Performances Schedule
Presented By
Sunday, January 6, 2008 at 3:30 PM | R. Carlos Nakai and Udi Bar-David
Of Navajo-Ute heritage, R. Carlos Nakai is the world’s premier performer of the Native American flute. He began his musical studies on the trumpet, but a car accident ruined his embouchure. His musical interests took a turn when he was given a traditional cedar flute as a gift and challenged to master it. As an artist, he is an adventurer and risk taker, always giving his musical imagination free rein. Nakai is also an iconoclastic traditionalist who views his cultural heritage not only as a source and inspiration, but also a dynamic continuum of natural change, growth, and adaptation subject to the artist’s expressive needs.
Nakai’s first album, Changes, was released by Canyon Records in 1983, and since then he has released over thirty-five albums with Canyon plus additional albums and guest appearances on other labels. In addition to his educational workshops and residencies, Nakai has appeared as a soloist throughout the United States, Europe, and Japan.
Nakai, while cognizant of the traditional use of the flute as a solo instrument, began finding new settings for it, especially in the genres of jazz and classical. He founded the ethnic jazz ensemble, the R. Carlos Nakai Quartet, to explore the intersection of ethnic and jazz idioms.
Nakai also brought the flute into the concert hall, performing with over fifteen symphony and chamber orchestras.
Nakai has received two gold records (500,000 units sold) for Canyon Trilogy and Earth Spirit which are the first (and only) Native American recordings to earn this recognition. He has sold over four million albums in the course of his career. Grammy® nominations include Ancestral Voices (1994 Best Traditional Folk Album), Inner Voices and Inside Monument Valley (both for 2000 Best New Age Album), In A Distant Place (2001 Best New Age Album), Fourth World (2002 Best New Age Album), Sanctuary (2003 Best Native American Album), and People of Peace (2004 Best New Age Album).
A Navy veteran, Nakai earned a Master’s Degree in American Indian Studies from the University of Arizona. He was awarded the Arizona Governor’s Arts Award in 1992, and an honorary doctorate from Northern Arizona University in 1994. In 2005 Nakai was inducted into the Arizona Music & Entertainment Hall of Fame. Nakai has also authored a book with composer James DeMars, The Art of the Native American Flute, which is a guide to performing the traditional cedar flute.
Nakai, along with
Bar David, first chair cellist for the Philadelphia Orchestra, explore their intercultural journey to create music together. Their most recent recording, Voyagers, explores the Native American and Jewish connection, and is a result of their collaboration. Over the past two decades, Nakai has melded his classical training with his expertise on the cedar flute to form a complex, sophisticated sound that not only reveals the flute's uniqueness, but covers the spectrum of musical genres. David is an acclaimed soloist in Israel, having performed with Israel's leading orchestras and recorded at the Jerusalem Music Center founded by Pablo Casals. He is currently a member of the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Visit artist's website: R. Carlos Nakai | Udi Bar-David
Friday, February 22, 2008 at 7:30 PM | John Scott
St. John’s Episcopal Cathedral in Jacksonville
Called "The premier English organist of his generation...in a class of his own" by the Manchester Evening News, England, John Scott was the Organist and Director of Music at St. Paul’s Cathedral, London until 2004, when he came to NYC to take that position at St. Thomas Church, where he directs the renowned St. Thomas Choir of Men and Boys. His concert career has taken him to five continents, performing on the great organs of the world. According to the New York Times, Mr. Scott performs with "substance, indeed imposing talent...sobriety and good sense, followed by dashing virtuosity and playful good humor."
Friday, March 14, 2008 at 7:30 PM | Tomaseen Foley's St. Patrick's Day Celebration
Saint Patrick’s Day almost always comes during Lent, and what a blessing that was in the remote parish of Teampall an Ghleanntáin in the west of Ireland. For there, in that tiny community, when Tomaseen was a boy, the forty days of Lent were days of rigorous penance, when even the most recalcitrant had to forswear all vice– the uillean pipes, tin whistles, fiddles and bodhrans fell silent, and dancers were required to still their feet and twiddle their thumbs. When the 17th of March finally came, all penance was gleefully cast aside and the neighbors gathered at each other’s cottages for a long night of celebration. The uillean pipes, fiddle, tin whistle and bodhran sprang to life, so that the ancient rafters in those cottages quivered with youth. And the storytellers, the valiant practitioners of the oldest and most revered of all the Celtic arts, brought laughter and tears to the faces of young and old alike. Join master storyteller Tomaseen Foley and Grammy-award winning guitarist William Coulter, with Kathleen Keane on fiddle and tin whistle, world-champion Irish dancer Philip Brady, David Brewer on the uillean pipes, whistle, flute and bodhrán and Moira Smiley, vocalist, for a true celebration of this most Irish of holidays.
Sunday April 6, 2008 at 3:30 PM | Beach Meets West! CHANTICLEER
Jacoby Symphony Hall, Times Union Center for the Performing Arts, Jacksonville
In a gala “Beach Meets West!” concert, famed singers of Chanticleer return to Beaches Fine Arts Series for an encore performance. The Grammy-award winning ensemble has been hailed by the New Yorker Magazine as “America’s favorite choral ensemble” and praised by the Los Angeles Times for its “luxurious perfection.” To accommodate the anticipated audience, this concert will be held at Jacoby Symphony Hall in downtown Jacksonville.