Featured Jazz Performance: Kenny Werner

Thursday, March 5, 2009
Friday, March 6, 2009
7:30 pm, Weber Music Hall

"Perfection. 360 degrees of soul and science in one human being. My kind of musician." - Quincy Jones

At the age of eleven, Kenny Werner recorded a single with a fifteen-piece orchestra and appeared on television playing stride piano. He attended the Manhattan School of Music as a concert piano major. In 1970, he transferred to the Berklee School of Music. In 1981, Werner recorded his own solo album of original compositions entitled Beyond the Forest of Mirkwood . Werner has received performance grants from the National Endowment for the Arts in both 1985 and 1987, and was commissioned to compose and conduct a memorial piece for Duke Ellington at St. John of the Divine Church in New York performed by the Manhattan School of Music’s Stage Band and the New York City Choir. He has also won the distinguished Composer award from the New Jersey Council for the Arts. Since 1999 he has had a trio with Ari Hoenig on drums and Johannes Wiedenmueller on bass. They have released three CDs together; Form and Fantasy, Beat Degeneration and Peace, Live at the Blue Note. In 1996, Kenny published a book that has had a major impact on the music world titled Effortless Mastery. It features priceless information about the physical, technical, psychological and spiritual aspects of being an artist. He currently teaches his own techniques in classes at New York University .

Weber Music Hall
7:30 p.m. • $32/$27/$17/$15
All seats reserved. Advance purchase recommended.