Stories » Lesher Center commissions Sarah McKenzie to compose concert work 'San Francisco - Paris of the West'

Stories for February 16, 2020

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    'Little Women' will destroy you then put you back together / LIFESTYLE.INQ
     
    Posted At : February 16, 2020 12:00 AM

    Louisa May Alcott's classic tale "Little Women" is back on the big screen, in at least its fifth cinematic adaptation, this time in the confident hands of writer/director Greta Gerwig. She has assembled a magnificent cast, using a great script (that she wrote), and crafted a warm, superb movie that is absolutely one of 2019's best. For those unfamiliar, "Little Women" is about the March sisters: their lives and adventures in Massachusetts around the time of the Civil War, in which their father has volunteered to fight for the Union. As women in a less enlightened era, they are at a disadvantage when it comes to certain privileges enjoyed by men, but that doesn't stop them from carving their own paths. Alexandre Desplat's music is playful and sad and always pairs well with its scenes. Jacqueline Durran's costume design shows why she won the Oscar for that category. Yorick Le Saux's cinematography is sumptuous, and he and Gerwig employ warm and cool color palettes to differentiate the dual timelines, though they begin to merge as the past catches up to the present. READ THE FULL LIFESTYLE.INQ ARTICLE

  • 'The world's preeminent Beethoven interpreter' John O'Conor, will join GSO for 250th anniversary concert / Greenwich Free Press
     
    Posted At : February 15, 2020 12:00 AM

    On Saturday, February 22, at 8:00pm and Sunday, February 23, at 4:00pm, Greenwich Symphony Orchestra will perform an all Beethoven program, the Eroica and the Emperor, in honor of the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth. Soloist John O'Conor, known as ‘the world's preeminent Beethoven interpreter', will perform Piano Concerto No.5, (Emperor). John O'Conor Is one of the most popular soloists ever to collaborate with Greenwich Symphony. The concert will take place at the Performing Arts Center at Greenwich High School. A free pre-concert lecture will take place one hour before each performance.  SEE THE Greenwich Free Press PAGE

  • 'A Winged Victory for the Sullen' talk about their music, life and death / The Irish Times
     
    Posted At : February 15, 2020 12:00 AM

    While recording their third studio album, The Undivided Five, A Winged Victory for the Sullen experienced the capricious extremes of life and death. "This record was bookended by two huge events in our lives," explains Dustin O'Halloran, speaking on Skype from Los Angeles. The other half of this highly acclaimed American ambient duo, Adam Wiltzie, joins us from Brussels. "A really close friend died when we started working on the record. Towards the end of the album cycle, my first child was born." Dustin O'Halloran, Adam Wiltzie deceased friend was the Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson. The album's title is inspired by a group formed by a pioneering Swedish artist called Hilma Af Klimt, who was a mystic, as was WB Yeats, Gustav Mahler, Piet Mondrian and Wassily Kandinsky.  In 1896, Af Klimt founded a ‘Friday group' called ‘The Five' with four other like-minded female artists.  "They communed with the other side," O'Halloran says. "It wasn't based on Catholicism or anything, but more about the spiritualism of communicating with the unknown. In a lot of ways that is like the magic that happens between Adam and I. Our project becomes something bigger than us. It becomes its own entity with subconscious ideas in tune to universal energies." O'Halloran and Wiltzie discovered more parallels.  Photograph: Jonatan Gretarsson READ THE FULL Irish Times INTERVIEW WITH Dustin O'Halloran, Adam Wiltzie 

  • Jake Shimabukuro releases 'Trio' featuring the hawaiian classic 'Wai'alae' / ABC - Island News4
     
    Posted At : February 15, 2020 12:00 AM

    Musician Jake Shimabukuro released a new album, Trio, on Friday, which features his first-ever recording of a traditional Hawaiian song "Wai'alae." The song is special to Shimabukuro as he shares, "When I first started touring in Japan back in 1999, I opened for one of my favorite Hawaiian bands, ‘Side Order Band.' It consisted of Chris Kamaka, Bryan Tolentino, Del Beazley, and Asa Young. They are four legendary musicians who I grew up listening to. During that tour, the band would open up the concert with Wai'alae and it brought tears to my eyes as I missed home so much. Recording Waialae on the Trio record was a tribute to these four stellar musicians who inspired me since I was a little kid strumming my mom's ukulele." READ THE FULL ABC - Island News4 ARTICLE

  • Laila Biali stops by CBC: Radio One 'Saskatchewan Weekend' with Shauna Powers
     
    Posted At : February 15, 2020 12:00 AM

    Laila Biali recently released the first single 'Sugar' from her deeply personal new album, 'Out of Dust.' The JUNO Award winning Biali's hard-won optimism is apparent in the music on this new recording. Co-produced by Biali and her husband, Ben Wittman, 'Out of Dust' is a celebration of life; warm and uplifting even as it confronts her recent challenges (and the current political climate!) head-on "These new songs took shape as I processed my own feelings of doubt and loss," Biali reveals. "I believe that nothing is wasted, that even life's greatest challenges can produce something meaningful, even if only to make us more aware of and empathetic to the struggles of those around us." The album will be released Friday, March 27, and Biali is currently touring through Canada and the US. She recently stopped by CBC Radio One's 'Saskatchewan Weekend' with Shauna Powers to discuss the recording, touring and life's challenges. LISTEN Stories of hope and transformation. Saskatchewan Weekend on CBC Radio One is filled with conversations that connect you to the weekend and the people who live here. Did we mention music? There's plenty of that, too! Join them 06:00 - 09:00 weekends.

  • Under Andris Nelsons' direction, there's an infectious bounce and sparkle to 'Vienna Philharmonic 2020 New Year's Concert' / Classical Music Sentinel
     
    Posted At : February 15, 2020 12:00 AM

    Everyone enjoys a great New Year's party, especially when the music's rockin'. And this year's New Year's Concert in Vienna with conductor Andris Nelsons on the podium was no exception, as it included a few hitherto unheard pieces during this 80 years running event.  There's an infectious bounce and sparkle to Nelsons' direction that impels the members of the orchestra to produce a sound marked by precise attacks, sharp accents, and punctilious rhythms and dynamics. At once gracious, velvety rich, highly nuanced and energetic, this is one of the best interpretations of the Blue Danube Waltz I've heard in a long time. And one of my all-time favorites, the Light Cavalry Overture by Franz von Suppé (1819-1895) is given a dramatic touch in this riveting account. The brass ensemble work in particular is a thrill to hear. It builds to such a powerfully well-attained coda that even the applause at the end is spectacular. This is a party not to miss, 'cause the music is a rockin'. READ THE FULL Classical Music Sentinel REVIEW

  • In town for his Georgia State - Rialto Center date, Terence Blanchard chats with 91.9WCLK: Atlanta
     
    Posted At : February 15, 2020 12:00 AM

    Terence Blanchard is in town for his performance TONIGHT at the Rialto Center and talked to UPFRONT about his numerous TV and film projects. He'll be teaming up with Raphael Saadiq this spring to score the soundtrack for NatGeo's GENIUS: ARETHA biopic starring Oscar-nominated actress Cynthia Erivo. He is also reuniting with Spike Lee for Da 5 Bloods and a reboot of Perry Mason. Blanchard also reveals his most challenging project to date and his unfailing love for the late jazz legend Billie Holiday.  READ THE FULL 91.9WCLK: Atlanta ARTICLE

Top 10 for Feb

Lesher Center commissions Sarah McKenzie to compose concert work 'San Francisco - Paris of the West'

Posted: October 2, 2017 12:00 AM | By: Admin
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The Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek (CA) - located in the bay area just East of San Francisco - has awarded singer, pianist and composer SARAH McKENZIE with a highly paid composition commission to compose a full concert length work based on the theme "San Francisco - Paris of the West". The work will get premiered at the Lesher Center on September 14, 2018 with an all-star line-up put together especially for this event.

During much of its past San Francisco has been referred to (among others) as "Paris of the West". This was based on cultural influence, but also architecture of key buildings around the city. Sarah´s knack for everything French is well documented in her last two albums ("Paris in the Rain" and "We could be Lovers"), and as a composer in the style of Cole Porter, Irving Berlin or Rogers & Hart she has had a number of hit tunes already ("Quoi, Quoi, Quoi", "Paris in the Rain", "We Could Be Lovers", "One Jealous Moon", "Don´t Tempt Me"). As a Berklee College of Music student Sarah has lead a workshop at the Lesher Center for the Arts in 2014 and impressed the directors to entrust her with this commission, which is the first of its kind for the Lesher Center for the Arts. 

Sarah records for the Impulse! (Universal) label and is signed to Universal Music Publishing in France. She just recently performed to 7.1 million people on the "Encontro com Fátima Bernardes" television show in Brazil and performed at the world-renown Montreux Jazz Festival this summer.

Crossover Media Projects with Sarah McKenzie

  • Sarah McKenzie

    Secrets of My Heart

    After the great success of Sarah McKenzie's 2017 disc, Paris in the Rain(Impulse! Records), the 31-year-old pianist, singer, and composer returns with the poignant, Secrets of My Heart, reuniting with noted Australian composer, arranger, and events music director, Chong Lim, who produced her first two discs – Don't Tempt Me and Close Your Eyes. Recorded in New York City, Secrets of My Heart exudes cosmopolitan flair with its lineup that includes French bassist Pierre Boussaguet and Brazilian percussionist Rogerio Bocattoalongside guitarist Dan Wilson, drummer Donald Edwards, vibraphonist Warren Wolf,tenor saxophonist Troy Roberts, and cellist Jody Redhage Ferber(all of whom based in the United States).

     

     

  • Sarah McKenzie

    Paris In The Rain

    After enchanting jazz fans with her 2015 Impulse! Records debut, We Could Be Lovers, Sarah McKenzie returns with the sensational follow-up, Paris in the Rain. Like before, the 28-year-old, Melbourne, Australia-born singer, pianist, composer and arranger teams with the acclaimed Brian Bacchus – who has produced classics for such stars as Norah Jones, Lizz Wright, and Gregory Porter – to deliver a gripping program of jazz classics and originals – all of which present McKenzie's incredible musicality in glamorous glory.

    23 TOTAL
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    Direct: AccuRadio 
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    Online: Jazz Weekly, Jazz & Blues Report