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| 21st Annual Summer Solstice Celebration Seven-time Grammy -winning saxophonist Paul Winter's 21st Annual Summer Solstice Sunrise Celebration will take place at 4:30 a.m. on Saturday, June 18 at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, 1047 Amsterdam Avenue at 112th St., New York, NY. A one-of-a-kind sunrise concert, presenting the premiere of new music by the Paul Winter Consort, along with traditional pieces from the Consort's repertoire, featuring the soprano sax of Paul Winter, renowned cellist Eugene Friesen, double-reed wizard Paul McCandless on English horn and oboe, rising-star organist Ray Nagem on the Cathedral's majestic Aeolian-Skinner pipe organ, drummer Abdel Salaam with his set of seven West African dun-dun drums, and percussionists Mathias Kunzli and Keita Ogawa, with an array of instruments including a set of giant Balinese gamelan gongs. Paul Winter speaks of the uniqueness of this event: "Summer Solstice is one of the great turning points of the year, when the sun is at its peak and the days abound with the promise of life's fullness. It is a serenely powerful time in which the beauty of the natural world can infuse our spirit, bring us alive to the present, and perhaps awaken a deeper sense of relatedness to the greater community of life, and to the Earth, and perhaps, to the cosmos. In the same way that these longest days of the year in June are the polar opposite of December's longest nights of the year, the simplicity of this all-acoustic Summer Solstice concert is in total contrast to the more theatrical Winter Solstice Celebrations we have presented for many years." Why 4.30a.m.? "When I'm awake in the darkness before dawn – as the birds begin to sing, and the Earth prepares for the Sun – I feel as if life is beginning anew. There's something magical about that virginal time, when we're free of our habitual patterns and obligations. My dream of evoking this feeling in music was the original inspiration for Summer Solstice. We begin playing in total darkness at 4:30 a.m. within the awesome space and acoustics of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. We embark on a continuous musical journey, with players stationed in distant corners or moving among the audience. Somewhere near the halfway point, listeners gradually realize that the Cathedral's great stained-glass windows are beginning to illuminate. The light joins the sound to carry us into the first dawning of summer." All are invited to a tea and coffee reception in the Nave of the Cathedral following the concert. Performing with Paul Winter Eugene Friesen A member of the Paul Winter Consort since 1978, cellist Eugene Friesen has won Grammy Awards for his role on 4 Consort albums. He is renowned for breaking new ground for the cello, using it in a wide variety of non-classical settings and creating new techniques to expand its role as a solo and accompanying instrument. As Celloman, he has introduced his instruments to thousands of young people. A composer for cello and also full orchestra, Friesen is a professor at Boston's Berklee College of Music, His book, Improvisation for Classical Musicians was published by Berklee Press/Hal Leonard. Paul McCandless Grammy Award -winning multi-instrumentalist and composer Paul McCandless specializes on the oboe, English horn, bass clarinet, soprano and sopranino saxophones, as well as a collection of folk flutes. Grounded in jazz and classical traditions, McCandless' soaring lyricism has been integral to the ensemble sound of two seminal world music bands, the original Paul Winter Consort and the quartet, OREGON. Founding member of the band Oregon, He has performed with Wynton Marsalis, Pat Metheny, Steve Reich, the String Cheese Incident and the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra of Moscow. His collaboration with Béla Fleck won him a Grammy for Best Pop Instrumental. Jeff Holmes Pianist Jeff Holmes Holmes earned degrees from the Eastman School of Music. Featured on the Jazz at Kennedy Center Series with the Billy Taylor Trio, Holmes also plays regularly with the Paul Winter Consort. He has performed with Dizzy Gillespie, Sammy Davis Jr., Louis Bellson, Vanguard Orchestra (Thad Jones/Mel Lewis), Sheila Jordan, Henry Mancini, Johnny Mathis, Mel Torme, David Goloschokin, John Abercrombie, Slide Hampton and numerous NYC Broadway shows. He is Professor of Music and Director of Jazz & African-American Music Studies at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Raymond Nagem Raymond Nagem, Associate Organist at the Cathedral and C.V. Starr Doctoral Fellow at the Julliard School, is one of the leading organists of his generation. He performs on the St. John the Divine's Great Organ, widely considered to be the masterpiece of American pipe organ building and an acclaimed national treasure. The Great Organ has 8, 514 pipes and several extraordinary features, including the world famous State Trumpet above the Cathedral's West End, one of the most powerful organ stops in the world. Why Celebrate the Summer Solstice? The two great celestial milestones of the year, the Summer and Winter Solstices, are perhaps humanity's most ancient ritual observances. People paused at these times to reflect upon the journey of life, with its trials, blessings, hopes and promise. The word 'solstice' comes from the Latin 'sol' (sun) and 'stitium' (to stand still). Summer Solstice occurs when the Sun reaches its northernmost point from the equator and seems to pause before reversing its course; at the Winter Solstice the Sun attains its southernmost point and, once again, seems to stand still before turning back. The Sun, our great golden star, is the source of our life, and each of our lives is a multi-faceted journey with the Sun. On one level, we are cycling through each day and night, as the Earth rotates from dawn to dawn in the light of the Sun. On another, we are traveling through each year, being carried 584 million miles by the Earth as it swings around the Sun from one Summer Solstice to the next. Simultaneously, we are riding with the Sun as our entire Solar System travels within the Milky Way galaxy, which itself is one of the dozen galaxies in what astronomers call our Local Group. And this whole Local Group of galaxies, in turn, is revolving around the Virgo Cluster of 2000 galaxies, 53 million light-years distant from us. Making music at Solstice is one way to celebrate our amazing journey. If, in our listening, we are carried by the music, then perhaps the experience of that moment can be a hologram of the entire journey. In reality, the journey is right now, wherever we are. And when we are listening, each moment is the beginning. Thank you for being part of our ongoing Solstice journey. write your comments about the article :: © 2016 Jazz News :: home page |