Cellist Karen Patterson brings her jazz ensemble to the Schuster Center Saturday, February 17 at 8 pm
Yellow Springs native, cellist Karen Patterson returns to her family, community, social, and musical roots Saturday, February 17, 2007 at 8 pm in the Schuster Center, when – at the head of her own jazz ensemble – she joins Music Director Neal Gittleman and the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra for an evening of classical, jazz, dance, gospel, and uniquely African-American music.
In a salute to Ms. Patterson’s classical roots, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Danse nègre leads off the evening, followed by Ms. Patterson’s solo performance in Gabriel Fauré’s Elegy. Beethoven’s Leonore Overture #3 ends the first half.
Following intermission, everyone puts their dancing shoes on. Brahms’s Hungarian Dance #1 starts the ball, followed by Dvo?ák’s Slavonic Dance, op. 46, #3 and Scott Joplin’s The Ragtime Dance. The mood then swings to spiritual music. Ms. Patterson, the DPO, and her ensemble perform three traditional Gospel numbers: Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child, I Wonder as I Wander, and Roll, Jordan, Roll.
Next, the highlight of the concert is The Invisible Bridge, a commissioned piece by Egyptian-American composer Halim El-Dabh. The concert concludes with the theme from the 1959 Brazilian film Black Orpheus by Luiz Bonfa and Antonio Carlos Jobim.
Karen Patterson’s jazz ensemble consists of pianist Vince Evans, saxophonist Donald Walden, blues guitarist Nerak Roth Patterson, harmonicist Frédéric Yonnet, bassist Marion Hayden, and drummer Andre Wright.
Tickets $7 to $33.