FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: LuAnn Bielawa, Director of Operations
luann.bielawa@maverickconcerts.org
845-594-6518
Bill Charlap Trio (Jazz at the Maverick)
Saturday, September 2, 8:00 – 10:00 PM
Reserved Hall Seats: $60.00, $30.00, $27.50 (partial obstruction)
General Admission/Outdoors/Uncovered: $25.00, Students: $10
billcharlap.com
Ames Piano Quartet
Sunday, September 3, 4:00 – 6:00 PM
(Reserved Hall Seats: $50.00, $29.00, $25.00 (partial obstruction)
General Admission/Outdoors/Uncovered: $20.00, Students: $10.00
music.iastate.edu/apq
Maverick Concerts
120 Maverick Road
Woodstock, NY 12498
https://maverickconcerts.org
In the penultimate weekend of its 2023 season, Maverick Concerts caps off the jazz portion of the season with a return performance by the Grammy-winning pianist Bill Charlap and his trio of 25 years. The son of the successful stage composer Moose Charlap (Peter Pan) and the singer Sandy Stewart (Benny Goodman, Perry Como), the New York City native Charlap has lent his exquisite and empathic support to some of the biggest names in jazz: Tony Bennett, Phil Woods, Gerry Mulligan, Wynton Marsalis, and more.
As a leader, Mr. Charlap has distinguished himself as one of the most admired interpreters of popular songs and standards in the modern era, a master of improvisation and reharmonization who never loses sight of the song. Uncoincidentally, one of Mr. Charlap’s two Grammy-nominated trio albums is entitled Live at the Village Vanguard, perhaps in homage to Bill Evans, another trio-centric pianist known for classically influenced harmonic sophistication as well as for his way with a popular tune.
Time magazine wrote, “Bill Charlap approaches a song the way a lover approaches his beloved…no matter how imaginative or surprising his take on a song is, he invariably zeroes in on its essence.” The legendary jazz vocalist Tony Bennett, who also recorded several memorable records with Bill Evans, no doubt agreed. Tony Bennett & Bill Charlap: The Silver Lining, The Songs of Jerome Kern, was awarded a Grammy for Best Traditional Pop Album in 2016, the same year in which the Bill Charlap Trio released, Notes from New York, their debut recording for the Impulse label. Alan Morrison’s five-star review in Down Beat called the recording “masterclass in class.”
The Bill Charlap trio features the formidable and industry-accredited talents of bassist Peter Washington and the (unrelated) drummer Kenny Washington. The trio’s latest studio recording, Street of Dreams, was released in 2021 on the venerable Blue Note Records. In 2019, Mr. Charlap celebrated his 15th year as Artistic Director of New York City’s Jazz in July Festival at 92Y. He has produced concerts for Jazz at Lincoln Center, New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Chicago Symphony Center and the Hollywood Bowl. Charlap is married to renowned jazz pianist and composer Renee Rosnes, and the two artists often collaborate in a duo piano setting. In 2010 Charlap and Rosnes released Double Portrait (Blue Note). Charlap is currently the Director of Jazz Studies at William Paterson University in Wayne, New Jersey.
With a few changes in membership, the Ames Piano Quartet has been the ensemble-in-residence at Iowa State University since its inception in 1976. One of the few regularly constituted piano quartets in the world, the Ames has explored the depth of breadth of the piano quartet and trio repertoire as few other ensembles can, mastering the definitive piano chamber works of major composers like Brahms, Fauré, Schumann, Beethoven, and Dvořák and lavishing attention (and studio time) on the works of less universally known composers, such as the Venezuelan-French song specialist Reynaldo Hahn, the 20th century Spanish composer Joaquín Turina, and the prolific living American composer William Bolcom.
Seeking to expand the available repertoire for piano quartet, The Ames has commissioned a number of new works. Perhaps their two most significant commissions are the late Lee Hoiby’s Dark Rosaleen, premiered in 2000, and Ulster County resident George Tsontakis’ Piano Quartet #4, premiered in 2019 and to be featured at the Ames’ September 3 Maverick debut, alongside the first of Brahms’s three piano trios and his mentor Schumann’s Piano Quartet.
The Ames Piano Quartet’s Maverick performance is offered as a celebration of George Tsontakis, the decorated composer, conductor and distinguished Bard College composer-in-residence who has received multiple Grammy nominations and international honors.
Schumann: Piano Quartet in E-flat, Op.47
George Tsontakis: Piano Quartet No.4
Brahms: Piano Quartet No.1 in G Minor
Borivoj Martinic-Jercic, violin
Stephanie Price-Wong, violin
George Work, cello
Mei-Hsuan Huang, piano
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Maverick Concerts, the oldest continuous summer chamber music festival in America, is set amid the serene Catskill woodland just outside Woodstock, NY. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the uniquely charming rustic hall has superb acoustics and is the ideal venue for an intimate encounter with chamber music. Maverick presents concerts by internationally renowned classical, jazz, and contemporary music ensembles from July through early September. Maverick Concerts sustains the vision of its founder, Hervey White, who built the historic concert hall in 1916 and opened his land and hospitality to artists, musicians, and the community. Concerts are on Saturday evenings and Sunday afternoons. Maverick Family Saturdays, short interactive events designed for kids of all ages, are free and open to everyone on Saturday mornings.
