Chamber Music Sedona launches star studded season in October

Two October concerts featuring Grammy-Award winners:  Canadian Brass October 19 and Eddie Daniels Quartet October 26

Sedona, AZ - Sept. 16, 2008 - Chamber Music Sedona, now in its twenty-sixth season, kicks-off its star studded season with two Sunday matinee concerts in October. “Artistic quality and diversity are the hallmarks of yet another fantastic season,” said executive director Bert Harclerode. “We’ve pulled a lot of strings again this season, and it wouldn’t be possible without our 200+ membership, local hoteliers, concert sponsors, and a terrific Board of Trustees,” said Harclerode.

Sunday, October 19, 2:30pm at St. John Vianney Church, The Canadian Brass will make its Sedona debut. Sponsored by Susan and David Ludvigson, and Kathy and Peter Wege, Canadian Brass is now in its 38th year, the group has always followed its heart, performing and recording the music it loves, regardless of its genre of origin. Whether rooted in classical, opera, jazz, or pop, they tackle their chosen compositions with a potent combination of enthusiasm and technical virtuosity.

The sheer joy they find in playing music they love in the company of close comrades is instantly transmitted to the audience at Canadian Brass concerts. The result is an oft fun-filled atmosphere rather atypical in classical music circles, and this has been a key ingredient in the Canadian Brass recipe for longevity and sustained popularity.

It is one reason Canadian Brass keeps getting invited back to the major concert halls of North America annually, another rarity in classical music. The great halls of Europe also echo to their joyous strains on a very regular basis, and this is a source of genuine pride for the group.

Canadian Brass co-founder, trombonist Gene Watts, recalls one of countless career highlights as an early performance at Vienna’s famed Konzerthaus. “It was sold out and just couldn’t have been a more successful concert. They loved every piece and then we did ‘Carmen,’ and they went crazy! I thought, ‘Here we are in the cultural centre of the world. This can’t be happening!’”

The fact that, for instance, the discerning German audience would warmly embrace the Canadian Brass take on Bach also speaks eloquently to the fact that, alongside their ability as entertainers, the ensemble’s musical skill is beyond reproach. Chuck notes that, “Our Goldberg Variations won the German Grammy Award equivalent, the Echo Klassik, in 2002. In effect, that was the home of Bach validating our brass performance of Bach. That certainly makes life tough for those critics who would dismiss us as clowns wearing silly hats.”
The mix of the serious and the irreverent in Canadian Brass is neatly symbolized by their signature black suits and white running shoes stage attire. They’re frequently known to further enliven their performances by adopting garb to match a piece they’re playing. That can be cowboy hats (and a dress!) for “Hornsmoke (A Horse Opera In One Act)” or tutus for a ballet-based composition. The gold-plated Yamaha instruments are another long-established Canadian Brass trademark.

Gene laughingly recalls Canadian Brass once being asked to tone it down a little for a performance at the prestigious Tanglewood Music Festival in the U.S.. “They were very concerned that we not do anything silly, but just perform a serious concert. We said fine, and put a program together, but then a big ad for Tanglewood appeared in The New York Times, and who was featured prominently in the photo but me in a tutu!”

The matinee program will be preceded by a lecture from 1:15-1:55pm presented by NAU Associate Professor of Trombone David Vining. A former member of the Chestnut Brass, Vining will draw upon his teaching and performing experience.

Tickets are $40 reserved and can be purchased only by phone. General admission tickets are $25 and may be purchased in Sedona at Bashas’, Rycus’ Corners-VOC, in Cottonwood at Planet Video and Music, and in Flagstaff at Arizona Music Pro and Cedar Music.

Sunday, October 26, 2:30pm at St. John Vianney Church, the remarkable clarinetist Eddie Daniels is joined by his Quartet in his first Sedona appearance in fourteen years.

Sunday, October 26, 2:30pm at St. John Vianney Church, the remarkable clarinetist Eddie Daniels is joined by his Quartet in his first Sedona appearance in fourteen years. The concert is sponsored by Marion Herrman, and Rita Borden and Bert Harclerode.

Eddie Daniels is that rarest of rare musicians who is not only equally at home in both jazz and classical music, but excels at both with breathtaking virtuosity. Expert testimony from the jazz world came from the eminent jazz critic Leonard Feather, who said of Eddie, "It is a rare event in jazz where one man can all but reinvent an instrument bringing it to a new stage of revolution." From the classical side, Leonard Bernstein said "Eddie Daniels combines elegance and virtuosity in a way that makes me remember Arthur Rubenstein. He is a thoroughly well-bred demon."

Eddie first came to the attention of the jazz audience as a tenor saxophonist with the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra. When Thad and Mel first organized their band in 1966 to play Monday nights at the Village Vanguard in New York (where it still plays), Eddie was one of the first musicians they called. Later that year, he sank $400 in a round-trip flight to Vienna to enter the International Competition for Modern Jazz, a contest organized by the pianist Fredrich Gulda and sponsored by the city of Vienna, and won first prize on saxophone. He continued working with Thad and Mel over the next several years and toured Europe extensively with them. A single clarinet solo recorded with the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis orchestra, "Live at the Village Vanguard" garnered sufficient attention for him to win Downbeat Magazine's International Critics New Star on Clarinet Award. This conversion to clarinet was not new, for Eddie began clarinet at age 13 and received his Masters in Clarinet from Juilliard. Winning numerous Grammy awards and nominations, Eddie Daniels revolutionized the blend of jazz and classical.

Joining Daniels on piano and reeds is Tom Ranier whose work reads like whose who in music. In live concerts he has accompanied Andreas Bocelli, Bette Midler, Helen Reddy, Donna Summer, Melissa Manchester, Annie Lenox and Madonna. His jazz festival appearances include The Monterey, San Francisco, Playboy and Elkhart Festivals. He has appeared as clarinet soloist with the South Bay Symphony-Mozart Clarinet Concerto, Glendale Symphony performing the Artie Shaw Concerto and the American Jazz Philharmonic-World premier of Dave Grusin’s Concerto for Clarinet and Jazz Orchestra. As an arranger and composer in TV and film his credits include American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, Enterprise, Matlock, Beauty and the Beast, In the Heat of the Night, Moonlighting, Diagnosis Murder, Deep Space Nine, The Academy Awards, Emmys, American Music Awards, and the Golden Globes. His work with jazz legends Abraham Laboriel, Milt Jackson, Buddy DeFranco, George Coleman, Ray Brown, John Abercrombie, Dave Pike, Louie Bellson, Lew Tabackin, Terry Gibbs, Supersax, Carmen McRae, Natalie Cole, Dexter Gordon, and others is legendary.

Drummer Steve Schaeffer started his career in New York City. At 17 Steve joined the Al Cohn/Zoot Sims Quintet at the famed Half Note in NYC. At 19 Steve joined Doc Severinsons Quintet. At 20 Steve joined Sarah Vaughn and stayed for 2 1/2 years. Steve also worked with jazz greats Joe Henderson, Eddie Daniels, Monty Alexander, Bob Sheppard, Terry Trotter, Pete Christlieb, Don Menza and Mike Maineri. Other positions followed with Herb Alpert and the TJB, and Dreams with Randy and Michael Brecker. Steve has also been featured on hundreds of television Shows including the current hit animated show "American Dad & Family Guy". Dozens of Gold and Platinum records ranging from Barbra Steisand's Broadway albums both 1 & 2 and Toots Thielmans "Brazil 2", to GRP recordings with Diane Shurr and Stan Getz "Timeless" and Harry Connick Jr.

Bassist David Finck is one of the most sought-after musicians in Manhattan and has played and recorded with Dizzy Gillespie, Aretha Franklin, Sinead O’Connor, Natalie Cole, Rod Stewart, Herbie Hancock, Ivan Lins, Al Jarreau, Tony Bennett, Paquito D’Rivera, George Michael, Rosemary Clooney and Andre Previn, among others. David. A career as a musician was genetically pre-ordained for David —both of his parents are involved in music, and he began playing bass at the age of 10. While still in high school, David studied with several of the Philadelphia Orchestra’s double bassists before he began college at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. After graduation, he settled in New York City — he’d barely unpacked when he left the city to tour with Woody Herman and his Thundering Herd.

Eddie Daniels is clearly a renaissance musician, a virtuoso in both jazz and classical music, recipient of unreserved accolades from his peers, from critics, and from the public. Eddie's overriding ambition is to reach as many people as possible with his music, to enlarge the audience for both jazz and classical music and at the same time to tear down the walls separating them. In Eddie's hands, the music of Mozart can be as engaging as that of Charlie Parker and a concert featuring both can be a uniquely rewarding experience for the audience.

The matinee program will be preceded by a lecture from 1:15-1:55pm presented by Sedona musician Steve Douglas. Tickets are $40 reserved and can be purchased only by phone. General admission tickets are $25 and may be purchased in Sedona at Bashas’, Rycus’ Corners-VOC, in Cottonwood at Planet Video and Music, and in Flagstaff at Arizona Music Pro and Cedar Music.

For detailed information visit www.chambermusicsedona.org or call 928.204.2415.

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