Sun

3/18/2012

4:30pm

Jazz

All About the Trio: Jazz with the Ellen Rowe Trio

Bill Evans Part II, 1966-1980

• $25 Assigned Rows 1-2
• $15 Assigned Rows 3-5
• $10 General Admission
• $5 Student

• Ellen Rowe, piano
• Kurt Krahnke, bass
• Pete Siers, drums

Event Details

Take a behind-the-scenes look at the foundations of jazz with insight from some of the region’s most swingin’ all-stars as they explore the music of Bill Evans from the years of 1966 to 1980.

Ellen Rowe

Ellen Rowe, jazz pianist and composer, is currently Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Jazz and Contemporary Improvisation at the University of Michigan. She is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music, where she studied with Rayburn Wright and Bill Dobbins. Prior to her appointment in Michigan, she served as Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Connecticut.

Winner of the Hartford, CT Advocate Readers’ Poll for Best Acoustic Jazz, Ms. Rowe has performed at jazz clubs and on concert series throughout the U.S., as well as touring in Germany, Holland, Switzerland, Ireland, Poland, and Australia. Also active as a clinician, she has given workshops and master classes at the Melbourne Conservatory, Hochshule fur Musik in Cologne, and the Royal Academy of Music in London, in addition to many appearances as a guest artist at festivals and Universities around the country.

When not leading her own quartet, she is in demand as a sideman, having performed with a wide variety of jazz artists including Kenny Wheeler, Tim Ries, Tom Harrell, John Clayton, Ingrid Jensen, and Steve Turre. She has also been a guest on two installments of Marian McPartland’s “Piano Jazz” on National Public Radio, most recently in March of 2003. Her two CDs as a leader, Sylvan Way (2000) and Denali Pass (2005) have received extensive airplay and critical acclaim. Her latest CD Wishing Well will be released in the fall of 2009.

Ms. Rowe's compositions and arrangements have been performed and recorded by jazz ensembles and orchestras around the world, including the Village Vanguard Orchestra, BBC Jazz Orchestra, U.S. Navy Commodores, Berlin and NDR Radio Jazz Orchestras, London Symphony, DIVA, and the Perth Jazz Orchestra. Many of these works can be heard on recently released CD’s including Leave It To Diva, The Perth Jazz Orchestra, Bingo (The Bird of Paradise Orchestra) and I Believe In You (DIVA). She has recently been a composer-in-residence at the Eastman School of Music and the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Her big band compositions are currently published by Sierra Music Publications.

Having been selected to conduct the MENC All-Eastern and All-Northwest Jazz Ensembles as well as All-State jazz ensembles throughout the country, Rowe has also been an invited clinician at the Music Educators National Conference Eastern Division Convention and the International Association of Jazz Educators Convention. Her quartet was recently featured in performance at the 2005 IAJE Conference in Long Beach, California and the 2009 Detroit International Jazz festival.

Kurt Krahnke

Acoustic Bassist Kurt Krahnke is a graduate of the Berklee College of Music, but also studied at the New England Conservatory of Music. He toured the east coast with Ron Levy for two years and then returned to Detroit, where he taught with the Summer Music Program under the direction of Wendell Harrison. Since his return to Michigan, Krahnke has played with Phil Lasley, Jimmy Giuffre, Joe Henderson, Sonny Fortune, Pinetop Perkins, Russell Green, and toured and recorded with Leon Thomas. In 1989, Kurt performed as a finalist in the Hennessey Jazz Search in Hollywood, CA, with the Steve Wood/Brad Felt Quintet. Krahnke played and toured with the acclaimed JC Heard Orchestra from 1986-89 and received the Best Jazz Bassist award from the Metro-Times. Kurt has recorded and played with Paul VornHagen for eight years and continues to serve as a mentor for young bassists in the region.

Pete Siers

A Michigan native, Peter Siers can be heard performing in groups throughout the region, including the Latin group Los Gatos and his own trio and quartet. Siers is an original member of the award winning Paul Keller Orchestra (PKO), which plays original, obscure and classic big band material from all periods of jazz history. He also performs and has recorded with Bess Bonnier, Mr. B, guitarist Ray Kamalay and his Red Hot Peppers, The Easy Street Jazz Band, The Motor City Classic Jazz Band with Marcus Belgrave, The Ron Brooks Trio, The Tad Weed Freedom Ensemble, and James Dapogny & his Chicago Jazz Band.