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Showing posts with label kente arts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kente arts. Show all posts

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

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

The Color of Strings


featuring Dwayne Dolphin - Jeff Grubbs - and Curtis Lundy
with Dave Budway: Piano & Tom Wendt: Drums

Presented by Kente Arts Alliance
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Hazlett Theatre
6 Allegheny Square East

Tickets $20 Advance/ $25 At Door
By Phone: 412-394-3353

Ticket Outlets: Jamil's Global Village (East Liberty) - Paul's CD's (Bloomfield)
Dorsey's Records (Homewood) - Stedeford's Record Shop (Northside)

For more information www.kentearts.org or
412-322-0292

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Kente Arts Alliance


Kente Arts Alliance is an African American arts organization whose mission is to present high-quality art of the African Diaspora. Heading into its fourth year, Kente’s aim is to present art with a purpose by offering programs that entertain, inform and uplift the residents of underserved communities. Over its short history, Kente has presented some of the finest names on the jazz scene including: Louis Hayes and the Cannonball Legacy Band, Geri Allen and the Mary Lou Williams Collective, Winard Harper, Roger Humphries and the Rh Factor, Steve TurrĂ© and Billy Bang.

Kente is even more pleased when it presents artists whose roots begin in Pittsburgh. Nelson was reared in East Liberty before leaving Pittsburgh to make his way through the jazz world. He has gone full circle as he returns to the Kelly-Strayhorn Theater which is only a mile from where he grew up.

The concert is sponsored by: The Multicultural Arts Initiative, The Heinz Endowments, and The Pittsburgh Foundation. DUQ 90.5 FM is the media sponsor.

Blues, Roots, and Spirit

Kente Arts Alliance presents the first installment of the season with its Blues, Roots and Spirits series, featuring vibraphonist and Pittsburgh native Steve Nelson and his quartet.

The jazz concert will be held on Saturday, December 5, 2009 at 8 PM at the Kelly- Strayhorn Theater, 5941 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15206, in East Liberty. The concert will feature Nelson on vibraphFont sizeones accompanied by a blue ribbon rhythm section with Mulgrew Miller (piano); Ivan Taylor (bass); Rodney Green (drums).

Tickets are available through www.brownpapertickets.com /event/87548 or by calling 800.838.3006. Advanced purchase - $20; $25, at the door. Group tickets are available for $15 for groups of 15 or more @ 412.322.0292. Also, students with ID pay $10.