The visit to St. Cecilia Music Centers folk series stage by Judy Collins — no adjectives or background needed — has been circled on the calendar by local folk/pop/classic rock fans since the concert was announced last year.
It is astounding, in fact, that there may still a few tickets available a week before Sweet Judy Blue Eyes comes to town Thursday, Feb. 1, for a 7:30 p.m. concert.
But then to make a good week even better, St. Cecilia announces the final Folk Series concert of the season will be the return to Royce Auditorium of Rhiannon Giddens — Grammy winning singer/songwriter, Carolina Chocolate Drop, part of the New Basement Tapes super(folk)group; in case you need adjectives and background.
Giddens will return to St. Cecilia on May 17. And, like her April 2015 first visit to the state, this show will likely be sold-out as well. Her return will likely focus on her newest album “Freedom Highway”, which was nominated for Album of the Year at the 2017 Americana Music Honors & Awards.
While Giddens is the co-founder of the Grammy-winning string band Carolina Chocolate Drops, she began work as a solo artist when she stole the show at the T Bone Burnett produced “Another Day, Another Time” concert in 2013, and followed that up in 2014 by stealing the show again on T-Bone’s “New Basement Tapes” project — sealing it from the likes of Elvis Costello and Marcus Mumford — with her version of Bob Dylan’s “Spanish Mary”. Oh, ya, she followed that up with her critically acclaimed solo debut, the Grammy nominated album “Tomorrow Is My Turn.”
But not to steal the show from Judy Collins …
Judy Collins (Supplied/Brad Trent)
Collins’ most recent recording, “Silver Skies Blue”, earned her another in a long list of Grammy honors, being nominated for Best Folk Album in 2017.
Collins’ musical history only started with her firm commitment to social activism in the 1960s. Five decades later her 50-album body of work includes, to only scratch the surface, her rendition of Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now” from her landmark 1967 album “Wildflowers”, her intimate version of “Send in the Clowns”, as well as several other top-ten hits from gold- and platinum-selling albums.
Tickets for Judy Collins are $45 and $55. Tickets and can be purchased by calling 616-459-2224, visiting the box office at 24 Ransom Ave. NE, or purchased online at scmc-online.org .
Four hands on the piano. (photo by Masataka Suemitsu)
By WKTV Staff
St. Cecilia Music Center’s next Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center concert, scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 18 will feature Society co-artistic director Wu Han and five internationally acclaimed chamber musicians performing the works of Brahms and Dvořák — including selections from both Brahms’ and Dvořák’s “Piano for Four Hands” compositions with pianists Wu Han and Michael Brown playing together on one piano.
At the 7:30 p.m. concert Wu Han and Brown will be joined by violinists Chad Hoopes and Paul Huang, violist Matthew Lipman and cellist Dmitri Atapine. Tickets are still available.
The musical and personal friendship between Brahms and Dvořák is the stuff of legend, according to supplied information. Their pairing brings to life the creative energy that reverberated between the German neo-classicist (Brahms) and the champion of Czech folk music (Dvořák), producing a glowing array of classical music’s most essential works.
Wu Hann (Supplied)
“Brahms and Dvořák were great friends. Brahms helped bring Dvořák’s music to the forefront in 1878. Brahms, who was seven years older than Dvořák, mentored him and helped him to realize financial gain for his artistic works including some of the selections to be performed at the January 18 SCMC concert,” Wu Han said in supplied material. “Michael Brown and I will play Dvořák’s ‘Selected Slavonic Dances for Piano, Four Hands’, the works that brought Dvořák his first significant sum of money through Brahms efforts in introducing him to the esteemed Berlin publisher Fritz Simrock. We will also perform Brahm’s ‘Selected Hungarian Dances for Piano, Four Hands’, which was inspired by Brahms’ special affection for Gypsy Fiddlers and their music.
“These selections, as well as the two others to be performed — ‘Trio in C minor for Piano, Violin, and Cello, Op. 101’ by Brahms, and ‘Trio in C minor for Piano, Violin, and Cello, Op. 101’ by Dvořák were incredibly popular during those times (1868 – 1891).”
The concert will also likely introduce Brown, a rising star in chamber music circles, to the grand Rapids audience.
Michael Brown (Photo by Jamie Beck)
“The January 18 concert at SCMC will bring some new faces, introducing us to the next generation of chamber music stars,” Cathy Holbrook, St. Cecilia executive director, said in supplied material. “I’m especially looking forward to the pieces for four-hand piano that Wu Han and newcomer Michael Brown will be performing. It’s not often that you can experience two artists performing on one piano simultaneously in a chamber music performance, which makes this concert very special.”
Concert tickets are $38 and $43, and can be purchased by calling St. Cecilia Music Center at 616-459-2224 or visiting the box office at 24 Ransom Ave. NE. Tickets can also be purchased online at scmc.org .
A pre-concert wine and hors d’oeuvres event for $15 is available and begins at 6:30 p.m. (reservations for the pre-concert reception need to be made by Monday, Jan. 15.)
There will also be a pre-concert talk with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center artists in the Royce Auditorium to discuss the music selection for the evening and any other questions that pertain to the artists themselves. A post-concert party is open to all ticket-holders giving the audience the opportunity to meet the artists and obtain signed CDs of their releases.
The final 2017-18 season performance by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center will take place April 19, with a performance including pianist Gilles Vonsattel, violinists Ida Kavafian and Erin Keefe, violist Yura Lee, cellist Nicholas Canellakis and clarinetist Tommaso Lonquich performing Mozart, Weber and Brahms.
Grammy Award winning country-swing band Asleep at the Wheel. (Supplied)
WKTV Staff
St. Cecilia Music Center this week announced two additional shows to their Acoustic Café Folk Series — the banjo royalty of husband and wife duo Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn, and Grammy Award winning country-swing band Asleep at the Wheel — with both set to visit Grand Rapids in early 2018.
Fleck and Washburn will appear on Friday, Feb. 23, and Asleep at the Wheel will perform on Thursday, April 12, both at 7:30 p.m. There will also be additional Acoustic Café Folk concerts for 2018 announced after the new year.
“Over the years SCMC has expanded the genres of music we present with the creation of the jazz series 10 years ago and the Acoustic Café folk series a few years ago, in addition to our traditional chamber music offerings,” Cathy Holbrook, St. Cecilia executive director, said in supplied material. “With the appearance of Margo Price last season, we opened the door for country music artists. … We trust Asleep at the Wheel fans will be excited to hear them up close and personal, and that banjo lovers will unite for the power-house couple Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn.”
Banjo royalty and husband and wife duo Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn. (Supplied)
Asleep at the Wheel, now based in Austin, Texas, holds 10 Grammy awards, 20 studio albums and 20 singles on the Billboard country charts. Most recently, the band shared a Grammy for “Still The King: Celebrating the Music of Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys”, the band’s most recent release in 2015. The recording features 22 collaborations, including legends such as Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard and George Strait and newcomers like The Avett Brothers, Amos Lee and Old Crow Medicine Show.
Fleck and Washburn, given the name of “the king and queen of the banjo” by Paste Magazine, have a unique musical partnership. Fleck is a fifteen-time Grammy Award winner who has taken the instrument across multiple genres, and Washburn is a singer-songwriter and clawhammer banjo player. Whether at home, on stage or on record, their bond, combined with the way their distinct musical personalities and banjo styles interact, makes theirs a picking partnership.
Bela Fleck and Abigail Washburn tickets are $45 and $50. Asleep at the Wheel tickets are $35 and $40. Tickets and can be purchased by calling St. Cecilia Music Center at 616-459-2224, visiting the box office at 24 Ransom Ave. NE, or online at scmc-online.org. A post-concert party with a cash bar will be available to all ticket-holders after the concerts
Brad Mehldau, in trio format, visited St. Cecilia Music Center Nov. 30. (Supplied)
By K.D. Norris
ken@wktv.org
Brad Mehldau Trio, Nov. 30, at St. Cecilia Music Center, Grand Rapids, Mi.
60-second Review
Pianist Brad Mehldau is often referred to as a “lyrical” jazz pianist. But there may be a better adjective for what he and his piano render from a chart of music.
While St. Cecilia’s Royce Auditorium regularly offers classical, jazz and even folk music, and Thursday’s visit by the Brad Mehldau Trio technically fit into the jazz series, the music might well have been its own sub-genre: “experimental”.
Yes, jazz is, almost by definition, improvisational. But Mehldau, along with Larry Grenadier on bass and Jeff Ballard on drums, where in mostly charted — with sheet music in front of them — but still artistically uncharted territory. With the way Mehldau often closed his eyes and looked off to nowhere, and the way his piano often floated above Grenadier and Ballard’s foundational lines, I would guess that Mehldau’s charts are merely a suggestion.
The trio’s 7-song, roughly 75-minute set featured mostly original tunes, beginning with “Gentle John” — Mehldau’s ode to one-time musical partner John Scofield — and maybe only one jazz standard, Sidney Bechet’s “Si tu vois ma mère” (I think that was the name of the Bechet tune … and the bluesy encore was unidentified from the stage, and may or may not have been a cover.)
My favorite tunes were two originals: “Bel and the Dragon”, which Mehldau said was being debuted at the concert and which felt a little like jazzy space music with the pianist taking several interstellar detours off his charts, as well as “Green M & Ms”, a tune which allowed Ballard to prove that drums can, in fact, be a lead instrument without rattling the ice cubes in one’s drink. (We will not mention the urban legend that green M & Ms are an aphrodisiac, but the music was pretty attractive …)
The bottom line is that, when it comes to innovative musical charts, and uncharted music innovations, Mehldau has few equals in the current jazz scene. And, as the Los Angeles Times wrote in another review, Mehldau is “one of the most adventurous pianists to arrive on the jazz scene in years.”
Mehldau, who last performed in Grand Rapids at St. Cecilia in 2010, was the second offering of St. Cecilia’s annual jazz series, which will include singers Gregory Porter on Feb. 22, 2018, and Kurt Elling on March 22, 2018. For information on tickets and more information visit SCMC-online.org.
Mehldau’s jazz trio work is also on my short list of “must-have” jazz trio recordings. For those looking for a deeper dive into the format, an essential acquisition would be the Oscar Peterson Trio’s 1963 recording “Night Train”, the Ahmad Jamahl Trio’s 1958 recording “But Not For Me – At The Pershing” and/or Mehldau’s “The Art of the Trio” series, re-packaged and re-released as a 5-Disc box set by Nonesuch in 2011.
And you probably have to look no farther than Grandville’s The Corner Record Shop for any of them.
The St. Cecilia Grand Band in rehearsal at the music center’s Royce Auditorium, from 2016. (WKTV)
By St. Cecilia Music Center
St. Cecilia Music Center’s Adult Grand Band and String Orchestra will kick off the holidays with an free concert on Sunday, Dec. 3, at 7 p.m. The two musical groups consist of adults between the ages of 13-94 who love to play and practice music throughout the year and who gather together to perform during the holidays.
“These are musicians comprised of community members who want to explore and develop their love of music and who enjoy playing their instrument with others who have the same passion,” Cathy Holbrook, executive director of St. Cecilia, said. “We provide high-quality music training and performance opportunities for adults in our community and this is their holiday concert where the public can see and experience joyful music making.”
The concert will include performed music as well as a holiday sing-along with the audience. Some of the pieces to be performed include Frank Ticheli’s “Joy”, John Phillip Sousa’s “Manhattan Beach March” and other selections. The two ensembles will join together to perform LeRoy Anderson’s “Sleigh Ride”, followed by a Christmas carol performance and sing along with the audience.
“People who attend the event will love the lively, upbeat nature of this performance,” Paul Keen, conductor of the Adult Grand Band, said. “It’s a great way to kick off the holiday season.”
St. Cecilia Music Center is located at 24 Ransom Ave. NE in downtown Grand Rapids. For more information call 616-459-2224 or visit scmc-online.org .
For more information about the Adult Grand Band or the String Orchestra, contact Martha C. Bundra, Education Director, at martha@scmc-online.org or call 616-459-2224 x206.
From the time of Art Tatum, though the years Oscar Peterson led what some consider the perfect jazz trio (with Ray Brown on bass and Ed Thigpen on the sticks), into the modern jazz era with the likes of Brad Mehldau, there are many different instrumentations used in “a jazz trio” but when people think of “the jazz trio” you know what they are talking about.
The piano-bass-drum jazz trio is, with little argument, the quintessential jazz group.
Back in 1996, pianist Mehldau released the first of a series of recordings titled “The Art of the Trio” — a recognition of the historic and continuing perfection of the piano-bass-drums jazz combo by a multi-Grammy nominated performer who’s career has never strayed far from the format.
And while a Nov. 30 visit to St. Cecilia Music Center’s Jazz Series by Mehldau’s latest trio may well be a must-see concert this year — a concert where he will undoubtedly continue to prove the adage — there are local jazz performers bouncing around Grand Rapids music scene that also offer proof just about every night of the week.
Steve Talaga, on keyboards, in trio at a local venue. (Supplied).
“Most of the great jazz pianists going back to the mid-1940s have performed and recorded in this format, so each succeeding generation of young musicians has been exposed to, and influenced by, these artifacts,” said Steve Talaga, a pianist with a long history in the area jazz scene and currently an adjunct professor of music at Hope College.
“This trio format is also a situation which offers a perfect blend of interaction and freedom. You have multiple musicians contributing musical ideas to the ‘stew,’ but not so many that things get muddled,” he said. “Once drums are paired with piano, the bass range can sound a little weak, so adding a string bass reinforces the low register, creating a perfect musical scenario.”
Robin Connell, also a local pianist and music instructor, likens the musical range of the piano jazz trio as being a “group discussion.”
Robin Connell, with bassist Chris Kjorness’ River North Trio, at The Old Goat in Grand Rapids. (Supplied)
“In terms jazz as an art form, the best jazz trios musically interact continuously so that their performance can be likened to listening to a group discussion,” she said. “Just as in listening to three people talking together, conversation can flow easily and equally and be heard by listeners. Larger groups rely either on more written music — less improvisation, taking turns improvising, or music that is simple harmonically.”
But jazz people will tell you that not only is the piano jazz trio a jazz club mainstay for musical reasons, there are also logistical and economic reasons as well.
Robin Connell
Economics “enter the picture, although not as much for established artists of international stature,” Connell said. “Very few places anywhere in the U.S. pay a living wage for live music unless the venue is booking ‘name’ artists. This is true for jazz as it is for all other live music. I imagine the history of the jazz trio includes that reality and certain combinations, such as piano/bass/drums, became standard.”
Talaga agrees, but knows economics has never overshadowed the music.
“Economics do play a role, of course. More so all the time,” Talaga said. “With this combination, you have a complete ensemble capable of creating the most exciting music, but the paycheck only has to be split three ways.”
But “for me, the piano/bass/drums format is the dream band, both in terms of listening and performing. If you get the right combination of inventive, sensitive, and capable musicians, it’s pure magic.”
And most local jazz lovers are expecting magic with Mehldau’s return visit to St. Cecilia Music Center as part of the center’s Encore Jazz Season, celebrating over ten years of some of the finest jazz musicians in the world playing the venue.
“The jazz trio format is the classic format for a jazz combo — but what’s so interesting about all jazz programming is that, even if the instruments are the same in two groups, two shows are usually never alike in the hands of consummate musicians,” said Cathy Holbrook, executive director of St. Cecilia Music Center.
Brad Mehldau, in trio format, will be coming to St. Cecilia Music Center NOv. 30. (Supplied)
“We’ve had the piano/bass/drum trio at St. Cecilia Music Center many times over the past ten years, but the musician leading the group can take it in many different directions,” she said. “When Brad Mehldau brings his trio, we will hear a night of improvisation vs. jazz standards — they may start out with a standard but it goes into their imagination and comes back out again.”
For those with only a casual relationship with the jazz trio, but looking for a deeper dive, an essential acquisition would be the Oscar Peterson Trio’s 1963 recording “Night Train”, the Ahmad Jamahl Trio’s 1958 recording “But Not For Me – At The Pershing” and/or Mehldau’s “The Art of the Trio” series, re-packaged and re-released as a 5-Disc box set by Nonesuch in 2011. And you probably have to look no farther than Grandville’s The Corner Record Shop for any of them.
For more information and tickets for Brad Mehldau, visit scmc-online.org
The Steve Talaga Roots of Jazz Trio, among other gigs, will play at the 18th Amendment in Muskegon, Dec. 23 from 8-11 p.m. Visit his website at stevetalaga.com .
Robin Connell, among other gigs, will be playing in trio format at One Trick Pony in Grand Rapids, Jan, 11 from 8-11p.m. Visit her website at robinconnell.com .
For more information on local jazz available, visit wmichjazz.org .
Christian McBride Trio, Nov. 16, at St. Cecilia Music Center, Grand Rapids, Mi.
60-second Review
Christian McBride (Supplied)
If you came to St. Cecilia’s Royce Auditorium Thursday night expecting a typical jazz trio, with bassist extraordinaire Christian McBride leading the standard group through the standard repertoire and his taking the lion’s share of lead in the standard solos, you were both beautifully satisfied and, yet, a little blissfully surprised.
McBride — a multiple Grammy-winning jazz man at heart but willing and able to play where the spirit moves him — is famous for his ability to slide into any musical genre where a bass of any form is at home, as he is for not only sharing the stage with young, talented musicians but showcasing them.
So it was McBride being McBride in his return gig at St. Cecilia when, along with young pianist Emmet Cohen and equally young guitarist Dan Wilson, he invited the audience to explore with him in a nine-song, roughly 90-minute musical conversation that ranged from the classics (“I’m Afraid the Masquerade is Over” and Duke’s “Sophisticated Lady”) to 1980s pop (Stevie Wonder’s “Overjoyed”).
My favorite conversations of the night — jazz songs really are a conversation among players who speak the improvisational “language of jazz” — were two tunes written by Cohen: “Three of Us” and “You Already Know”. I think that’s their titles; they are new and announced from the stage!
(The “language of jazz”, as an aside, is a term taught to me by no-less an authority than Ellis Marsalis Jr. — father of the Marsalis jazz family — when I interviewed him a decade ago and asked a dumb question about playing a new tune with musicians for the first time and he gently gave a reporter a brief jazz masterclass.)
Whether it was McBride fighting off a blister on a finger, as it appeared, or just his feeling like showcasing the very talented Cohen, the bassist gave the pianist not only got his fair share of solos but the majority of the spotlight. The addition of Cohen’s second composition, in fact, was an admittedly unrehearsed decision which was musical proof of trio’s ability to speak the “language of jazz”.
McBride — blister, or whatever, and all — and Cohen were uniformly good in their fluid solos and able accompanying efforts, but Wilson’s guitar may have been the most unique part of the show — while his solos were tight and, often, experimental, his work as an accompanist gave the trio a rarely heard sonic landscape.
May I have more, please?
These days, an electric (or at least amplified) guitar is completely at home in the jazz genre — has been from the time of the classic Wes Montgomery (and anybody else you care to name), to the more modern George Benson and Russel Malone (and anybody else …), to the youthful Gilad Hekselman (and …)
But it wasn’t always so.
Jazz historians, an often argumentative lot they are, will often point to Charlie Christian as the groundbreaker for bringing the electric guitar to the jazz stage. In his short life — 1916-1942, a life cut short by tuberculosis in the years before any cure or even real treatment were known — Christian was a key figure in the popularity of swing jazz, the early development of bebop and, some argue, even the infancy of cool jazz.
His teaming of the guitar with amplification pushed the instrument out of the rhythm section of big bands and front stage as a solo jazz instrument. His day-job swing-jazz work with the Benny Goodman Sextet and his late night bebop sets in Harlem in the years before his death made him a legend among guitarists of all ilk — so much so that in 1990 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as an “early influence”.
Whatever. The man could, like McBride, speak the language of jazz.
McBride’s visit was the beginning of St. Cecilia’s annual jazz series, which will include the Brad Mehldau Trio on Nov. 30, and singers Gregory Porter on Feb. 22, 2018, and Kurt Elling on March 22, 2018. For information on tickets and more information visit SCMC-online.org.
Saying bassist Christian McBride is the new millennium’s baseline of jazz music might be laying it on a little thick, but he certainly is a favorite of the Grammy awards and of St. Cecilia Music Center, where his unique trio will be on stage next week.
McBride — with five Grammy wins since 2004, and a pairing of piano and guitar with him — will make an encore visit to St. Cecilia’s Royce Auditorium stage on Thursday, Nov. 16, for a 7:30 p.m. concert. Tickets are still available.
“We are lucky to have him here,” Cathy Holbrook, executive director of St. Cecilia, said in supplied material, pointing out McBride’s current trio tour includes just five cities: New York City, Newark, Chicago, Denton (part of the Dallas-Ft. Worth metropolitan area) … and Grand Rapids.
McBride’s “McBride’s Tip City” tour will have him accompanied by pianist Emmet Cohen and guitarist Dan Wilson.
McBride’s visit is the beginning of St. Cecilia’s annual jazz series, which will include the Brad Mehldau Trio on Nov. 30, and singers Gregory Porter on Feb. 22, 2018, and Kurt Elling on March 22, 2018.
“This is going to be a jazz series for the record books,” Holbrook said about St. Cecilia’s “encore” series. “We are bringing back some of our favorites from the first ten years of the series. (And) the excitement begins with Christian McBride, one of today’s most enjoyable entertainers and outstanding jazz performers of our time.”
That “outstanding” part?
McBride has eight Grammy nominations, and five wins four since 2009 including the 2015 Best Improvised Jazz Solo for “Cherokee”.
Now in his third decade of playing and recording, the one-time “young lion” and Philadelphia native is one of the most respected, and sought after, players in music — and not just in traditional jazz. And the reason is clear by hearing one of his stories.
“When you pull the people in, you can go anywhere as long as they feel like they’re a part of the ride,” McBride said in supplied information. “ That’s why Cannonball Adderley was always my hero — he always exemplified high artistry, but no matter how esoteric or abstract it could get, he still related to people.”
McBride not only leads his own bands but he has shared the stage with jazz legends such as Sonny Rollins, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock and Pat Metheny; he has accompanied pop music heavyweights such as James Brown, Sting and The Roots; he has collaborated with classical masters such as Kathleen Battle, Edgar Meyer and the Shanghai Quartet.
In addition to his live and recording musical efforts, McBride currently hosts and produces “The Lowdown: Conversations With Christian McBride” on SiriusXM satellite radio and National Public Radio’s “Jazz Night in America” — can you say “Stories to tell?”
McBride will come to Grand Rapids, according to supplied information, following a performance with Dianne Reeves and a celebration of the 100th birthdays of Ella Fitzgerald and Dizzy Gillespie with Gregory Porter and Regina Carter — can you say “More stories to tell?”
You know, maybe that “baseline of modern jazz” is not too far off.
For tickets and more information visit SCMC-online.org. There will also be a pre-concert reception available for an additional price, and a free post-concert party available to ticket holders when the artists routinely visit for talk and CD signing.
St. Cecilia Music Center will feature the outstanding Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in a concert on Thursday, Nov. 2, featuring co-artistic director and cellist David Finckel, with violinist Arnaud Sussman and violist Paul Neubauer. The program titled “Essential String Trios” will include the works of Beethoven, Mozart and Penderecki.
“We are excited to embark on our sixth season with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center,” SCMC executive director Cathy Holbrook said. “The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center is comprised of the finest chamber musicians in the world. Co-Artistic Directors David Finckel and Wu Han choose the most amazing programs for this series and send us dynamic performers. If you haven’t attended one of these performances you should come to hear vibrant music in one of the finest concert halls in the world – The Royce Auditorium at St. Cecilia Music Center.”
The “Essential String Trios” concert will feature a string trio — violin, viola, and cello —is the chamber music connoisseur’s delight. The program will be:
Beethoven — Trio in G Major for Violin, Viola and Cello, Op. 9, No. 1
Penderecki — Trio for Violin, Viola and Cello
Mozart — Divertimento in E-flat Major for Violin, Viola and Cello, K. 563
Concert tickets are $38 and $43 and can be purchased by calling St. Cecilia Music Center at 616-459-2224 or visiting the box office at 24 Ransom Ave. NE. Tickets can also be purchased online at scmc-online.org.
A pre-concert wine/hors d’oeuvres event for $15 will be available to all ticket holders starting at 6:30 p.m. There will also be a pre-concert talk with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center artists in the Royce Auditorium to discuss the music selection for the evening and any other questions that pertain to the artists themselves.
A post-concert party is open to all ticket-holders giving the audience the opportunity to meet the artists and obtain signed CDs of their releases.
Season tickets for the Chamber Music Society Series are still available and include a $15 discount off of single ticket prices for the three concerts (with the others to be held Jan. 18 and April 19) by calling 616-459-2224 or visiting St. Cecilia Music Center at 24 Ransom NE, Grand Rapids.
A sure sign of fall, in addition to those changing colors and chilly mornings, is the beginning of the musical seasons at the St. Cecilia Music Center — a season each of chamber music masters, acoustic singer/songwriter folkies, and jazz lions young and older.
Judy Collins (Supplied)
First up on the 2017-18 calendar is the center’s Acoustic Café Series and a visit from acoustic guitar legend Leo Kottke on Thursday, Oct. 26 — with a Café visit by the incomparable Judy Collins already set for early next year and more of the series to be announced.
The opening acts of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center series, and the Jazz Series for the 2017-18 season begins in November.
David Finckel, left, will be one of the featured performers at the St. Cecilia Music Center concert. (Supplied)
First up next month is a chamber music program on Nov. 2, Essential String Trios, with CMS co-artistic director and cellist David Finckel performing with violinist Arnaud Sussman and violist Paul Neubauer. The program will include the works of Beethoven and Mozart, but also a less well known modern work by Krzysztof Penderecki — Trio for Violin, Viola and Cello (composed in 1990-91).
The Jazz Series — titled the “Encore Series” as all performers will be making their return visit to St. Cecilia — begins Nov. 16 with Grammy-winning bassist Christian McBride and his trio, and continues Nov. 30 with pianist Brad Mehldau and his trio.
McBride’s visit may well be “the concert” of the St. Cecilia season, for any of the series; okay, maybe just behind Collins. But back to the opener, and Kottke.
“To see Leo Kottke perform is one of the most memorable music experiences of my life,” Cathy Holbrook, St. Cecilia executive director said in supplied material. “He is truly one of the best folk performers we have seen at St. Cecilia Music Center. His sold-out performance with us in April 2016 was so good that we wanted to bring him back for an encore.
“In addition to Leo Kottke, we are excited to bring the renowned and beloved singer Judy Collins to the intimate Royce Auditorium stage,” Holbrook added.
Kottke has gained Grammy nominations, a Doctorate in Music Performance by the Peck School of Music at the University of Wisconsin, and — in typical Kottke humor, a Certificate of Significant Achievement in Not Playing the Trombone from the University of Texas at Brownsville with Texas Southmost College (according to supplied material!).
More than 25 years after the release of his debut recording, in 1968, Kottke collaborated with jam band Phish bassist Mike Gordon for an album titled “Sixty Six Steps”, and he continues to reinvent himself while always being true to his guitar.
The Acoustic Café Series is a now-5-years-old partnership between St. Cecilia and the syndicated Ann Arbor based radio show Acoustic Café and its host Rob Reinhart.
The Acoustic Café radio show is syndicated to more 100 commercial and non-commercial stations throughout the country and airs locally in Grand Rapids on WYCE on Friday mornings. The Acoustic Café series at SCMC presents the opportunity for a live taping with the artists and Reinhart while they are visiting St. Cecilia.
St. Cecilia Music Center is located at 24 Ransom Ave. NE, Grand Rapids. For tickets and more information on all the series’ concerts, call 616-459-2224 or visit scmc-online.org.
St. Cecilia Music Center’s summer piano camp will be starting in June. (Supplied)
St. Cecilia Music Center
St. Cecilia Music Center will continue is offerings of music training for children this summer with their Stella Royce Piano Camp for students ages 7-15. In addition, it will offer a fun and relaxed adult camp opportunity called Grand Band Camp for older school aged students (age 12 and older) and adults.
The Grand Band Camp will be held Monday though Thursday, June 12-15, from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. On Thursday, June 15, a final concert will be performed outdoor at the Gerald R. Ford Museum at approximately 11:30 a.m.
St. Cecilia welcomes musicians from around the community to participate in this casual and fun music experience where site reading can be practiced and a variety of music will be played, including great band favorites. Tuition per person is $45 and the registration deadline is June 8.
St. Cecilia also presents the 10th annual Stella Royce Piano Camp, July 10-14, 2017 from 8:40 a.m. to 3 p.m., offering an engaging and educational experience for young pianists 7-15 years of age. Optional free YMCA playtime is also offered Monday through Thursday from 3-5 p.m. after camp concludes.
Every year during the piano camp, students work with a new-featured composer and perform ensemble pieces written by that composer. This year, nationally renowned composer and master class teacher Mary Leaf from FJH Music Company will join the students to help prepare them for performing. Other talented faculty will also be involved in teaching and supervising all activities of the students throughout the week.
Daily music activities include individual and ensemble lessons, theory and ear training, music composition and music history, supervised practice time and master classes with composer Mary Leaf. In addition, special events are held each day, including solo and ensemble master classes, composition workshops, and time with the featured composer.
The final day of camp, Friday, July 14, a celebratory recital will take place where each student will perform music composed by Leaf, within an ensemble group. An ice cream social will take place after Friday’s recital. Each student will also perform solo, other music compositions, during a recital on Thursday afternoon. Tuition is $375. The registration deadline is June 15.
To register for the Grand Band Camp or the Stella Royce Piano Camp visit SCMC-online.org. For more information call education director Martha Bundra at 616-459-2224 ext. 206.
Judy Collins will be making her St. Cecilia Music Center debut in early 2018. (Supplied)
St. Cecilia Music Center
The 2017-18 concert season at St. Cecilia Music Center includes the always remarkable Chamber Music of Lincoln Center series and a dynamite lineup for the Jazz Series. But the highlight of the winter may well be a visit by the incomparable Judy Collins as part of the Acoustic Café Series.
“Since its inception in the 2015-16 season the Acoustic Café Folk Series has expanded its offerings and brought some of today’s up and coming artists, as well as some of the veterans of the singer/songwriter genre,” said Cathy Holbrook, St. Cecilia executive director. “We currently have two artists booked who represent generations of great music making … (including) the appearance of renowned and beloved singer Judy Collins.”
St. Cecilia’s Royce Auditorium stage concerts begin Oct. 26 and run through spring 2018. Series and individual ticket sales have started.
The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center perform three times during the season with CMS artistic directors Wu Han and David Finckel featured in two of the three concerts. Programs include the works of Mozart, Brahms, Dvořák, and Beethovan. Concert dates are Nov. 2, Jan. 18, 2018, and April 19, 2018.
The 11th season of SCMC’s Jazz Series is appropriately entitled “The Encore Season” as it brings back favorite performers from the past 10 years. This special season will feature four concerts with performers who have all appeared at SCMC: Grammy-winning bassist Christian McBride on Nov. 16, contemporary jazz pianist Brad Mehldau on Nov. 30, Grammy-winning vocalist Gregory Porter on Feb. 22, 2018, and multi-Grammy nominated baritone vocalist Kurt Elling on March 22, 2018.
As part of a still-evolving Acoustic Café Series, singer/songwriter Collins will make her first appearance at St. Cecilia on Feb. 1, 2018. Before that, guitarist Leo Kottke will return to the Royce stage on Oct. 26. The Acoustic Café Series, in partnership with the syndicated radio show of the same name and its host Rob Reinhart, will bring these two legends of folk to the 2017/2018 season, with additional concerts to be announced later in the year.
Series subscription tickets are available now — subscription prices represent a 15 percent discount on regular single ticket prices and a reduced $7 fee for the pre-concert reception. The usual cost of the pre-concert wine and hors d’oeuvres reception is $15 per person, per concert for all Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Jazz Series concerts.
Single tickets are also available at this time. A post-party is included with each ticket where patrons are able to meet the artists and obtain signed CDs of their music.
For more information and tickets, visit scmc-online.org, call St. Cecilia Music Center at 616-459-2224, or visit the box office at 24 Ransom Ave. NE, Grand Rapids.
SF Jazz Collective photographed in San Francisco in 2015. (Supplied St. Cecilia/Jay Blakesberg
By St. Cecilia Music Center
St. Cecilia Music Center will bring eight of the best jazz musicians from around the world to the Royce Auditorium stage on May 4. The SFJazz Collective is an all-star ensemble, that changes each season and is comprised of the finest performers/composers at work in jazz today.
SFJAZZ artists appearing at St. Cecilia include Miguel Zenon, alto saxophone; David Sanchez, tenor saxophone; Sean Jones, trumpet; Robin Eubank, trombone; Warren Wolf, vibraphone; Edward Simon, piano; Matt Penman, bass, and Obed Calvaire, drums.
The eight will perform the Collective’s arrangements of the music of Miles Davis as well as their own fresh compositions.
“If you are a jazz lover, this is the performance not to miss,” Cathy Holbrook, St. Cecilia executive director. “An eight-piece band made up of eight of the most talented jazz performers on the jazz scene today will culminate in an exciting night for everyone who is in the audience.”
The SFJAZZ Collective’s mission each year is to perform fresh arrangements of works by a modern master and newly commissioned pieces by each Collective member. More than any other figure, Miles Davis changed the sound of jazz — not once, but consistently over his career — from the birth of bebop in the 1940s to the integration of rock that gave rise to the fusion movement in the 1970’s.
In addition to its outstanding line-up with a leaderless format, the SFJAZZ Collective has also been praised for the innovative approach to repertoire. Through the pioneering approach of simultaneously honoring jazz’s recent history while championing the music’s up-to-the-minute directions, the Collective embodies SFJAZZ’s commitment to jazz as a living, ever-relevant art form.
As soloists, composers, and bandleaders, the SFJAZZ Collective represents what’s happening now in jazz. They also demonstrate that jazz has truly become an international language. Hailing from Ohio, Baltimore, Miami, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and New Zealand, the Collective’s multi-cultural lineup mirrors the explosion of jazz talent around the globe.
However, the jazz community only reached its current state by maintaining its traditions while simultaneously embracing innovation. This, too, is the essence of the SFJAZZ Collective. These exceptional artists come together in the name of jazz as a constantly evolving, quintessentially modern music.
A pre-concert wine and hors d’oeuvres reception for $15 per person is also optional when purchasing tickets for this event. There will be a a post-concert “Meet-the-artists” reception with all ticket-holders will be held giving the audience the opportunity to meet members of SFJazz and to obtain signed CDs of their music including their newest release.
Singer/songwriter Mark Cohn will be bringing stories about his songs and songs about his stories to the St. Cecilia Music Center’s Acoustic Café. (Supplied)
WKTV Contributor
Singer/songwriter Mark Cohn has survived success, sabbatical and a shooting, and has the stories to tell — and he will be bringing stories about his songs and songs about his stories to the St. Cecilia Music Center’s Acoustic Café series later this month.
The Grammy Award winning Cohn — he of 1991’s Grammy winning ballad “Walking in Memphis” — will offer music from his 2016 release “Careful What you Dream: Lost Songs and Rarities” as part of a tour focused on a 25-year retrospective of his career.
Cohn and his songs, new and old, will close this season of the St. Cecilia Music Center Acoustic Café series Thursday, April 13, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are available.
“We will be in the presence of one of the best singer/songwriters of our time on April 13 during Marc Cohn’s concert,” said Cathy Holbrook, St. Cecilia’s executive director. “His newer work is magnificent and his earliest songs are treasured classics.”
Cohn was nominated twice for his hit song, “Walking in Memphis”, at the 1991 Grammy’s, for Best Pop Male Vocalist and Song of the Year. He ultimately won the Grammy award for Best New Artist. His debut album, with the hit song, was later certified Gold in 1992 and certified Platinum in 1996.
Bonnie Raitt, James Taylor, David Crosby, Graham Nash and Patty Griffin all made guest appearances on Cohn’s early records for Atlantic, as his reputation as an artist and performer continued to grow. In 1998 Cohn took a decade-long sabbatical from recording, ending in 2007 with a new album called “Join The Parade” — inspired by the horrific events following Hurricane Katrina and his own near fatal shooting just weeks before, “Parade” is his most moving and critically acclaimed record to date. He followed that up with the album “Listening Booth: 1970” in 2010.
In March 2016, in celebration of the 25th anniversary of his debut album, Cohn released “Careful What you Dream: Lost Songs and Rarities” and the bonus album, “Evolution of a Record”, featuring never-before-heard songs and demos dating back to years before his debut album and the Grammy Award that followed.
For a video of his recent musical work, visit here.
There will be a post-concert “Meet-the-artist” reception open to all ticket-holders with the opportunity to meet Cohn and obtain signed CDs of his releases.
Ready to spark: Margo Price will will bring music from her breakthrough solo release to St. Cecilia Music Center on April 6. (Supplied/Angelina Castillo for Third Man Records)
Rarely has there been a more perfect title than Margo Price’s 2016 debut solo recording — “Midwest Farmer’s Daughter” — she hails from the town of Buffalo Prairie, Ill., after all.
And rarely has a country/Americana singer emerged with a more perfect pedigree: she left college to move to Nashville, cites Emmylou Harris as a major influence and has a voice compared to Loretta Lynn, and has recently shared the stage with the likes of Sturgill Simpson and Jack White.
She also was named “Emerging Artist of the Year” by the Americana Music Association and performed “Hands of Time” from her latest release for the Grammy Award audience early this year.
Oh, and did I mention there’s a story is that she sold her car to help pay for the recording of “Midwest Farmer’s Daughter” at the legendary Sun Studios in Memphis, Tenn.?
Price will be bringing here stories and songs from “Midwest Farmer’s Daughter” to the St. Cecilia Music Center Acoustic Café series Thursday, April 6, for a 7:30 p.m. concert. Tickets are available.
“We are so lucky to have Margo Price performing here in Grand Rapids at this stage in her career,” said Cathy Holbrook, St. Cecilia’s executive director. “She’s a rising star who is moving very fast in the music spotlight. This concert will be one that the audience will say, ‘I saw Margo Price when she was new and rising on the scene’.”
Price’s music has been variously labeled as not only country and Americana but also honky tonk and outlaw. Her earlier bands include The Pricetags and Buffalo Clover. But with her newest recording, she brings her musical world back to its rural roots.
The 10-track record, according to supplied information, influenced by Price’s years of trying to “make it” in Nashville, the childhood memories of her family losing their farm in Illinois and the pain of trying to cope with the death of her first child. After recording the album, Price shopped the project around in Nashville but found no takers until connecting with White’s Third Man Records — where she’s the label’s lone country artist.
In the last year, Price appeared on Saturday Night Live, both Charlie Rose’s and Seth Meyers’ television shows, took home the Emerging Artist of the Year award at AmericanaFest, and performed with White on an episode of “A Prairie Home Companion”.
There will be a post-concert “Meet-the-artist” reception open to all ticket-holders with the opportunity to meet Price and obtain signed CDs of her releases.
St. Cecilia’s Acoustic Café series will conclude its 2016-17 season on Thursday, April 13, with Grammy Award winning Marc Cohn — he of 1991’s Grammy winning ballad “Walking in Memphis” and so much more. With his newest 2016 release “Careful What you Dream: Lost Songs and Rarities”, his concert will feature a 25-year retrospective of his most well known music mixed with new releases. Tickets for this concert are $35 and $40.
Wu Han and other members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center will be in concert this week at St. Cecilia Music Center. (Supplied/Lisa-marie Mazzucco)
By St. Cecilia Music Center
It will be an evening of chamber music master musicians playing in the French mood March 16 as St. Cecilia Music Center’s 2016-17 Chamber Music Series concludes with another concert by members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
The program is titled “French Virtuosity” and featuring Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center co-artistic director and pianist Wu Han performing with colleagues Kristin Lee, Yura Lee and Arnaud Sussman on violins, Richard O’Neill on viola and Nicholas Canellakis on cello.
“Sometimes people have the idea that chamber music concert will be stuffy and that the artists will be unapproachable. This idea can’t be further from the truth!” said Catherine Holbrook, Sty. Cecilia executive director. “The artists from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center are some of the most fun and outgoing people I’ve met. And this exuberance shines through during their exquisite performances. I’m very excited to have Wu Han and these five world class string artists here to engage with our enthusiastic Grand Rapids audience in the intimate Royce Auditorium.”
The program will include Leclair’s Concerto in E minor for Violin, String Quartet and Continuo, Op. 10, No. 5; Françaix’s Trio for Violin, Viola and Cello; Ravel’s Tzigane, rapsodie de concert for Violin and Piano; and Chausson’s Concerto in D Major for Violin, Piano and String Quartet, Op. 21”
There will be a pre-concert wine and hors d’oeurves reception from 6-7 p.m. (for a $15 fee), a pre-concert artist talk with the musicians performing that evening moderated by St. Cecilia executive director Catherine Holbrook from 7-7:30 p.m., and a complimentary post-concert wine, coffee and dessert reception for the audience to meet the artists and obtain signed CDs.
For more information and tickets, call 616-459-2224 or visit scmc-onlilne.org.
Pokey LaFarge bring his sound and songs to the St. Cecilia Music Center’s Acoustic Café stage this week. (Supplied)
By K.D. Norris
ken@wktv.org
What kind of music will Pokey LaFarge bring to the St. Cecilia Music Center’s Acoustic Café stage this week? Well, that’s a straightforward, but kind of complicated story.
Pokey LaFarge
The easy answer is that the St. Louis-based singer songwriter incorporates early jazz, ragtime, country blues and western swing into his music. The complicated answer is that his music has attracted the attention and admiration of both Prairie Home Companion’s Garrison Keillor and The White Stripes’ Jack White. Think about that for a minute.
The audience at St. Cecilia will make their own decision — likely a joyfully complicated one — when LaFarge hits the stage Thursday, Feb. 9, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are still available.
LaFarge has a will charm the audience with his down-to-earth unique sound all his own,” Cathy Holbrook, St. Cecilia executive director said in supplied material. “He’s a fabulous musician and totally engaging entertainer.”
White added LaFarge to his Third Man label and included him as his opening act on his North American Tour in 2013, according to supplied material. LaFarge performed on “The Prairie Home Companion” radio show in 2013 and 2014.
Two of LaFarge’s albums have been named Best Americana Album by the Independent Music Awards.
A post-concert “Meet-the-artist” reception, with a cash bar, will be to meet LaFarge and obtain signed CDs of his releases.
Next up for the Acoustic Café Series is Grammy nominated Texas-trio Los Lonely Boys will bring their unique acoustic performance to St. Cecilia on March 14. Margo Price will bring her Nashville country/soul sound to to town on April 6. And Grammy Award winning Marc Cohn — of 1991’s Grammy winning ballad “Walking in Memphis” — will perform on April 13.
For more information and tickets, call 616-459-2224 or visit scmc-onlilne.org.
Pianist Alessio Bax. (Supplied/Lisa-Marie Mazzucco
WKTV Staff
It will be an evening of chamber music master musicians playing chamber music master composers Jan. 26 as St. Cecilia Music Center’s 2016-17 Chamber Music Series continues with four of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s brightest stars playing works by Brahms, Fauré.
The artists scheduled to perform are pianist Alessio Bax, violinists Ani Kavafian and Yura Lee and cellist Paul Watkins, each of whom are among the most respected — and most exuberant — chamber musicians in the world, in the opinion of St. Cecilia executive director Cathy Holbrook.
“The many artists from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center are some of the most fun and outgoing people I’ve met,” Holbrook said in supplied material. “And this exuberance shines through during their exquisite performances. I’m very excited to have these four artists here and to introduce them, up close and personal in the intimate Royce Auditorium.”
The audience will be able to hear and see their skill and exuberance when the four takes the stage Thursday, Jan 26, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are still available.
The program includes Brahms’ “Scherzo, WoO 2, from ‘F-A-E’ Sonata for Violin and Piano”; Fauré’s “Quartet No. 2 in G minor for Piano, Violin, Viola and Cello”; and Brahms’ “Quartet No. 2 in A Major for Piano, Violin, Viola and Cello”.
This season’s St. Cecilia Chamber Music Series will conclude March 16, with a program titled “French Virtuosity” and featuring Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center co-artistic director and pianist Wu Han performing with colleagues Kristin Lee, Yura Lee and Arnaud Sussman on violins, Richard O’Neill on viola and Nicholas Canellakis on cello.
On Jan 26, there will be a pre-concert wine and hors d’oeurves reception from 6-7 p.m. (for a $15 fee), a pre-concert artist talk with the musicians performing that evening moderated by Grand Rapids Symphony President Peter Kjome from 7-7:30 p.m., and a complimentary post-concert wine, coffee and dessert reception for the audience to meet the artists and obtain signed CDs.
For more information and tickets, call 616-459-2224 or visit scmc-onlilne.org.
John Weitzel, who lived in Kentwood for almost 30 years, has been a musician for the majority of his 92 years — as a musical student, teacher and high school band leader. And he has no intention of stopping.
The St. Cecilia Grand Band in rehearsal at the music center’s Royce Auditorium. (WKTV)
So, with is baritone horn in hand, John has spent the last two years as part of St. Cecilia Music Center’s Grand Band, one of a series of community youth and adult music programs offered by the center.
“I was one of those people who started playing early in my life, I was eight years old when I first started playing the trumpet, became a member of the high school band a little early and had quite an experience there. Then I went to college and played trumpet there,” John said in a recent interview during a break in rehearsal with the band.
He has a masters degree in music from Columbia University in New York, still majoring in trumpet. Then became a high school band director in Alliance, Ohio, and was there for 35 years, as director of the band and supervisor of music. “After I retired from that, my wife and I moved to Grand Rapids and I joined up with several bands and have been in the (St. Cecilia) Grand Band for a couple years. It has been a great experience.”
His life has been full of great musical experiences, however. One of his fondest is his relationship with world-famous composer, conductor and arranger Henry Mancini.
Friends in music, life
“We met when we were in junior high school in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania. We were both 12 years old. We hit it off right away because we were both only children,” John said. “He had quite a personality, even at that age, and I was attracted to him. We had quite an experience together, in high school, through our music. He was a life-long friend.”
Even when Mancini was at the top of his fame, and John a high school band director, they shared musical moments.
“He played a concert at Blossom Hills, Ohio, with the Cleveland Orchestra, and he was kind enough to introduce me during that concert,” John said. “Then we met after, in the Green Room, and we were able to renew our friendship at that point. … unfortunately, he passed away at just 70 years old. I was always curious about the music he might have written had he been allowed to live a little longer.”
And speaking of long life, John credits his continuing love of music as one reason for his longevity.
“I just feel that physically, and mentally, it is a great outlet,” he said. “I have been extremely happy, in my old age, playing in three different bands and I feel that the Grand Band is my favorite. … (it was) attractive to me for a lot of reasons: the atmosphere, the fact that we play on the same stage where world-class musicians perform, great directors. It is a fund band, and I have met a lot of friends.”
Weitzel’s attraction to the band is shared by other members, as is the feeling that it helps senior players keep or renew their musical skills.
Many members, many musical stories
Tom Ennis, a 70-year-old trumpet player, also started playing when he was eight and played through high school. But then life got in the way.
Tom Ennis is a trumpet player with the Grand Band. (WKTV)
“I joined the Army. Went over to Vietnam, and then got stationed in California and raised my family there. I kind of fell out of it,” Tom said. “When I retired from work, out in California, I wanted to play my horn again, but they don’t have community bands out there. When we moved back to Michigan, I found out about the Grand Band.
“For myself, I think you can continue to improve and improve, as you get older and older, you don’t have to just stagnate. … but, like anything, it is very hard if you just do it by yourself. You can’t play a trumpet by yourself and enjoy it a whole lot. The enjoyment comes with playing with a full band.”
Weitzel’s and Ennis’ stories are just two of the many stories of the St. Cecilia music programs, according to Grand Band director Paul Keen.
St. Cecilia Music Center Grand Band director Paul Keen. (WKTV)
“There is a wide variety of musical talents in this band,” Keen said. “It is not exclusively an elder band, we invite musicians of all ages. In fact, the young person … (in the band) is home schooled. He is the son of one of our percussionists, and we welcome him.”
But Keen, 70, sees special benefit to older musicians.
“It is an opportunity to continue to socialize with people with similar interests. There is also a benefit in terms of cognitive functioning,” her said. “If people, as they get older, stimulate their brains, whether it is through board games, through art, music, other intellectual pursuits, it really does help our frame of mind, our physical and mental wellbeing. I know from my own personal situation, all the aches and pains I feel, I never seem to feel them when I am playing an instrument or standing up here (leading the band).”
St. Cecilia Music Center. (WKTV)
The St. Cecilia Music Center’s Grand Band rehearses Monday mornings and performed in concert in December. The Grand String Orchestra, conducted by Cyndi Betts, rehearses on Wednesday evenings. No auditions are needed for either group. For more information about joining one of the adult ensembles visit SCMC-online.org or call the education director at 616-459-2224.
Marcelo Lehninger, Grand Rapids Symphony’s new music director, will conduct his first concert at St. Cecilia Music Center’s Royce Auditorium this week. (Supplied)
By K.D. Norris
ken@wktv.org
Marcelo Lehninger, Grand Rapids Symphony’s new music director, will conduct in the grand DeVos Performance Hall many times during his tenure, but this week he will conduct his first concert in the exquisite intimacy of the St. Cecilia Music Center’s Royce Auditorium.
Somehow, that is only fitting and proper — and not just because the venue should also be perfect to experience the artistry of guest pianist Daniel Hsu.
Daniel Hsu will be the featured performer at the Grand Rapids Symphony concert. (Supplied)
On Friday, Jan. 6, Lehninger leads the orchestra in a concert of Romantic Era works by Brahms and Schumann with Hsu, a 2016 Gilmore Young Artist of Kalamazoo’s Irving S. Gilmore International Keyboard Festival.
The concert, scheduled for 8 p.m., is part of the symphony’s Crowe Horwath Great Eras concert. Tickets are available.
The program title is The Romantic Concert: Schumann & Brahms, and includes Schumann’s “Piano Concerto in A minor” — the composer’s only piano concerto. And both the work and the program’s theme are perfect for a concert focused on “romance.”
Composers Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms are considered the epitome of romantic composers and both had close relationships with Robert’s wife, Clara Schumann — musical and romantic in the case of Robert, and musical and friendship with Johannes. Both composers wrote music for Clara, a pianist.
Fittingly, Clara gave Schumann’s piano concerto its premiere performance in 1846 on New Year’s Day.
The Friday concert will also features Brahms’ “Tragic Overture” and his “Variations on a Theme of Haydn”.
Portions of evening program also will be performed at 10 a.m. Friday for the Porter Hills Coffee Classic series, with doors opening at 9 a.m. for complimentary coffee and pastry prior to a one-hour concert played without intermission.
The evening program will be rebroadcast on April 9 on Blue lake Public Radio, 88.9 FM or 90.3 FM.
Upcoming Lehninger symphony concerts
Lehninger’s will return to DeVos later this season as he will return in February and March for concerts with the Grand Rapids Symphony, highlighted by performances of works by Mozart and Mahler on Feb. 3-4, featuring pianist Andrew von Oeyen, and maybe the symphony season highlight on March 3-4 with a performance of Mussorgsky’s stunning and timeless “Pictures at an Exhibition” and Samuel Barber’s “Adagio for Strings” with guest violinist Stefan Jackiw.
It will be a treat for those who have never heard Mussorgsky’s work, a piano-solo piece in its original but orchestrated by Maurice Ravel in its most-often heard form. (OK, maybe Emerson, Lake and Palmer’s alt-rock version has been heard a lot too.) For those whom the work is new, it is a musical must.
For more information on Grand Rapids Symphony concerts visit GRSymphony.org
Cécile McLorin Salvant, Dec. 8, at St. Cecilia Music Center, Grand Rapids, Mi.
Cécile McLorin Salvant, the season opening performer for the St. Cecilia Music Center’s 2016-17 Jazz Series, brought a spectacular voice and mesmerizing presence to the stage Thursday for a 90-minute set.
Accompanied by the very tight Aaron Diehl Trio — with Diehl on piano, Paul Sikivie on bass and Lawrence Leathers on drums — McLorin Salvant opened her set with just Diehl’s piano and singing “Lucky to be Me.” From that moment on, you were lucky to be in the audience.
The singer showed her versatility — heartbreaking to humorous; booming to a whisper — throughout the night, with her set including a trio of Cole Porter songs, both well-known and little-known, and a hauntingly theatric song from the 1946 jazz-opera “Street Scene”, with lyrics by Langston Hughes.
My favorite song of the night was a stark, stripped-down version of the classic folk song “John Henry”, with special note given to Sikivie’s unique work on the base. My only disappointment was that all the songs were in English, which the native French speaker sings perfectly — S’il vous plaît,Cécile, un peu de Français.
McLorin Salvant ended the night as mesmerizingly as she started it, with “Tell Me What They are Saying Can’t be True.” It left you wanting more.
May I have more, please?
Having never heard McLorin Salvant before, I suspected a little hyperbole when some reviewers compared her to Ella Fitzgerald. But, listing to a local public radio jazz program before the concert, my wife, TJ — who knows her jazz — remarked “I wonder who that is? She sounds like Ella.” Sure enough, the DJ confirmed the song was by the songstress we would see shortly.
Good enough recommendation for me.
It may still be a little early to compare the 27-year-old to Ella, but she does have an impressive resume: youngest winner the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition in 2010, her debut recording, “WomanChild”, nominated for a Grammy in 2014, and her follow-up recording, “For One to Love”, winning the Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album this year.
And did I mention that she has a set of pipes? (Her singing voice is astounding.)
You might say that songstress Cécile McLorin Salvant, the season opening performer for the St. Cecilia Music Center’s 2016-17 Jazz Series, wasted no time in adding Grammy winner to her already melodic name.
On the heals of being the youngest winner the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition in 2010, McLorin Savant’s debut recording, WomanChild, was nominated for a Grammy in 2014 and her follow-up recording, For One to Love, won the Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album this year.
St. Cecilia executive director Cathy Holbrook, in supplied material, was not overstating facts when she said: states, “At 27 years old, Cécile is already a sensation.”
So expect a sensational night of vocal jazz when McLorin Salvant takes the stage Thursday, Dec. 8, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are still available.
Cécile McLorin Salvant
McLorin Salvant’s repertoire includes interpretations of little-known and scarcely recorded jazz and blues compositions, as well as unique takes on jazz standards, and original music and lyrics sung in a variety of different languages – English, Spanish and French, her native language.
The rest of this season’s St. Cecilia Jazz Series includes young — as in 13-year-old — pianist phenom Joey Alexander on March 23, and the SFJAZZ supergroup performing the music of Miles Davis as well as their own compositions on May. 4.
At the McLorin Savant concert, there will be a free post-concert “Meet-the-artist” reception for all ticket-holders. A pre-concert reception with wine and hors d’oeuvres is available for $15 per person in addition to the ticket cost.
For more information and tickets, call 616-459-2224 or visit scmc-onlilne.org.
No singer/songwriter likes to be labeled, but when people say Langhorne Slim sings from a “folk punk” background they probably better not say it to his face. He tends, as they say, speak his mind and sing his mind.
“Maybe everybody’s scared to be a freak. But when you live as a freak it’s so much more fulfilling,” he said, in supplied material. “I don’t want to tame myself. I want to be wild. If I can continue to refine the wildness but never suffocate or tame it, then I’m on the right path.”
Langhorne Slim — born Sean Scolnick in Langhorne, Pa. in 1980 — will be be crossing paths with a local audience this week when he comes to St. Cecilia Music Center’s Royce Auditorium for a solo acoustic concert Thursday, Nov. 17, at 7:30 p.m. as part of the Acoustic Café Folk Series. Tickets are still available.
Slim moved to Brooklyn at 18, and has literally traveled all across the nation but currently calls Nashville home. He has played major festivals like Newport Folk Festival, Lollapalooza, Austin City Limits, and Bonnaroo, and has toured with The Lumineers, The Devil Makes Three, and the Avett Brothers. He will most recent recording is 2015’s “The Spirit Moves”. The New Yorker described him as having “Leadbelly’s gift for storytelling and Dylan’s ability to captivate crowds.”
“Great musicians are those who speak to us on a deep emotional level and Langhorne Slim has that unique quality,” said Cathy Holbrook, SCMC executive director.
To say the least, Slim is “unique.”
SCMC’s Acoustic Café Series is hosted by Rob Reinhart, of the Ann Arbor based Acoustic Café radio program which is syndicated to over 100 commercial and non-commercial stations throughout the country. A post-concert “Meet-the-artist” reception with a cash bar will be offered to all ticket-holders giving the audience the opportunity to meet Langhorne Slim and obtain signed CDs of his releases.
For more information call 616-459-2224 or visit scmc-online.org
What’s Next:
Additional concerts in the 2016-17 Acoustic Café Series include St. Louis based Pokey LaFarge on Feb. 9, Grammy nominated Texas-trio Los Lonely Boys on March 14, country soul sensation Margo Price on April 6, and Grammy Award winning Marc Cohn — of the 1991’s Grammy winning ballad “Walking in Memphis” — on April 13.
The St. Cecilia Music Center unveiled its beautiful renovations last week and will draw the curtain this week with its 2016-17 season debut, the first of three visits by members of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
Already called “one of the greatest halls for chamber music in the world,” upgrades to St. Cecilia’s Royce Auditorium will be on full display Thursday, Nov. 10, when the chamber music players of the CMS of Lincoln Center present “Destination Vienna,” including the works of Mozart, Schoenberg and Brahms.
“This concert will showcase our ‘world class performance hall’ with world class musicians performing in a newly renovated setting,” according to SCMC executive director Cathy Holbrook. “The sound will be breathtaking and the audience will love our visual transformation of the hall, lobby, ballroom and entire facility.”
Chamber music artists performing include artistic director of CMS of Lincoln Center and cellist David Finckel as well as violinists Sean Lee and Alexander Sitkovetsky, violists Matthew Lipman and Richard O’Neill and cellist Keith Robinson.
The program includes Mozart’s “Quintet in C minor for Two Violins, Two Violas and Cello,” Schoenberg’s “Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night) for Two Violins, Two Violas and Two Cellos,” and Brahms’ “Sextet No. 1 in B-flat Major for Two Violins, Two Violas and Two Cellos.”
The evening will include a pre-concert wine and hors d’oeurves reception from 6-7 p.m. in the 2nd floor newly renovated ballroom for $15; a pre-concert artist talk with musicians performing that evening, and a complimentary post-concert wine, coffee and dessert reception for the audience to meet the six artists and obtain signed CDs of their releases.
For more information, call 616-459-2224 or visit scmc-online.org.
While Giddens is the co-founder of the Grammy-winning string band Carolina Chocolate Drops, she began work as a solo artist when she stole the show at the T Bone Burnett produced “Another Day, Another Time” concert in 2013, and followed that up in 2014 by stealing the show again on T-Bone’s “New Basement Tapes” project — sealing it from the likes of Elvis Costello and Marcus Mumford — with her version of Bob Dylan’s “Spanish Mary”. Oh, ya, she followed that up with her critically acclaimed solo debut, the Grammy nominated album “Tomorrow Is My Turn.”
