01/19/2023, An Evening with Fred Hersch and esperanza spalding | Schwartz Artist-In-Residence

This concert is presented by the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts. 404.727.5050 | schwartz.emory.edu | boxoffice@emory.edu

Audience Information

Please turn off phones and all electronic devices. Photography, recording, or digital capture of this concert is not permitted.

Health and Safety

The Schwartz Center follows the Emory University Visitor Policy with additional protocols outlined at schwartz.emory.edu/faq.

Ushers

The Schwartz Center welcomes a volunteer usher corps of approximately 60 members each year. Visit schwartz.emory.edu/volunteer or call 404.727.6640 for ushering opportunities.

Accessibility

The Schwartz Center is committed to providing performances and facilities accessible to all. Please direct accommodation requests to the Schwartz Center Box Office at 404.727.5050, or by email at boxoffice@emory.edu.

Design and Photography Credits

Front Cover Photo: Erika Kapin Photography Title Page Photo: Christopher Drukker Cover Design: Nick Surbey | Program Design: Lisa Baron Back Cover Photo: Mark Teague

Acknowledgment

This season, the Schwartz Center is celebrating 20 years of world-class performances and wishes to gratefully acknowledge the generous ongoing support of Donna and Marvin Schwartz.

This program is made possible by a generous gift from the late Flora Glenn Candler, a friend and patron of music at Emory University.

Program

This evening’s program will be announced from the stage.

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. Fifteen-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 and truly exhilarating.

Schwartz Artist-in-Residence Program

The Donna and Marvin Schwartz Foundation Artist-in-Residence program at Emory seeks to substantially increase the depth, diversity, and profile of performing arts education in the Emory and greater Atlanta communities by providing opportunities for meaningful contact with performing artists, composers, and art scholars from throughout the world. To learn more about performances and interactive learning workshops with Schwartz artists in residence, visit schwartz.emory.edu/SAIR.

Fred Hersch

A select member of jazz’s piano pantheon, Fred Hersch is a pervasively influential creative force who has shaped the music’s course during more than three decades as an improviser, composer, educator, bandleader, collaborator, and recording artist. With some 50 albums to his credit as a leader or co-leader, Hersch is a 15-time Grammy Award nominee who continues to earn jazz’s most prestigious awards, including distinctions as a 2016 Doris Duke Artist and being named Jazz Pianist of the Year three times from the Jazz Journalists Association. Proclaimed “a living legend” by the New Yorker, Hersch has long defined jazz’s creative edge in a wide variety of settings, from his breathtaking solo recitals and exploratory duos to his extraordinary trios and innovative chamber settings. As a composer, Hersch is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, and his recent releases—Breath by Breath with trio and string quartet; Live In Europe with his celebrated trio; and the 2020 solo disc Songs From Home—are definitive statements. His acclaimed memoir Good Things Happen Slowly is now available from Crown Archetype Books. For more information, visit fredhersch.com or facebook.com/fredherschmusic.

“A pristine pianist with a poet’s soul—a pair of qualities that combine to especially dazzling effect.”

—Joan Anderman, Boston Globe

esperanza spalding

esperanza spalding (also known as irma nejando, or, i.e.) is a being who has grown to recognize love in the abstract and aspirational, and is now fully dedicated to learning how she can serve and embody actualized love through honor for and receptivity to fellow humans, teachers, and practitioners of various regenerative arts.

Bass, piano, composition, performance, voice, and lyrics are tools and disciplines she is engaged in deeply to cultivate her own channel for transmitting care and beauty through vibration/sound/presence.

Currently developing a mockumentary in collaboration with brontë velez and the San Francisco Symphony, spalding has also written an opera (Ifigenia) with Wayne Shorter that premiered in fall 2021. spalding is also researching liberation technologies in jazz and black dance and continuing her lifelong collaborations with practitioners in various fields relating to music, healing, and cognition, to develop music with enhanced therapeutic potential.

spalding is presently paid by Harvard University to co-create and learn with students enrolled there and working on developing creative practices that serve the restoration of people and land.

“Music has long been a tool for healing, whether as therapy for patients or to commune with gods and ancestors. spalding has turned those rituals into direct action for listeners seeking solace in her voice.”

—Tarisai Ngangura, Pitchfork

Schwartz Center Staff

Rachael Brightwell, Managing Director

Terry Adams, Box Office Coordinator

Lisa Baron, Communications Specialist

Carrie Christie, Program Coordinator

Kathryn Colegrove, Associate Director for Programming and Outreach

Lewis Fuller, Associate Director for Production and Operations

Jennifer Kimball, Assistant Stage Manager

Jeffrey Lenhard, Operations Assistant

Alan Strange, Box Office Manager

Nicholas Surbey, Senior Graphic Designer

Alexandria Sweatt, Marketing Assistant

Mark Teague, Stage Manager

Nina Vestal, House Manager

Matt Williamson, Multimedia Specialist

The Schwartz Center for Performing Arts offers a variety of jazz, classical, and crossover music each season. Visit schwartz.emory.edu for more information.

20th Anniversary Candler Concert Series Event

schwartz.emory.edu Anne-Sophie Mutter and Mutter Virtuosi

Thursday, February 2 | 8 p.m. The “undisputed queen of violin-playing” (Times, London) leads the ensemble in an evening of exemplary string music that includes “The Four Seasons” by Vivaldi and the Atlanta premiere of Unsuk Chin’s Gran Cadenza—a virtuoso duo for two violins, written expressly for Mutter.

Guests are invited to join the Schwartz Center for a celebratory toast following the February 2 concert that hails 20 years from the opening month of the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts.

20TH ANNIVERSARY SEASON

The foundation of the performing arts at Emory began with the vision and gifts of Flora Glenn Candler and came to full fruition in this exquisite venue with the support of Donna and Marvin Schwartz. The 2022–2023 season marks 20 years of world-class performances at the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts.