7:30 pm Saturday, February 10, 2024
Sydnor Performance Hall in Schewel Hall
at the University of Lynchburg
College St., Lynchburg, VA 24501
(There will be a pre-concert talk by Cecilia Smith beginning at 6:30 pm.)
A JAZZ CONCERT IN CELEBRATION OF BLACK HISTORY MONTH
Amherst Glebe Arts Response, Inc. presents this concert
with the University of Lynchburg Music Department
and the University of Lynchburg Office of Inclusive Excellence
Sydnor Performance Hall in Schewel Hall
at the University of Lynchburg
College St., Lynchburg, VA 24501
(There will be a pre-concert talk by Cecilia Smith beginning at 6:30 pm.)
A JAZZ CONCERT IN CELEBRATION OF BLACK HISTORY MONTH
Amherst Glebe Arts Response, Inc. presents this concert
with the University of Lynchburg Music Department
and the University of Lynchburg Office of Inclusive Excellence
Vibraphonist Cecilia Smith and Pianist Lafayette Harris, Jr., are well-known
straight-ahead jazz performing and recording artists and music educators.
They will play as a duo and also an ensemble with local musicians
Ed Mikenas on bass and Nick Moore on drums.
straight-ahead jazz performing and recording artists and music educators.
They will play as a duo and also an ensemble with local musicians
Ed Mikenas on bass and Nick Moore on drums.
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Cecilia Smith is one of the leading vibraphonists of Four Mallet Technique. She is a composer, arranger, multimedia artist and teaching artist who has performed throughout the world. She has received commissions through Chamber music America, NEA/Big Read and the Cooper-Hewitt. She also received a Joyce Award for teaching people with disabilities in hospitals, and a Masters in Jazz Award for her work at new England Conservatory and Kennedy Center, Washington DC as Artistic Director of the Mary Lou Williams Resurgence Project. Cecilia has seven internationally released recordings. Her multimedia and teaching artist work was recently featured in a TEDx TALK. She has recorded or performed with Gary Bratz, Greg Osby, Cassandra Wilson, Milt Hinton, Randy Weston, Marianne McPartland (Piano Jazz NPR), Donald Harrison, Billy Pierce, Mulgrew Miller, Cecil Bridgewater and others. She is a graduate and former faculty member of Berklee College of Music. In July she appeared in New York’s Vision Festival in a duo program with Poet Tracie Morris. Lafayette Harrris, Jr. is respected as a pianist's pianist. His 9th CD: You Can’t Lose With The Blues (Savant) went to #1 on the Jazzweek Jazz charts in Feb. 2020. In his career he has performed with the Duke Ellington Legacy Orchestra, Houston Person, Max Roach, Ernestine Anderson, Stanley Turrentine, Archie Schepp and many others. He was the last pianist for Mr. Roach and Ms. Anderson. Lafayette conducted and played in the smash hit Bring In 'Da Noise, Bring In 'Da Funk (1995-1999) and played in several other Broadway shows including The Color Purple (2005-2008). Lafayette is a graduate of Oberlin Conservatory. Cecilia and Lafayette have played together in freelance music settings since arriving in New York, have been friends for over 30 years ago, and have both lived in Park Slope Brooklyn for 15 years. During the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, the two found themselves having conversations on music and the world over coffee. Lafayette was streaming concerts in his home studio, complete with a Steinway Grand, mics, lights and cameras. He asked Cecilia if she’d be interested in playing together in a duo setting. He sweetened the offer by asking his two teenage sons to help move Cecilia’s vibraphone down 5th Avenue to his home on two dollies. Lafayette and Cecilia’s initial playing sessions proved very positive as they engaged in meaningful improvisational dialog and musical conversations on intermingling as two harmonic instruments. They also had great conversations on possible repertoire, arrangements of songs. |
Ed Mikenas, bass, was brought up in rural Northern New York State and graduated from SUNY Potsdam with a BS in music education. He also has a Master’s degree in Music Performance from the Manhattan School of Music, NYC. As a studio musician based in NYC, he toured with Skitch Henderson, Larry Elgart, Jay and the Americans, Scarlet Rivera, Esther Phillips, and the Alive Company. And he played venues that include Saturday Night Live, Carnegie Hall, Madison Square Garden, the Apollo, the Felt Forum, the Spectrum, and the Troubadour. Mikenas played in the orchestra pit for “Grease,” “Pippin,” “Godspell,” and “The Magic Show” on Broadway and was a musician and actor off Broadway with the La Mama Experimental Theatre. He taught bass at Radford University for 19 years and now, when not composing or playing his own work, serves as adjunct Bass Professor at the University of Lynchburg, coaches a jazz ensemble at the Virginia Episcopal School, and is Organist and Choir Master of Amherst Presbyterian Church. Nick Moore, drums, been playing music for more than a decade, focusing on both jazz and classical percussion. He has played in jazz bands and combos, symphonic bands, percussion ensembles, and even steel bands. Nick played with the UVA Marching Hoos and earned the John Phillips Sousa Award. He serves as an instructor for marching bands, indoor drum-lines, and jazz ensembles. Tickets:
Pay at the door, cash or checks only; doors open at 6 pm. Advance tickets available at Eventbrite. Click on button below. *AGAR is part of the VCA Passport Program for those in the WIC Program. Our performances are suitable for Women and Children over 12; not for infants or small children. For more information, call 434-989-3215 or click on this link below. https://www.amherstglebeartsresponse.org/passport.html |
