lineup:

Friday, July 28, 2023

7:30pm: Caleb Teicher / Conrad Tao Duo

One is a tap prodigy (Teicher).
The other, a piano virtuoso (Tao).  

"Counterpoint" is an artistic collaboration between pianist Conrad Tao and choreographer/dancer Caleb Teicher, exploring the intersections between their artistic worlds.  

Each have distinguished careers as solo performers: Tao appearing worldwide as a pianist and composer, dubbed "the kind of musician who is shaping the future of classical music" and Teicher a founding member of  acclaimed tap dance company Dorrance Dance who also freelances in contemporary dance and choreographic collaborations.   

In teaming up, however, they  create something new. Seeing Dance reviewer David Mead describes the result as follows: "So neatly do the tap and piano combine that you feel some sort of sixth sense must be at play, Tao and Teicher somehow knowing what the other wants, needs and is going to do, and able to respond accordingly."

 The Festival audience can see for themselves in "Counterpoint" where the duo explore music and dance together, as partners in a performance  that features:  

J.S. Bach, Aria from Goldberg Variations BWV 988

Tao/Teicher, Improvisation  

Schoenberg, Five Piano Pieces, op. 23: V. Walzer

Noble/Powell/Tatum, "Cherokee"

Coles & Bufalino, The Coles and Bufalino Soft Shoe

Brahms, Intermezzo in E Major, op. 116/4

Mozart/David Parker, Song and Dance, based on Mozart’s Sonata in A major, K.331: III. Allegretto "Alla Turca"

Tao/Teicher, Swing 2 from More Forever

Gershwin, Rhapsody in Blue, arr. for solo piano

Ravel, Sonatine: II.Mouvement de Menuet

J.S. Bach, Aria from Goldberg Variations BWV 988

Saturday, July 29, 2023

7:30pm: Dianne Reeves

The pre-eminent jazz vocalist in the world today, possessed of a magical, timeless voice and a limitless repertoire. "Reeves is a natural wonder not to be missed."

Dianne Reeves with Peter Martin, Romero Lubambo, Terreon Gully, and Bassist TBD

Five-time Grammy winner and living legend DIANNE REEVES is the pre-eminent jazz vocalist in the world. As a result of her breathtaking virtuosity, improvisational prowess and unique jazz and R&B stylings, Reeves received the Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Performance for three consecutive recordings – a Grammy first in any vocal category.

Reeves has recorded and performed with Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra,  recorded with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and was a featured soloist with Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic. She was the first "Creative Chair for Jazz" for the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the first vocalist to ever perform at the famed Walt Disney Concert Hall.

 Reeves is the recipient of honorary doctorates from the Berklee College of Music and the Juilliard School.  In 2018 the National Endowment for the Arts designated Reeves a Jazz Master – the highest honor the United States bestows on jazz artists.

Sunday, July 30, 2023

3:00pm: Mark and Maggie O'Connor

Stated simply, Mark O'Connor is a musical genius and "one of the most influential fiddle players who has ever walked the planet."

Multi-instrumentalist and composer Mark O'Connor began his formative creative journey at the feet of American fiddling legend Benny Thomasson and the iconic jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli.  Now at age 55, he has acquired three Grammys, seven CMA awards and several national fiddle, guitar and mandolin champion titles and  melded these influences into a new American classical music, perpetuating his vision of an American School of String Playing.    

Here's what some of his critics have to say about him, including several superb musicians in their own right:

"Mark O'Connor – he's not what you would call . . . human." Stephane Grappelli

"He's really one in a million. We won't see a lot more like him in this generation. He is to music what Muhammad Ali is to boxing." James Taylor

Describing his virtuosity, John Williams said: "You are witnessing a musical as well as an orthpedic miracle."

And The New York Times wrote: "Mark O'Connor's unfinished trajectory, from largely self-taught fiddle player to concert hall virtuoso and classical composer, is already one of the most spectacular journeys in recent classical music."  They said he was "the only musician today who can reach so deeply first into the refined, then the vernacular, giving his listeners a complex, sophisticated piece of early-21st-century classical music and then knocking them dead with the brown-dirt whine of a Texas fiddle."?

Multi-instrumentalist Mark O'Connor has racked up seven CMA, three Grammys, and multiple national fiddle, guitar, and mandolin champion titles.  

Beginning his young career on guitar, O'Connor appeared at the age of twelve on The Picking Parlour and The Grand Ole Opry. He became the youngest musician to sign a recording contract with Rounder Records. He composes, arranges, and records American music in folk, classical, and jazz genres. His works include concertos and compositions for orchestra, string quartets, string trios, choral music, solo unaccompanied pieces, folk and bluegrass ensemble, and a symphony.

In his new partnership with Skyline Artists, Mark has created the "Mark O'Connor Duo" for performing arts centers. The concert features his originals and classics, highlighting his violin, guitar, mandolin, and vocals, along with Grammy-winning violinist Maggie O'Connor.

Friday, August 4, 2023

7:30pm: Ana Vidovic

Vidovic ranks among the elite musicians of the world, known for her beautiful tone, phrasing and crowd-pleasing musicianship.

A prodigy from age 5, Croatian-born guitarist Ana Vidovic was playing in public at 7 and  performing internationally at age 11. She became the youngest student to attend the Academy of Music in Zagreb and by 18 had won more than 20 important competitions. Her growing reputation in Europe would lead to an invitation to study at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore and she has performed internationally ever since –  solo concerts, festivals, Symphony appearances in Europe, Australia, South America, Israel, Japan, Mexico and the United States.  

In reviewing a performance, Stephen Brookes of The Washington Post wrote: "her playing [...] was virtually immaculate – detailed, precise and polished. But this was no mere virtuosic display. Vidovic's playing is nuanced and intensely personal, both deeply felt and deeply thought."

Guitar Review's Stephen Griesgraber noted, "It is difficult to know where to begin when discussing the enormous talents of Ana Vidovic. Her dynamic range, beauty of sound, precision of articulation and virtuosity are such that listening becomes more of an absolute musical experience."

This is the artist’s second appearance with the Ventura Music Festival.  Welcome back, Ana!

Saturday, August 5, 2023
 
7:30pm: Special EFX All-Stars

Grammy-nominated Jazz supergroup featuring guitarist, bandleader And 3x Emmy-winner Chieli Minucci, joined by Elliott Yamin, Brian Bromberg, Jeff Kashiwa, Lao Tizer And Gene Coye.

Jazz group of the year nominee and "one of the genre’s most lasting and relevant bands"

Guitarist, composer, producer and arranger Chieli Minucci is the longtime leader of the Grammy-nominated Special EFX All-Stars.  Besides writing and performing his own music, he is renowned in the jazz and pop world as a gifted television and film composer.

Three and a half decades since the release of their self-titled debut album, Minucci and Special EFX All-Stars find themselves still blazing new trails of innovation with their unique brand of contemporary jazz seamlessly blending progressive pop, soul and funk with an undercurrent of freewheeling world fusion.

Sunday, August 6, 2023

3:00pm: The Moanin' Frogs

Combining the talents of six gifted sax players, the featured program for the afternoon is called “Voyage” an homage to the Voyager spacecraft, launched in 1977 which included “Golden Records, ” a time capsule of sorts containing various images, sounds, and music from different cultures and eras.   

Drawing on this, the Moanin' Frogs will take their own multicultural voyage paying tribute to some of the music on “Golden Records,” as well as other notable pieces and  with a performance range that includes concerto soloists,  burlesque show musicians, jazz improvisers, and primo ensemble players.

Commonly performed repertoire may include:

Seventh Heaven Rag (1988) Stephen J. Rush. Arr. Jonathan Hulting-Cohen

Wedding Dance from Hasseneh (1955) Jacques Press. Arr. José Olivier Riojas

Star-Crossed Lovers (1957) Duke Ellington. Arr. Dennis Wilson

Sleepwalker (1937) Raymond Scott. Arr. Danny Hawthorne-Foss

Johnny B. Goode - Chuck Berry. arr. Gabriel Piqué

Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen

As to the cast of The Moanin' Frogs:

Edward Goodman, soprano saxophone

Gabriel Pique, alto saxophone

Jeff Siegfried, tenor saxophone

Jonathan Hulting-Cohen, tenor saxophone

Jeffrey Leung, baritone saxophone

Lucas Hopkins, bass saxophone

Date: July 28-30 And August 4-6, 2023

Location: Ventura College Performing Arts Center - 4700 Loma Vista Road Ventura, CA 93003

Rancho Campana Performing Arts Center - 4235 Mar Vista Dr Camarillo, CA 93010

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