, impossible-to-describe musical variety show.” Song styles include everything from those of Bob Dylan, Barbara Streisand, and the classical composer Frederic Chopin to country, pops and Broadway favorites.
The Turnage’s doors will open at 7 p.m. Tuesday, and the concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are still available, cost $30 each and can be found by contacting BCCA at www.gobca.org or by calling Friedman at 252-947-2076.