Results for "Beacon"

Hudson Jazz Festival Presents 20+ Free Citywide Concerts, October 3-5, 2025

August 20, 2025

Local Talent Takes Center Stage at 2025 Hudson Jazz Festival Celebrating Community, Culture, and Music, October 3-5 20+ Free Sounds Around Town Concerts by Bard College Jazz Program Students-Faculty and Local Artists The 2025 Hudson Jazz Festival is proud to announce its exciting lineup of local musicians who will be performing at this year’s free pop-up ...

Elysium Furnace Works Kicks Off 2025 Season With A Solo Piano Festival, Beginning With Dave Burrell on Saturday, March 1 in Beacon, NY

January 30, 2025

Elysium Furnace Works is proud the announce the initial concerts for its 2025 season. To kick off 2025, EFW will present its very first solo piano festival. On each Saturday in March this year, EFW will present five of the most brilliant pianists performing anywhere today. All five concerts as part of the EFW Solo Piano ...

Rick Savage 4Tet at UpFront Exhibition Space

by David A. Orthmann
September 12, 2022

Rick Savage 4Tet UpFront Exhibition Space Hudson Valley Jazz Fest Port Jervis, NY August 20, 2022 The most impressive jazz performances offer a variety of opportunities for the attentive listener. Regardless of stylistic orientation, a first-class jazz band often incorporates rapidly shifting alliances as players deftly juggle collective and individual ...

William Parker Biography Celebration With Joe McPhee And Cisco Bradley

April 12, 2021

Elysium Furnace Works is proud to present bassist, composer, bandleader and a signal figure in creative music worldwide, William Parker, as part of a celebration of the recent publication of his long-overdue biography, Universal Tonality—The Life and Music of William Parker. Written by Pratt Institute professor Cisco Bradley and published by Duke University Press, this biography ...

Gwen Laster

Gwen Laster is a nationally acclaimed musician who has been the recipient of awards by the National Endowment for the Arts, Jubilation Foundation, Puffin Foundation, Arts Mid Hudson, Lila Wallace, and the Cognac Hennessey 1st place Jazz Search. She's a native Detroiter whose creative influences come from the Motor City's exciting urban and classical music culture. Gwen started improvising and composing because of her parents love of jazz, blues, soul and classical music and her inspiring music teachers from Detroit's public schools.

Laster relocated to NYC after earning two music degrees from the University of Michigan. She began collaborating, performing and recording with internationally-known creative and commercial artists that include Anthony Braxton, Nona Hendryx, Aretha Franklin, Wadada Leo Smith, William Parker, Danny Elfman, Sun Ra Arkestra, Tyler, the Creator, Gladys Knight, Emeline Michel, Andrea Bocelli, David Foster, Alicia Keys, Rhianna, Shaggy, Andrew Baba Lamb, Natalie Cole, Solange, Mark Anthony, J Lo and Shakira at President Obama’s Inaugural Neighborhood Ball. Playing local jazz clubs and subbing Broadway shows (Miss Saigon, Beauty and the Beast, Carousel, Wicked, Porgy and Bess, The King and I) were woven around Gwen's NYC performing and teaching rhythm.

Gary Kelly

Neil Nail Alexander

Born: April 18, 1960

Keyboardist Neil "Nail" Alexander has been performing, composing and working professionally for 50 years. His musical craft extends from performance, compositon, arranging and production to live sound, modern dance and film.

Grants from NYSCA and Meet The Composer gave Neil the opportunity to continue building on his composing skills. In addition to teaching piano and keyboard lessons, Neil also teaches Master Classes in Synthesizer Programming and Music Performance Technology. He leads and composes for X Ensemble, a contemporary chamber ensemble.

As an active musician he has recordings and/or a performance history with a variety of groups and artists such as Joe Lovano, Bob Meyer, Rez Abassi, Corey Glover, Mike Keneally, Gunther Hampel, Karl Berger, Tony "Thunder" Smith, Tal Ross (P-Funk), Charles Haynes, Erik Lawrence, and many others.

James Emery

Co-founder of the chamber ensemble The String Trio of New York, virtuoso guitarist and composer James Emery has received international recognition for his distinctive and highly original approach to both improvisation and composition.  Utilizing a full range of musical information, his sensibility draws in nearly equal measures upon formal notions of structure and technique and a robust willingness to improvise, experiment, and follow his musical knowledge – both as composer and player.

Artistic Director of the highly accomplished Sound Directions, Inc., James has been active as performer, oft-commissioned composer and inspiring educator on the international jazz and contemporary music scene since 1975, with over two dozen CDs as a leader or co-leader and live performances in more than 25 countries worldwide. His recordings have been described as “innovative and imaginative” and “utterly distinctive” by the Penguin Guide to Jazz, which selected his orchestral recording, Transformations for its edition titled "The History of Jazz in the 1001 Best Albums." He has received international critical acclaim for his work leading various ensemble formations of jazz and creative music, particularly the String Trio of New York which is entering its fifth decade in 2019.

Matt Mitchell Kicks Off Elysium Furnace Works' 2019 Season In Beacon, NY

February 21, 2019

The 2019 season for the Hudson Valley music series Elysium Furnace Works promises to be its most exciting yet. EFW is proud to launch this year's slate of concerts with one of the most remarkable and cutting-edge pianists and composers, Matt Mitchell. Hailed as “a pianist of burrowing focus and an indispensable fixture of the contemporary ...

The Other Night at Quinn's

by David A. Orthmann
August 17, 2018

The Other Night at Quinn's: New Adventures In The Sonic Underground Mike Faloon 269 Pages ISBN: #978-1-941576-24-3 Razorcake / Gorsky Press 2018 In addition to absorbing the sounds on recordings and live performances, the traditional route to an appreciation of jazz and improvised music usually entails seeking out the ...