This MUST-SEE concert event will feature sensational Guggenheim Fellow and award-winning jazz pianist/composer Helen Sung, performing the world premiere of Sung’s multi-movement fusion of jazz and classical music with Bach Aria Soloists, commissioned by BAS in honor of their 25th Anniversary!
With her background as a classical pianist and violinist, Ms. Sung’s new composition is inspired by J.S.Bach, and includes the poem, “The Place where Heaven Fell” by poet R.S. Gwynn, incorporating jazz improvisation to produce a brilliant synthesis of jazz and classical. Ms. Sung will also collaborate with BAS on selections integrating jazz improvisation with timeless Bach master pieces, as well as jazz standards at the historic Folly Theater.
Tickets for this event available from The Folly Theater Box Office. Call 816-474-4444 or visit FollyTheater.org for tickets and more information.
All seats are now open to the public. Subscribers should call The Folly Theater box office to purchase their discounted tickets with priority seating for The Folly Jazz event. Tickets are issued on a first come, first served basis.
Helen Sung on how Bach relates to Jazz
Elizabeth Suh Lane, Bach Aria Soloists’ Founder-Artistic Director, interviews jazz pianist Helen Sung about how Bach relates to Jazz.
Helen Sung is an acclaimed jazz pianist and composer, and a 2021 Guggenheim Fellow. A native of Houston, Texas, and graduate of its High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (HSPVA), she eschewed her classical piano upbringing after a jazz epiphany during undergraduate studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Helen went on to become part of the inaugural class of the Thelonious Monk Institute (now the Herbie Hancock Institute) at the New England Conservatory of Music. Her newest album Quartet+ (Sunnyside Records), garnered a 4.5 star DownBeat review and inclusion in its "Best of 2021 Albums" list, and a JazzTimes cover story (January 2022 issue), while previous releases Sung With Words (Stricker Street), a collaborative project with renowned poet Dana Gioia, and Anthem For A New Day (Concord Jazz) topped the jazz charts. In addition to her own band, Helen has performed with such luminaries as the late Clark Terry, Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter, Wynton Marsalis, Regina Carter, Terri Lyne Carrington, Cecile McLorin Salvant, and the Mingus Big Band. Recent activities of note include Re-Orientation: Asian American Artists Out Loud (made possible by a Chamber Music America Digital Residency grant): provoked by anti-Asian violence, Helen teamed her quartet with a poet, a hip-hop artist/rapper, and an installation artist in a series of interdisciplinary events to celebrate the range and diversity of Asian American artistry. Helen's 2021 Guggenheim Fellowship is being applied toward a mutli-movement composition for big band; one of the movements, "Wayne's World," won the 2022 BMI Charlie Parker Jazz Composition Prize. Helen has served on the jazz faculties of the Berklee College of Music and the Juilliard School. She is currently visiting faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and an Associate Professor at Columbia University, where she also was the inaugural jazz artist-in-residence at its Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute exploring the intersection of jazz and neuroscience. Helen is a Steinway Artist.
Learn more at https://helensung.com/.
With guest Sascha Groschang, cello
Sascha Groschang, cellist, has performed extensively across the United States, Europe and Asia. She has appeared at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall numerous times, and gave her solo debut recital at Carnegie Hall in 2009. She has been a soloist and lecturer at the Thailand International Composition Festival, performed for the King of Malaysia with the Kuala Lumpur International Festival Orchestra, and traveled all across China on two tours with the Mantovani Pops Orchestra. She has shared the stage with artists such as Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, The Eagles, Vince Gill, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Michael Bublé, Peter Gabriel, Josh Groban, Sarah Mclachlan, Idina Menzel, Amy Grant and her recording credits include NBC, Atlantic, and Rhino Records.
Learn more at https://www.cellolady.com/.