Program - Nat King Cole & Me — An Evening with Gregory Porter

SPECIAL

2018/19

2018/19 SEASON PRESENTING SPONSORS:

NAT KING COLE & ME — AN EVENING WITH GREGORY PORTER COLORADO SYMPHONY CHRISTOPHER DRAGON, conductor GREGORY PORTER CHIP CRAWFORD, piano Saturday, February 23, 2019, at 7:30 p.m.

Boettcher Concert Hall

EVANS/LIVINGSTON/Mendoza Mona Lisa HEUSEN-BURKE/Mendoza But Beautiful AHBEZ/Mendoza Nature Boy KAEMPFERT/GABLER/Mendoza L-O-V-E FARRÉS/Mendoza Quizás, Quizás, Quizás Gregory PORTER/Mendoza When Love Was King Gregory PORTER/Crawford No Love Dying — INTERMISSION —

COOTS-LEWIS/Mendoza RUSSELL/SIGMAN/Mendoza KERN/FIELDS/Mendoza Cole PORTER/Mendoza HAMBRO/HELLER/Mendoza SHELLEY/Mendoza Gregory PORTER CHAPLIN/Mendoza

For All We Know Ballerina Pick Yourself Up Miss Otis Regrets The Lonely One I Wonder Who My Daddy Is Hey Laura Smile

Tonight’s Concert is Gratefully Dedicated to Bonfils-Stanton Foundation PROUDLY SUPPORTED BY

SOUNDINGS

2018/19

PROGRAM 1

SPECIAL BIOGRAPHIES CHRISTOPHER DRAGON, conductor Australian conductor Christopher Dragon is in his fourth season as the Associate Conductor of the Colorado Symphony. For three years he previously held the position of Assistant Conductor with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, which gave him the opportunity to work closely with Principal Conductor Asher Fisch. Dragon works regularly in Australia and has guest conducted the Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and West Australian Symphony Orchestras. His 2015 debut performance at the Sydney Opera House with Josh Pyke and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra was released on album by ABC Music and won an ARIA the following year. Dragon’s international guest conducting includes the Orquestra Sinfônica de Porto Alegre, the San Diego Symphony Orchestra and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. He has also conducted at numerous festivals including the Breckenridge and Bangalow Music Festivals, with both resulting in immediate re-invitations. At the beginning of 2016 Dragon conducted Wynton Marsalis’ Swing Symphony as part of the Perth International Arts Festival alongside Wynton Marsalis and Jazz at the Lincoln Center Orchestra. Dragon began his conducting studies in 2011 and was a member of the prestigious Symphony Services International Conductor Development Program in Australia under the guidance of course director Christopher Seaman.

He has also studied with numerous distinguished conductors including Leonid Grin, Paavo and Neeme Järvi at the Järvi Summer Festival, Fabio Luisi at the Pacific Music Festival, and conducting pedagogue Jorma Panula.

S TAY

SOCIAL #ColoradoSymphony Make the most of your Colorado Symphony experience by connecting with us on social media. Find backstage features, concert announcements, musician updates, and special discounts! @coloradosymphony @coloradosymphony @CO_Symphony

COLORADOSYMPHONY.ORG PROGRAM 2

C O L O R A D O SY M P H O N Y.O R G

SPECIAL BIOGRAPHIES GREGORY PORTER For Gregory Porter, the influence of Nat King Cole on his life and music runs deep - a through-line that reaches back into some of his earliest childhood memories and culminates in the release of the two-time GRAMMY-winning vocalist’s fifth studio album Nat King Cole & Me, a heartfelt tribute to the legendary singer, pianist, and Capitol recording artist. “He was one of a kind. He left such great music – such beautiful things to listen to that you can’t help but be influenced by that extraordinary timbre, style, and ultimate cool,” Porter enthuses.

“My mother said I wrote this little song when I was 5 and put it on a tape and played it for her when she came home from work,” recalls Porter. Upon hearing it his mother, Ruth Porter, exclaimed “Boy, you sound like Nat King Cole,” a compliment that sent the curious young Porter delving into her record collection.

“I remember thinking how strange that name was, going through her records, and first seeing his image: this elegant, handsome, strong man sitting by a fire, looking like somebody’s daddy.

Then I put the vinyl on the player and out of those speakers came that voice, that nurturing sound. It filled a void in me. My father wasn’t in my life; he wasn’t raising me; he wasn’t showing any interest in me. So Nat’s words, ‘pick yourself up, dust yourself off, start all over again’ – all of these life lessons and words of wisdom were like fatherly advice. They were coming out of the speakers like Nat was singing those words just to me. I would listen to his albums and imagine that Nat was my father.”

Porter’s love for Cole’s music blossomed so much that he adopted Cole as his surrogate father.

After his role in the Tony-nominated musical It Ain’t Nothin’ But the Blues Porter dramatized his deep appreciation for Cole in a semi-autobiographical musical, Nat King Cole & Me, which premiered in 2004.

“That musical was a way of me trying to find my father,” Porter explains. “I wrote it after my father [Rufus Porter] had passed. The musical was of Nat King Cole; and half of the music was of my original writing. But the story is how I came to Nat’s music in the absence of my father. So in a way, it was some self-prescribed, self-written therapy and emotional medicine for myself. It just so happened that 800 people came to see it a night. After the play, I felt a lighter feeling about my father and a deeper appreciation for both my mother and the great music of Nat King Cole.”

That musical underpins Porter’s third Blue Note Records release, Nat King Cole & Me, the followup to his GRAMMY-winning albums Liquid Spirit (2013) and Take Me to the Alley (2016). With the help of six-time GRAMMY-winning arranger Vince Mendoza, Porter revisits some of Cole’s most cherished classics.

“I went about selecting the songs like I always do – first in a very emotional way,” Porter says.

“I just gathered the songs that meant something to me over the years. There was a period in college when I had an injury to my shoulder and I needed music to soothe me at that time.

So I ended up going back to Nat’s records. Then I did the same thing during the passing of my mother. In a way, there’s a familiarity and a calming effect to Nat’s music. Recording Nat’s music was very personal because I could hear and feel my mother. And I still feel myself searching for my father.”

SOUNDINGS

2018/19

PROGRAM 3

REMIX YOUR SYMPHONY EXPERIENCE REMIX members attend happy hours around town, Colorado Symphony concerts, and exclusive events to support the Symphony.

NEW EVENTS AND SOCIAL HOURS — all year long! Check

HAPPY HOURS

RemixColorado

PRIVATE LECTURES AND PARTIES

BEHIND-THE-SCENES EVENTS

COLORADOSYMPHONY.ORG/REMIX