NJPAC - Bravo Program Book
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meet the artists<br />
meet the artists<br />
Few composers capture their time<br />
and become the iconic voice of their<br />
age. Leonard Bernstein found his<br />
“voice” in the early 1940s and projected<br />
the sound of urban and urbane<br />
America from the period of World War II<br />
to the anti-war movements of the 1970s<br />
and the restoration of freedom in<br />
Europe, with the fall of the Berlin Wall<br />
and Soviet communism.<br />
Writing for small ensembles, symphony<br />
orchestras, Broadway, film and opera<br />
houses, Leonard Bernstein projected a<br />
simple message of understanding and<br />
hope, employing both complex and<br />
simple forms and styles, yet always<br />
sounding like “Bernstein” — a voice best<br />
known in his score to West Side Story.<br />
Exploring his output, one finds the<br />
famous and obscure works that both are<br />
reflective of their times and somehow<br />
also preserve and encapsulate them.<br />
Everywhere one hears his internal<br />
struggle to sound inevitable as the<br />
tumultuous second half of the 20th century<br />
unfolded itself. He is at once linked<br />
with the music of Benjamin Britten and<br />
Dimitri Shostakovich, as well as<br />
George Gershwin and Aaron Copland.<br />
While his music finds its spiritual<br />
home in his worldview, his music speaks<br />
with a New York accent, even though<br />
he was born in Massachusetts. His love<br />
affair with Europe and his sensitivity to<br />
his Russian and Jewish roots are never<br />
far from his lyrical expressivity, with its<br />
fragile sense of optimism, its loneliness,<br />
its humor and its demand for acceptance.<br />
All of this is wrapped in the rhythmic<br />
propulsion of a great American urban<br />
landscape. He has left us an aural image<br />
of his time and place and, at the same<br />
time, an eternal voice of humanity.<br />
GRAMMY® Award-winning pianist<br />
Bill Charlap has performed with<br />
many of the leading artists of our time,<br />
from Phil Woods and Benny Carter to<br />
Gerry Mulligan and Wynton Marsalis.<br />
He is acclaimed for his interpretations<br />
of the American popular songbook,<br />
and has recorded albums featuring<br />
the music of Hoagy Carmichael,<br />
Leonard Bernstein, George Gershwin,<br />
Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers<br />
and Duke Ellington.<br />
The Bill Charlap Trio, with bassist<br />
Peter Washington and drummer<br />
Kenny Washington, marks its 23rd year<br />
together this season, and is recognized<br />
as one of the leading ensembles in jazz.<br />
The trio earned GRAMMY® nominations<br />
for 2017’s Uptown Downtown (Impulse!/<br />
Verve) and Somewhere: The Songs of<br />
Leonard Bernstein and The Bill Charlap<br />
Trio: Live at the Village Vanguard (both<br />
on the Blue Note label). Their 2016 album<br />
Notes from New York (Impulse!/Verve)<br />
earned a five-star review in DownBeat,<br />
which hailed it as “a master class in<br />
class.” The trio’s most recent recording<br />
features them supporting<br />
Tony Bennet and Diana Krall on the<br />
chart-topping, GRAMMY®-nominated<br />
album Love is Here to Stay. The Bill<br />
Charlap Trio tours all over the world and<br />
their New York engagements include<br />
regular appearances at Jazz at Lincoln<br />
Center and the Village Vanguard.<br />
Last summer, Charlap celebrated<br />
his 15th year as artistic director of the<br />
92nd Street Y’s Jazz in July Festival.<br />
He has also produced concerts for Jazz<br />
at Lincoln Center, New Jersey Performing<br />
Arts Center (<strong>NJPAC</strong>), the Chicago<br />
Symphony Center and the Hollywood<br />
Bowl. He is Director of Jazz Studies at<br />
William Paterson University in Wayne,<br />
New Jersey. Founded in 1973,<br />
the program is one of the longestrunning<br />
and most respected jazz<br />
programs in the world.<br />
FOR A FULL SCHEDULE OF EVENTS, VISIT <strong>NJPAC</strong>.ORG OR CALL 1.888.GO.<strong>NJPAC</strong><br />
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