Steinway Piano Gallery of Detroit Newsletter
February 2011
Steinway & Sons Welcomes
New Concert & Artist Relations Director: Hester Furman
Steinway
& Sons recently announced Hester Furman as the new Manager of
Concert & Artist Relations. She will be the liaison in the Americas
for the company's roster of more than 1,500 Steinway Artists; all unpaid
endorsements of the world's finest pianos. Ms. Furman has served
as a music advisor to the New York State Council on the Arts and the
Gerbode Foundation in San Francisco, among her many other
accomplishments as a professional musician, independent producer and
music director for radio stations. “We have big plans for our
Concert & Artist program, and Hester is a key part of those plans,"
declared Ron Losby, President of Steinway & Sons - Americas.
Steinway remains the choice of 9 out of 10 concert artists, and it is
the preferred piano of countless musicians, professional and amateur,
throughout the world.
Michigan Steinway Artist:
Steven Zegree
Steinway
Artist Steven Zegree is the Bobby McFerrin Distinguished Professor of
Jazz at Western Michigan University and the director of the
award-winning collegiate vocal jazz ensemble Gold Company.
Internationally
recognized as one of the most respected vocal jazz conductors and
educators in the world, Steve Zegree is also active as a pianist,
conductor, clinician, and adjudicator. His career as a pianist,
conductor and clinician includes performances on five continents. A
renowned educator, his students are among today’s leaders in jazz and
pop performance, Broadway, recording studio production, writing,
arranging, singing, and music education.
Dr.
Zegree's choral arrangements have been published by Hal Leonard, Warner
Bros., Alfred Publications and Shawnee Press, and he has produced
several recordings including Mark Murphy Sings the Nat King Cole
Songbook, Vol. I and II, on Muse Records which received a Grammy Award
nomination. His piano CD, "Steve Zegree and Friends" is released on the
Sea Breeze Jazz label. He is the founder of The Steve Zegree Vocal
Jazz Camp, held every summer at Western Michigan University.
Steinway Gallery presents
“Young Virtuosos in Recital”
Next month marks the debut of an exciting new concert series bringing talented local young artists into the spotlight. Sunday, March 20 at 3:00pm both
music lovers and aspiring pianists will be delighted with the
performances of featured pianists Elizabeth Xiong and Jason Gong.
We look forward to welcoming them along with renowned teacher and author
Catherine Rollin to the Steinway Piano Gallery.
Elizabeth
Xiong, a 13 year old pianist, will be one of seven national finalists
for the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) Competition in
Milwaukee in the spring of 2011. She garnered this distinction when
she won the regional competition of MTNA this past
January. Elizabeth has had many other great distinctions in her
musical life. Last year, she had the honor of playing for several
thousand students in her four appearances with the Warren Symphony
Orchestra under the direction of Dr. David Daniels. Elizabeth was
just awarded the prestigious Slotkin Music Scholarship to the Cranbrook
School.
Jason
Gong is a 16 year old pianist. He had the distinction of winning the
first place award in the 2009 MMTA Concerto competition and was the
second place winner at the 2011 MMTA Concerto
competition. Additionally, he was a first place winner at the
Albion College Competition both in 2008 and in 2010. Jason has won
numerous awards from the Metropolitan Detroit Musicians League and was
the recipient of the honorable mention award at the 2010 Dearborn
Symphony Competition.
Both
Elizabeth and Jason are students of Catherine Rollin. Rollin is
known worldwide for her work as a teacher, pianist, composer and master
class presenter and for her writing about piano technique. She has given
over 200 workshops and master classes throughout the U. S., Canada and
Japan. Her Pathway to Artistry Series
is available worldwide and is translated into Japanese and Mandarin.
Additionally, Rollin recently was invited to be the new co-author on the
third printing of the highly regarded college text, Creative Piano Teaching.
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This Tuesday at the
Steinway Gallery:
Don't miss this week's Steinway Jazz Cafe featuring the Schoolcraft College Jazz Ensemble. The big event will be this Tuesday, March 1st at 7:00pm. RSVP to Cathy at
cloudon@steinwaydetroit.com. Suggested donation is $10. Be sure to catch this local performance before the Ensemble takes off for their Chicago tour!
About the performers:
The
Schoolcraft College Jazz Ensemble under the direction of Dr. Riccardo
Selva promotes the treasury of American art music known as Jazz by
high-level performances in Colleges, Churches, Clubs, and Community
venues.
The
Ensemble is preparing for a tour de force of Chicago in the Spring
including performances at the University of Notre Dame, Northwestern
University, The Navy Pier, The Shrine of Our Lady of Pompeii in
Chicago’s “Little Italy,” and some of the notable jazz clubs in the
city. The ensemble’s repertoire will highlight the original music of its
music director - “The Archangels Suite for Jazz Ensemble,” the Sacred
Music of Duke Ellington, Dave Brubeck, and classic jazz by Count Basie,
Thad Jones, and Toshiko Akiyoshi.
The
Jazz Program at Schoolcraft College has experienced meteoric growth
since Dr. Selva’s appointment as music director. The resources available
to jazz students include a fully functional recording studio, an
incredible multi-media equipped conference center, and a thriving
well-rounded musical curriculum. The annual “Up Jumped Spring Concert”
will feature guest artist, lead trumpeter, Wayne Bergeron from Los
Angeles, California. Mr. Bergeron has performed with Gordon Goodwin’s
Big Phat Band, Maynard Ferguson, and has recorded extensively in movie
and television sound tracks. The Schoolcraft College Jazz Studies
program is currently seeking instrumentalists and vocalists to audition
for the Winter semester for consideration in the upcoming year’s
exciting schedule of events.
Original Meets Traditional
By Deborrah Wyndham
Pianist/Composer Deborrah Wyndham will be performing at Steinway Piano Gallery of Detroit on Sunday, March 13th at 3:00pm. She will be playing an exciting mix of traditional jazz styles and contemporary original music, among other things.
Deborrah
has performed for over 2,700 audiences, with recent appearances on FOX,
NBC and ABC. She has recorded four solo piano CDs and received an
Honorable Mention from Billboard Magazine in 2004 for one of her
compositions. All About Jazz praises her "...vivid imagination"
and you’ll be mesmerized by her strikingly distinct sound of hints of
jazz colors merged with classical refinement. Suggested donation is
$8. See Deborrah’s video performances at
www.deborrahwyndham.com
The Steinway Jazz Café:
Remembering Mr. and Mrs. Swing
Wednesday, March 23 - 7:00pm at the Steinway Gallery, Paul Keller and Friends will present Remembering Mr. and Mrs. Swing: xylophonist/marimbist/vibraphonist Red Norvo and vocalist Milred Bailey.
This imaginative tribute to America’s great couple of the Swing era
sounds like nothing you’ve heard before at Jazz Café! Be sure to
RSVP to Cathy at
cloudon@steinwaydetroit.com or call 248-560-9200 and bring your friends. Suggested donation is $8.
In addition to string bassist Paul Keller, vibraphonist Cary Kocher will play the role of Red Norvo and vocalist Judie Cochill will sing the part of Mildred Bailey. The band will also include trumpeter Mark Byerly, trombonist Terry Kimura, saxophonist Keith Kaminski, pianist Cliff Monear and drummer Scott Kretzer.
Red Norvo (Kenneth
Norville) was an innovative pioneer of early jazz music. His
explorations into the use of the xylophone, marimba and vibraphone were
ground-breaking and delightful. Not long after he joined the Paul
Whiteman band in 1931, Norvo developed a relationship with
Whiteman's jazz vocalist Mildred Bailey. Norvo and Bailey were wed in
1931 and went on to perform and record together for over a decade.
During the hey-days of the Swing Era, Red Norvo and Mildred Bailey were dubbed "Mr. and Mrs. Swing."
In his long and impressive career, Norvo also made excellent recordings
with a myriad of jazz super-stars including Charlie Parker, Benny
Goodman, Charles Mingus and Frank Sinatra. Red Norvo died in 1999 at the
ripe old age of 91.
Mildred Bailey was
the first great, white, female jazz singer. Influenced by the
stylings of Ethel Waters, Connie Boswell, and Bessie Smith, she
developed a uniquely soft yet swinging delivery that delighted nightclub
audiences wherever she appeared throughout the United States. Although
she is perhaps best remembered for her work in jazz, Bailey enjoyed a
good deal of success in popular music as well.
She
appeared with some of the most successful bands of the Swing Era, but
ended her career as a solo performer, drawing thousands of appreciative
fans to her appearances at some of New York City's most popular jazz
clubs. Mildred Bailey died in 1951 at the far too young age of 44.
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