A weekend with David Amram May 30, 2009

Who: David Amram with a variety of guests/choirs/ensembles

“Jazz at the Conservatory” presents a weekend with David Amram. Amram will be presenting 2 concerts, Saturday May 30, 8pm and Sunday May 31, 5pm that will explore his many musical accomplishments. Amram is a renowned composer of symphonic classical music, operas, chamber music, jazz compositions, music for the theater and films, improvisation, spoken word, and scat. He plays multiple instruments including (but not limited to) French horn, flutes, whistles, percussion and wind instruments from around the World and piano. He will also share stories of his adventures with his audience. Both concerts will feature jazz and gospel choirs, chamber music performers, a children's choir, poetry readings with music, and chamber music. Amram will also be presenting a string improvisation Suzuki clinic on Sunday, May 31st, 3-4pm.

Program of events:

Saturday May 30, 8pm - Amram's Jazz, Latin, Film, Poetry and World Music compositions
Cost: $25/15
Theme from "Splendor In The Grass"
Kwahare (from Kenya. a sing-a-long in Swahli)
Home on The Range
Birds of Montparnasse
Traveling Blues
Gracias amigos
Readings from "On the Road" with John Ventimigilia of "the Sopranos" reading the poetry of Jack Kerouac with Amram's music, celebrating their collaborations in 1957 for the first public jazz/poetry readings ever given in NYC.

Artists: David Amram, the Jazz & gospel Choir , Renee Manning voice, Earl McIntyre bass trombone, Kevin Louis trumpet, Cleave Guyton reeds, Patience Higgins reeds, Doug Booth keyboards, Jerome Harris bass, Hasan Bakr percussion,

Sunday May 31, 5pm - Chamber music inspired by Native American music and American roots music.
Cost: $15
The Indian Prayer by Victorio Roland Mousaa, performed for the opening at Madison Square Garden's celebration of Pete Seeger's 90th birthday.
Native American Portraits for violin, piano and percussion
Sioux Rabbit Song (Mastinchele wachipi olwan) Traditional Lakota round dance melody and
Song for Machito for children's choir, premiered at the Democratic National Convention '08.
Giants of the Night (slow movement of flute concerto written for Sir James Galway, in memory of Jack kerouac)

Artists: David Amram, Victorio Roland Mousaa guitar and voice, Masha Lankowsky violin, David Wexler flute, Heidi Upton piano , Nathan Davis percussion, Hasan Bakr percussion, K.P.I Children's Choir directed by Renee Manning

About David Amram
David Amram has composed more than 100 orchestral and chamber music works, written many scores for Broadway theater and film, including the classic scores for the films "Splendor in The Grass" and "The Manchurian Candidate;" two operas, including the ground-breaking Holocaust opera "The Final Ingredient;" and the score for the landmark 1959 documentary "Pull My Daisy," narrated by novelist Jack Kerouac. He is also the author of three books, "Vibrations," an autobiography, "Offbeat: Collaborating With Kerouac," a memoir, and "Upbeat: Nine Lives of a Musical”.

A pioneer player of jazz French horn, he is also a virtuoso on piano, numerous flutes and whistles, percussion, and dozens of folkloric instruments from 25 countries, as well as an inventive, funny improvisational lyricist. He has collaborated with Leonard Bernstein, who chose him as The New York Philharmonic's first composer-in-residence in 1966, Langston Hughes, Dizzy Gillespie, Dustin Hoffman, Willie Nelson, Thelonious Monk, Odetta, Elia Kazan, Arthur Miller, Charles Mingus, Lionel Hampton, E. G. Marshall, and Tito Puente. Amram's most recent work "Giants of the Night" is a flute concerto dedicated to the memory Charlie Parker, Jack Kerouac and Dizzy Gillespie, three American artists Amram knew and worked with. It was commissioned and premiered by Sir James Galway.

His two most recent orchestral works are "Symphonic Variations on a Song by Woody Guthrie." commissioned by the Guthrie Foundation, premiered Sept. 29 2007 , and Three Songs: A Concerto for Piano and Orchestra premiered in January of 2009. He was the Democratic National Convention's composer-in-residence in August of 2008 in Denver.

Today, as he has for over fifty years, Amram continues to compose music while
traveling the world as a conductor, soloist, bandleader, visiting scholar, and narrator
in five languages.

The weekend of activities is being filmed by Larry Kraman Ltd . as part of a documentary being made for release celebrating Amram's 80th birthday Nov 17, 2010.

The Brooklyn-Queens Conservatory of Music has been serving the community for over a century promoting individual, professional and community growth through music, and making music accessible to people of all ages, backgrounds and skill levels. One of the ways we fulfill our mission is by holding remarkable events such as this at affordable prices. Our commitment to the community and our world-class faculty makes these events a reality.

Please join us for what promises to be an unforgettable Jazz at the Conservatory concert event, and check out The Brooklyn-Queens Conservatory of Music's other great concerts, programs, classes and much more at www.BQCM.org