Kaufman Center Press Releases
Merkin Concert Hall presents Chamber Jazz: Vox Americana (January 29, 2009)
- Three major works to represent the meeting ground of jazz and classical traditions; extended composition meets improvisation with amazing convocation of brilliant string players
- Oliver Lake performing the music of Paul Motian w/Joel Harrision String Choir including
Dave Binney, Liberty Ellman, Christian Howes, Sam Bardfeld, Mat Maneri, Dave Eggar - Sonata for Solo Cello, World Premiere Performance by Wendy Sutter
- Kaufman Center's Special Music School Chorus
Kaufman Center’s Chamber Jazz series continues with legendary alto saxophonist Oliver Lake, composer/guitarist Joel Harrison and Bang on a Can cellist Wendy Sutter, exploring the common ground between classical, jazz and roots music. The featured work will be Vox Americana, Harrison’s own suite for seven extraordinary musicians and a group of New York City school kids from Kaufman Center’s acclaimed Special Music School that addresses the question, “What does it mean to be an American?” in words and music. Harrison will present three major works that represent the meeting ground of jazz and classical traditions. Extended composition meets improvisation with an amazing convocation of brilliant string players, including a new context for guest artist Oliver Lake with the Joel Harrison String Choir in arrangements of the music of Paul Motian. Mr. Lake will also perform in part of Vox Americana, which was commissioned by Chamber Music America’s New Works: Creation and Presentation program with funds from the Doris Duke Foundation. Vox Americana is firmly rooted in the chamber jazz tradition begun by the likes of Gil Evans, Gunther Schuller, Jimmy Giuffre, Andrew Hill and many others. Kaufman Center’s own Special Music School Chorus will take this multi-movement work exploring extended composition in an improvisational setting one step further. Wendy Sutter will be premiering her first major solo work since her tremendously successful collaboration with Philip Glass on his Songs And Poems for Solo Cello.
The program will begin with Vox Americana: Suite for 7 Musicians featuring Joel Harrison, guitar/voice; David Binney, alto saxophone; Christian Howes, violin; Heun Choi, cello; Daniel Kelly, piano; Lindsey Horner, bass; Jordan Perlson, Joel Harrison, Lesley McBurney, Barry Crooks and Nancy Keegan, drums and text readers. The program continues with the world premiere of Sonata for Solo Cello performed by cellist Wendy Sutter, followed by the Joel Harrison String Choir performing the music of Paul Motian, featuring Joel Harrison and Liberty Ellman, guitars; Christian Howes and Sam Bardfeld, violins; Mat Maneri, viola; Dave Eggar, cello and Special Guest Oliver Lake on saxophone. The Vox Americana epilogue includes the entire cast plus Kaufman Center’s Special Music School Chorus.
Oliver Lake
Whether composing major commissioned works for the Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra and the Brooklyn Philharmonic; creating chamber pieces for the Arditti and Flux String Quartets, the Amherst Sax Quartet and the San Francisco Contemporary Players; arranging for pop diva Bjork, rocker Lou Reed and rap group A Tribe Called Quest; collaborating with poets Amiri Baraka and Ntozake Shange, choreographers Ron Brown and Marlies Yearby, Native American vocalist Mary Redhouse, Korean kumongo player Jin Hi Kim, and Chinese bamboo flute player Shuni Tsou; doing unique performances with MacArthur Award recipients actress/author Anna Devere Smith and writer/law professor/political commentator Patricia Williams; sharing the stage with hip-hop artist Mos Def and pop star Me'shell Ndegeocello; or leading his own Steel Quartet, Big Band and cooperative ensembles the World Saxophone Quartet and Trio 3, Oliver Lake views it all as parts of the same whole: dixieland, be-bop, soul, rhythm & blues, cool school, swing, avant-garde jazz, free jazz, rock and jazz rock.
Joel Harrison
As guitarist, composer and vocalist, Washington, D.C. native Joel Harrison resists categorization: jazz, African and Indian, contemporary classical, blues and Appalachian songs all have a place in his unique approach. He is equally at home writing songs and complex chamber music, playing modern jazz and bar blues. Best known for his composing and arranging skills, Mr. Harrison has twice been selected as the winner of the Jazz Composer’s Alliance Julius Hemphill Composition Competition and has been the recipient of commissions from Chamber Music America, Meet the Composer, the Cary Trust, NYSCA, Jerome Foundation and others. His solo for marimba recently took first prize in the Percussive Arts Society’s worldwide competition. Other recent chamber works include a twomovement work for four percussion and piano, a violin solo and a commission from the group Mosaic (fl.,vc.,pn.,perc.). Mr. Harrison has been a guest of the MacDowell and VCCA artist colonies. His allies in his various projects have included Dave Liebman, Norah Jones, David Binney, Jamey Haddad, Dan Weiss, Dewey Redman, Uri Caine, Todd Reynolds, Wendy Sutter, Christian Howes and Caleb Burhans.
Wendy Sutter
Cellist Wendy Sutter received degrees from both the Curtis Institute of Music and the Juilliard School. A native of Seattle, she made her solo debut with the Seattle Symphony at age 16. Awarded the first prize in the Juilliard cello competition, Ms. Sutter made her New York solo concerto debut at Avery Fisher Hall in the New York premiere of Kaddish for cello and orchestra by composer David Diamond. An active soloist and chamber musician, Ms. Sutter has participated as a soloist or ensemble player with the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society, the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center, the Seattle International Chamber Music Festival, the New Jersey Chamber Music Society and New York's Music Today series. Ms. Sutter has also toured domestically and abroad with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and Bang on a Can. From 1993 through 1998, Ms. Sutter was a member of the White Oak Chamber Ensemble touring with Mikhail Baryshnikov throughout the United States, South America, Japan, Europe, Turkey, Greece, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. As a soloist with the ensemble, she premiered Jerome Robbins' A Suite of Dances, an onstage duet for herself and Mikhail Baryshnikov at the New York State Theater, Lincoln Center. This concert is partially underwritten by Chamber Music America as part of its New Works: Encore Program.
Listings Information:
Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Center presents
VOX AMERICANA: Oliver Lake/Joel Harrison/Wendy Sutter
Thursday, January 29, 2008 at 8:00pm 129 West 67th Street (between Broadway and Amsterdam)
Tickets at 212 501 3330 or http://www.kaufman-center.org Single tickets are $30 (members $20)
EDITORS: Please refer to the series by its name, MUSICALLY SPEAKING… and its location, Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Center
Press Only: Hi-res photos for download at http://kaufman-center.org/press/image-library
About Merkin Concert Hall
Renowned for its acoustics, accessibility and innovative programming, the recently renovated Merkin Concert Hall is the recipient of multiple awards for adventurous programming, most recently from ASCAP/Chamber Music America in 2002–03. The Hall is a division of Kaufman Center, which also includes Lucy Moses School (a community arts school) and Special Music School (a New York City public school for musically gifted children). A not-for-profit organization founded in 1952, Kaufman Center occupies its own facility, the award-winning Goodman House, located in Manhattan’s Lincoln Square arts district. The Center is an unsurpassed cultural resource where people of all ages can experience the joy of artistic creation, expression and appreciation. Kaufman Center’s presentations in Merkin Concert Hall are made possible, in part, by support from The Amphion Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, the Edward T. Cone Foundation, the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, the Barbara Bell Cumming Foundation, The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation, The Herman Goldman Foundation, Joint Industry Board of the Electrical Industry, The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Inc., and Steffens 21st Century Foundation II. This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York State Council on the Arts, a State agency.