An Evening with Fred Hersch and esperanza spalding Playbill 02/03/23

FEBRUARY 3 | 7:30 PM Camp

PHOTO CREDIT: ERIKA KAPIN

Thank You

THIS ENGAGEMENT OF AN EVENING WITH FRED HERSCH and esperanza spalding

IS MADE POSSIBLE IN PART BY THE GENEROUS SUPPORT OF Dewitt Fund for the Arts

THANKS TO OUR 2022-2023 MODLIN ARTS PRESENTS SEASON SPONSORS & PARTNERS

Louis S. Booth Arts Fund

Cultural Affairs Committee

E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation

A. Dale Mayo Fund

H. G. Quigg Fund

Virginia B. Modlin Endowment

Clinton Webb Fund

You Belong Here

WELCOME

Welcome back to Modlin Center for the Arts! I am grateful for this opportunity to be together again and thrilled with the season we have put together because I know that every artist can—and will—create unforgettable moments.

Across our 2022-2023 season, you will find artists from a variety of backgrounds and cultures, with an emphasis on BIPOC and women-led companies. And you will discover a range of stories, dance, and music of many different genres—some familiar, others new. Each performance is a unique window into the human experience, which I hope will open new paths for conversation and connection.

As the season continues, I look forward to visiting with you in the lobby and hearing about your experiences at the Modlin Center. We want you to be a part of the Modlin community. The Department of Music Free Concert Series and UR Free Theatre and Dance season add 30+ additional opportunities to see compelling performances. And UR Museums host exhibitions and programs that are free and open to the public. Thank you for being with us.

Paul Brohan, Executive Director

MODLIN ARTS

SEPTEMBER

FRI. 9 7:30 PM David Esleck Trio

THU. 15 7:30 PM Steep Canyon Rangers

SUN. 18 3:00 PM Joanne Kong, piano, harpsichord and clavichord

THU. 22 7:30 PM DeLanna Studi, And So We Walked

FRI. 23 7:30 PM Family Weekend Concert

WED. 28 7:30 PM Dreamers' Circus

THU.-FRI 29-30 7:30 PM Smart People

OCTOBER

SAT. 1 7:30 PM Smart People

SUN. 2 2:00 PM Smart People

SUN. 2 7:30 PM Dorrance Dance, SOUNDspace

THU. 6 7:30 PM Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi

FRI. 14 7:30 PM Bill Irwin, On Beckett

SUN. 16 2:00 PM 12th Annual Celebration of Dance

FRI. 21 7:30 PM Step Afrika!, Drumfolk

SUN. 23 3:00 PM Sonia De Los Santos, Family Arts Day

THU. 27 7:30 PM Susanna Phillips, soprano

SUN, 30 3:00 PM UR Schola Cantorum and Women's Chorale

NOVEMBER

FRI.-SAT. 4-5 Multiple Third Practice Music Festival* CANCELED

WED. 9 7:30 PM UR Jazz & Contemporary Combos

THUR. 10 7:30 PM Aaron Diehl Trio

SAT. 12 6:30 PM 8:30 PM Amal Kassir

SUN. 13 3:00 PM Preservation Hall Jazz Band, 60 thAnniversary Celebration

WED. 16 7:30 PM UR Jazz Ensemble

THU.-SAT. 17-19 7:30 PM Miss You Like Hell

SUN. 20 2:00 PM Miss You Like Hell

SUN. 20 3:00 PM Global Sounds

MON. 21 7:30 PM UR Wind Ensemble

MON. 28 7:30 PM UR Chamber Ensembles

WED. 30 7:30 PM UR Symphony Orchestra

DECEMBER

SUN. 4 5:00 PM 8:00 PM 49th Annual Festival of Lessons and Carols

*Visit thirpractice.org for a full schedule of events.

JANUARY

SAT. 21 7:30 PM Kronos Quartet, At War With Ourselves

FRI. 27 7:30 PM Mark Morris Dance Group, The Look of Love

FEBRUARY

WED. 1 7:30 PM Richard Becker, piano

FRI. 3 7:30 PM Fred Hersch and esperanza spalding

SUN. 5 3:00 PM Anthony McGill, clarinet, and Gloria Chien, piano

FRI. 10 7:30 PM Rosanne Cash

WED. 15 7:30 PM Joshua Redman, 3x3

SUN. 19 3:00 PM Third Coast Percussion and Flutronix

WED. 22 7:30 PM Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center

THU.-SAT. 24-26 7:30 PM University Dancers 38th Annual Concert

SUN. 26 3:00 PM Kayhan Kalhor, kamancheh

MARCH

WED. 1 7:30 PM Ashwini Ramaswamy, Let the Crows Come

SUN. 19 3:00 PM Doris Wylee-Becker, piano

MON. 20 7:30 PM Neumann Lecture on Music, Dr. Sherry D. Lee, Professor of Musicology

MON. 27 7:30 PM Bruce Stevens, organ

FRI. 31 7:30 PM Christian McBride’s New Jawn

WED. 5 7:30 PM UR Symphony Orchestra

THUR. 6 7:30 PM UR Jazz & Contemporary Combos

WED. 12 7:30 PM Leyla McCalla

THU.-SAT. 13-15 7:30 PM The Rivals

SAT. 15 3:00 PM Global Sounds

APRIL

SUN, 16 3:00 PM UR Schola Cantorum and Women's Chorale

SUN. 16 2:00 PM The Rivals

TPO, Farfalle

SUN.

MODLIN ARTS PRESENTS

An Evening with Fred Hersch and esperanza spalding

The duo of jazz pianist and composer Fred Hersch and jazz vocalist esperanza spalding are celebrating the release of their album “Alive at the Village Vanguard” recorded at the legendary club for a packed and rapturous audience. 15-time Grammy nominee Hersch, called by The New Yorker “a living legend” - and multiple Grammy award winner spalding, whom NPR cites as “the 21st Century’s first jazz genius” – present an evening of songs from the Great American Songbook, music from Brazil and jazz compositions including several penned by Hersch. spalding is revealed as a worthy heir to the leading ladies of jazz vocals and Hersch is well-known for his many significant duo partnerships. The remarkable chemistry of their partnership is deep, truly exhilarating and not to be missed. Tonight’s program will be announced from the stage. Approximate run time for this performance is 1 hour 15 minutes, without intermission.

PHOTO CREDIT: BILL HEAD

Vanguard showcases the astonishing chemistry shared by these two master musicians, who bring out distinctive aspects in each other’s playing. Hersch and spalding have convened for only a handful of New York City performances since their first meeting in 2013 during the pianist’s annual duo series at the Jazz Standard. In that limited time the pair has developed a wholly personal approach, not only in the annals of piano-voice duets but in their own already highly individual practices. Taking the stage with no set arrangements and only a vague sense of the repertoire they’ll explore, the dauntless pair delights in playing without a safety net.

“This recording sounds like you’re in the best seat in the Vanguard for a very live experience,” says Hersch. “You can really feel the vitality of the room, of the audience, and of our interplay. We decided on the word Alive for the album title as you can really feel the intimacy and energy of the performances.” The album marks Hersch’s sixth recording from the storied club, where he’s been invited to headline three weeks annually for many years. The album also vividly spotlights Hersch’s stunning sensitivity and engagement as a duo partner; in recent years he’s worked in a similar setting with such incredible musicians as guitarists Julian Lage and Bill Frisell, clarinetist/saxophonist Anat Cohen, saxophonist Miguel Zenón, and trumpet maestro Enrico Rava.

“Playing with Fred feels like we’re in a sandbox,” spalding says. “He takes his devotion to the music as serious as life and death, but once we start playing, it’s just fun. I like to live on the edge in my music, but I find myself trying things that I usually wouldn’t when I play with him, finding new spaces to explore in the realm of improvised lyrics.”

“I don’t think anybody’s heard esperanza sing like this,” Hersch says. “She’s a fearless vocalist, and is one of the biggest talents I know. She’s got a huge reach in her intellectual knowledge and is a big thinker in both her projects and in her outlook.”

Always a determined original in her own projects, spalding rarely sings standards, and her approach here is unique to her partnership with Hersch. She’s revealed on this outing as not just a phenomenal scat singer but a charming and imaginative improvisational storyteller. The Gershwins’ “But Not For Me” becomes a witty, poetic extemporization on the lyric itself, examining the changes in language represented by the original’s sometimes archaic terminology. Neal Hefti and Bobby Troup’s chauvinistic ditty “Girl Talk” comes under barbed scrutiny from not only a feminist but also an eco-conscious perspective.

Hersch’s preternatural reflexes, profound emotional expressiveness and unparalleled gift for interpreting and reimagining repertoire with each new performance are on mesmerizing display throughout the album. His “Dream of Monk” has been a staple of the duo’s sets since the beginning. With lyrics penned by the pianist himself, the tune is a dedication to one of the pianist’s most indelible influences, whose own “Evidence” shows why Hersch is such a revered interpreter of the Monk canon. “Little Suede Shoes” transforms another bop-era classic, spinning a playful update on the Charlie Parker calypso.

“Some Other Time” is a Sammy Cahn/Jule Styne song, less well known than the Leonard Bernstein classic of the same name but a favorite of Hersch, who weaves an elegant and vivid tapestry during his mesmerizing solo. Egberto Gismonti’s “Loro” is launched by spalding’s unconventional scatting, which she eventually uses to engage in a nimble dance with Hersch’s propulsive piano. The album closes with Hersch’s best-known composition, “A Wish (Valentine),” with magnificent lyrics by Norma Winstone.

Though it’s hard to believe given the buoyant spirits and playful interaction of the performances, both spalding and Hersch were working through pain on the October 2018 weekend that this music was recorded. Although the stint ended on a celebratory note with the occasion of Hersch’s 63rd birthday, he was also scheduled to enter the hospital the very next day for hip replacement surgery. “I was in a lot of pain and walking with a crutch,” he recalls. “Just getting down the famous stairs to the Vanguard was an ordeal, but once the music started the pain disappeared completely.”

spalding, meanwhile, was struggling with family issues while juggling an intense schedule that included writing an opera with the master composer Wayne Shorter and beginning a teaching position at Harvard University. “I was going through a very difficult time in my life,” she admits. “I was miserable every day when I got to the Vanguard, so I had to decide to plug into the capacity for this music to heal. I wanted to

PHOTO CREDIT: BILL HEAD

emanate something positive even though I was feeling so horrible. Neither of us were feeling well in our lives outside of the music, so the stage of the Vanguard became an alchemizing place for both of us, and I think you can feel that in the music.”

Fred Hersch

A select member of jazz’s piano pantheon, Fred Hersch is an influential creative force who has shaped the music’s course over more than three decades. A fifteen-time Grammy nominee, Hersch has long set the standard for expressive interpretation and inventive creativity. A revered improviser, composer, educator, bandleader, collaborator and recording artist, Hersch has been proclaimed “the most arrestingly innovative pianist in jazz over the last decade” by Vanity Fair, “an elegant force of musical invention” by The L.A. Times, and “a living legend” by The New Yorker. For decades Hersch has been firmly entrenched as one of the most acclaimed and captivating pianists in modern jazz, whether through his exquisite solo performances, as the leader of one of jazz’s era-defining trios, or in eloquent dialogue with his deeply attuned duo partners. His brilliant 2017 memoir, Good Things Happen Slowly, was named one of 2017’s Five Best Memoirs by the Washington Post and The New York Times.

esperanza spalding

Five-time Grammy Award-winning visionary esperanza spalding aims to ignite and portray various hues of vital human energies through composition, singing, bass playing and live performance. A lover of all music, especially improvisation-based musics emerging from black American culture, spalding’s musical aesthetic is prismatic. With projects like Radio Music Society, Chamber Music Society, Emily’s D+ Evolution and 12 Little Spells, she has inventively combined and reimagined influences from jazz, funk, rock, musical theater and beyond. She has taught at Berklee College of Music and Harvard University, founded the Songwrights Apothecary Lab, and wrote the opera ...(Iphigenia) in collaboration with Wayne Shorter.

Fred Hersch & esperanza spalding – Alive at the Village Vanguard

Palmetto Records – Catalog Numbers: PM2007LP; PM2007CD – Recorded

October 19-21, 2018

Release date January 6, 2023

fredhersch.com

songwrightsapothecarylab.com

Modlin Arts

ANTHONY MCGILL, CLARINET WITH GLORIA CHIEN, PIANO

Sunday, Feb. 5, 2023

3:00 PM, Pre-Show Talk 2:00 PM

Camp Concert Hall

Principal clarinetist for the New York Philharmonic, and Superior Pianist of the Year, as named by the Boston Globe... The music they make together is spectacular, whether standard repertoire or new work, and sparkles with virtuosity and verve.

A CONVERSATION WITH ROSANNE CASH

Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023

7:00 PM

Camp Concert Hall

Rosanne Cash will join moderator Jenny Cavenaugh, Dean of the School of Arts & Sciences, for a discussion around the relationship between creative expression and women’s leadership development.

AN EVENING WITH ROSANNE CASH

Friday, Feb. 10, 2023

7:30 PM

Camp Concert Hall

“Cash is one of the more enduringly important artists in the progressive roots avenue of American music,” says the Santa Barbara Independent. You can have faith that a Rosanne Cash concert will be a moving musical experience.

ticket infOrmation

WELCOME TO MODLIN ARTS PRESENTS 2022-2023!

MODLIN CENTER BOX OFFICE INFORMATION

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SOMETHING WE HAVE ALL LEARNED OF LATE

Programs are subject to change.

Museums

JAY LYNN GOMEZ: DOMESTIC SCENES RECONSIDERED.

Jan 23, 2023 – Apr 21, 2023

Harnett Museum of Art

IMAGE CREDIT:

Jay Lynn Gomez (American, born 1986), No Splash (after David Hockney’s A Bigger Splash, 1967), acrylic on canvas, 96 x 96 inches, 2013. Courtesy of the artist and Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles. Permanent collection of Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego. (c) Jay Lynn Gomez, Photo: Osceola Refetoff

SWAN SONG: CELEBRATING THE PERMANENT COLLECTION

Nov 03, 2022 - Apr 21, 2023

Harnett Museum of Art

IMAGE CREDIT:

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (French, 1864-1901), La revue blanche, 1895, stone lithograph printed in four colors on two sheets of machine wove paper, 49 7/16 x 35 7/8 inches, Joel andLila Harnett Print Study Center, University of Richmond Museums, Gift of Jan and Howard Hendler, H2018.12.01

CRYSTALS: MINERALS FROM THE COLLECTION

Oct 13, 2022 – Apr 21, 2023

Harnett Museum of Art

IMAGE CREDIT:

Taylor Dabney

Rhodochrosite, MnCO3

Nchwaning Mine, Kuruman District, Northern Cape Province, South Africa

Museum purchase, R1978.01.1543