All About Jazz

The New Year brings a new reason to celebrate every Friday night at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where Art After 5 brings the top names in jazz and international music to the Museum’s elegant Great Stair Hall. Each Friday evening the space becomes a lively concert hall, with table service, cocktails, elegant caf-style appetizers, and desserts. The winter 2009 season features popular favorite artists and several exciting newcomers.

Alto Saxophonist Neil Leonard (February 27) is known for his innovative yet accessible approach to composition and improvisation, combining soulful ballads with electronic and synthetic sounds to create a rich, complex musical landscape. In addition to performing with the Boston Ballet, Hiram Bullock, Don Byron, Frank Lacy, Uri Caine, Orlando Cachaito Lopez (Buena Vista Social Club), John Medeski and many others, Leonard has been collaborating with visual artists for two decades, and is widely recognized as an expert in music for multimedia. He has created sound for installations at the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Kitchen in New York, the Seattle Art Museum, and Boston Museum of Fine Arts. His compositions have been performed at Carnegie Hall, Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Banff Festival for the Arts, and the International Computer Music Convention. Leonard is an Associate Professor in the Music Synthesis Department at Boston’s Berklee College of Music.

Clinics @ Panama Jazz Festival

PRE-INSCRIPCIÓN ABIERTA
PRE-INSCRÍBETE YA! enviando un e-mail con tu nombre y numero de teléfono a inscripcion@amplificapanama.org o 6618-1299

Los siguientes talleres, charlas y clínicas se lleverán a cabo en el Teatro Ascanio Arosemana de la ACP.

Taller de Sampling alrededor de la ciudad de Panama.
Dirigida por Prof. Neil Leonard de Berklee College of Music
Fechas: Lunes 12 y Martes 13 de Enero.

Clínica de introducción al Diseño de Sonido, Producción Electrónica y Síntesis Musical
Dirigida Por Prof. Neil Leonard de Berklee College of Music
Fecha: Miércoles 14 de Enero.

Clínica de Remezcla
Dirigida Por el Prof. Neil Leonard de Berklee College of Music
Fecha: Viernes 16 de Enero

Four Boston-Area Concerts, February 16 – March 14

MASTER VIOLINIST MIMI RABSON DEBUTS THE BERKLEE VIOLIN SOLOS
A bold new collection of newly commissioned solo repertoire for 21st century violin 

“Dazzling violin phenom” (Boston Globe) MIMI RABSON will premiere newly commissioned work for solo violin by renowned Berklee College of Music composers in four Boston-area concerts, February 16 – March 14.  The new body of music showcases the violin’s new voice in the 21st century, embodying contemporary genres, technology, and urban street cred. The composers commissioned by Rabson include jazz great JOANNE BRACKEEN, Latin vibraphonist VICTOR MENDOZA, interactive composer NEIL LEONARD, turntable guru STEPHEN WEBBER, jazz/funk bassist WINSTON MACCOW, and guitar luminary NORM ZOCHER.  The works draw from jazz, funk, rock, Latin, hip-hop and contemporary classical music, and utilize improvisation, effects pedals, new performance techniques, and interactive computer performance. 

The collaboration between this unique group of composition masters and world-class violinist Rabson produces a new musical vocabulary for the violin that bends genres and redefines the role of the contemporary violinist. She’ll be premiering the Berklee Violin Solos:

Monday, Feb. 16
Longy School of Music Jewett Hall of First Church, Cambridge, MA
10 a.m. President’s Day. Free and open to the public. 617-876-0956, www.longy.edu

Thursday, Feb. 19
Berklee College of Music David Friend Recital Hall, Boston, MA
7:30 p.m. Free and open to the public. (617) 266-1499 www.berklee.edu
921 Boylston Street in the Uchida Building

Monday, Feb. 23
The Boston Conservatory 8 The Fenway, Boston, MA
7 p.m. Free and open to the public. (617) 536-6340 www.bostonconservatory.edu

Saturday, March 14 South Shore Conservatory 1 Conservatory Drive, Hingham, MA
5 – 6 p.m. Free to SSC students; non-SSC students: $10. (781) 749-7565

Fall '09, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA

Mimi Rabson has distinguished herself as one of Boston's most creative and versatile musicians. She appears regularly in classical, jazz, klezmer and other eclectic performances and frequently leads her own ensembles. She is a first-prize winner of the Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship in composition for 2003. She was a founding member of the Klezmer Conservatory Band and worked with that organization for many years touring, recording, composing and acting as musical director. Rabson appeared with Itzhak Perlman on “The Late Show with David Letterman" and was featured in a documentary about Klezmer music called "A Jumpin' Night in the Garden of Eden". Ms. Rabson served as musical director to academy award winner, Joel Grey in his production of “Borschtcapades ‘94”. Her composition "Klezzified" was featured on Saturday Night Live.

Rabson's other performance credits include the premiere of “Fresh Faust” by Leroy Jenkins, the soundtrack for the award winning film “Sensorium” by Karen Aqua, the Boston Gay Men's Choir, the Boston Camarata, the New England Ragtime Ensemble, the Klezmatics, Sabana Blanca, Abby Rabinovitz, Deborah Henson-Conant, the Pablo Ablanedo Octet, and XLCR. She has appeared on A Prairie Home Companion twice, at Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Wolf Trap, the Mann Center, the Place des Arts in Montreal and at many other world class venues. Ms. Rabson is an Associate Professor at the Berklee College of Music.