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Monday, March 14, 2011

The Color Of Strings

In honor of Women’s History Month...
Kente Arts Alliance presents the third installment of The Color of Strings jazz concert series

World-renowned cellist and vocalist Akua Dixon and her Quartet.

Saturday, March 26, 2011 @ The Kelly-Strayhorn Theater
5941 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA, 15206
8pm


Tickets will be available online at www.proartstickets.org and by phone at 412-394-3353. Tickets will also be available at Dorsey’s Records (Homewood) and Jamil’s Global Village (East Liberty). Advanced purchase - $20; at the door - $25.


Akua Dixon is an accomplished cellist, composer, conductor and vocalist who honed her skills performing with legends such as; Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton, Max Roach, Betty Carter, Rahsaan Roland Kirk and Ray Charles. A native of New York City, she is a graduate of the famed H.S. of Performing Arts. She next studied cello with Benar Heifetz and composition with Rudolf Schramm. Later she studied bass concepts with Reggie Workman and Jazz Practice Techniques with Jimmy Owens at the Collective Black Artists Institution of Education. Her first professional job was as a member of the famed Apollo Theatre Orchestra.
In 1973, she founded her own string quartet, Quartette Indigo. Music critics often refer to the ensemble as "jazz's leading string quartet". The quartet's repertoire features original works and arrangements of jazz classics by Ms. Dixon. Her first release, "Quartette Indigo" on Landmark Records, received four stars in Downbeat Magazine. Her new CD is entitled "AFRIKA! AFRIKA!", and was released on Savant Records. Critics are now saying that the group "swings madly".
She is the 1998 recipient of "The African American Classical Music Award" given by the Northern New Jersey Spelman Alumnae Association. Ms. Dixon performs nationally and internationally at concert halls and colleges, public schools and libraries; and at jazz festivals in Chicago , Hawaii , Berlin , St. Lucia, Tri-Sea, North Sea, Pori, Saalfelden, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Martinique, Guadaloupe, and San Diego. Her music for string quartet has been featured on an eight country, 26-concert tour of Europe and Scandinavia.

visit Kente Arts Alliance at www.kentearts.org

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