7th Solo Piano Festival

 

Saturday Morning Educational Offerings

The Solo Jazz Piano Festival, now in its seventh year, is one of the cornerstones of the VJC’s programming. The festival has presented some of the world’s top pianists and most important musical innovators of this generation including NEA Jazz Masters Toshiko Akiyoshi and Joanne Brackeen, acknowledged luminaries Stanley Cowell, Benny Green, Sullivan Fortner, Kenny Werner, and many others.

10:00   Michael Weiss
Harmony as an Expressive Device and Storytelling in Jazz
Having the full pallet of harmonic colors at one’s command allows the pianist to spontaneously give any melody note a distinctive flavor, texture or color. The storytelling element is vital to a successful improvised solo, with all the same ingredients of sentence structure, syntax and pacing that make for a captivating speech.

11:00   Orrin Evans
Reharms can be Fun
Orrin will explore the world of recreating standards while discussing why we do re-harms. Are they good? Why not just write a new tune? Join Orrin while he finds the fun while tackling the fear.

12:00   Myra Melford
Language of Dreams: Composing for Improvisers
Jazz standards are imbued with familiar language and forms that many musicians continue to hone. But some artists stretch the jazz tradition, creating new structures and developing new improvisational grammar. Myra Melford will take us on a guided tour of her journey in developing new forms of expression and discuss how some of her mentors influenced her.

1:00     Lunch (on your own, area restaurants)

This year each concert will have both a limited in-person audience as well as a livestream component. You may purchase in-person tickets here and/or donate to the livestream by clicking above.

The online streaming of this concert is offered by donation. Suggested donations: Full festival pass: $80-$120; Individual headliner concerts: $20 – $50; Saturday daytime pass: $60. Your contribution will go directly towards sustaining the Vermont Jazz Center’s mission of providing access to top quality jazz music to all as well as fair employment to jazz musicians.

Saturday Afternoon Educational Offerings

2:00     Shiyu Fang (Berklee Coll. of Music)
Emerging Artist Performance & Interview
Fang was awarded the prestigious Berklee Toshiko Akiyoshi Award, which recognizes exceptional talent in jazz composition. She is a part of the Jazz and Gender Justice Institute at Berklee.

2:45     Remi Savard (Univ. of Vermont)
Emerging Artist Performance & Interview
Savard is an active performer in the area both as a bandleader and a collaborator working with local musicians. He is a graduating senior at University of Vermont studying music and microbiology.

3:30     Dan Tepfer
From Bach to Natural Machines: Algorithms as the Shapers of Music
Many think of music as primarily a product of the heart, but Dan Tepfer argues that algorithms — rules that are followed consistently — are just as important. Without constraints underlying creativity, music tends to lack the deep structure that makes it timeless. Tepfer will demonstrate and illuminate his concept of using algorithms as a helpful tool for spontaneous composition.

4:30     Question & Answer Panel
Upon arriving for the day-long educational component, each audience member will be given the opportunity to write out a question to the panel of six musicians. Questions will also be accepted via Facebook (using the VJC’s FB page). At 4:30 PM on Saturday, a juried selection of those questions will be presented to the panel and will serve as topics for discussion. The conversation will be moderated by VJC Director Eugene Uman.

Production
Sky Borax – stage management; Elsa Borrero – graphic design; Rob Freeberg – licensing and stage management; Michael Hanish, videography; Roshe Hebert – hospitality; Dan Langa, Niko Uman Borrero, Gaia Uman Borrero – communications; Ginger Morawski – administration and hospitality; Julian McBrowne, sound engineer; Jeff Starratt – photograph; Robby Roiter – staffing; Gerald Stockman, lighting design; Eugene Uman – VJC director and curator

Gratitude
The VJC’s Solo Jazz Piano Festival is a tribute to Mike McKenzie who, for the last 25 years has provided artists performing at the VJC with the finest pianos possible, including the Steinway D Concert Grand upon which this festival was founded. VJC is grateful to our many volunteers, and especially appreciative of our sponsors: two members of the VJC Summer Jazz Workshop community and Katy Oz. Their generosity is what has made this festival a reality. VJC acknowledges the Thompson Trust, the Windham Foundation, the Vermont Arts Council, the Vermont Humanities Council, and the New England Foundation of the Arts for their steadfast support and appreciates the excellent, pro-bono work by William Ballard and the exquisite care by Crystal Fielding as piano technicians.