Waban resident Chris Pitts will present the 7th annual Newton Piano Summit next month: Eight concerts spanning two weekends — May 6 & 7 and May 13 & 14 — at the Second Church in Newton (60 Highland Street, West Newton). All of the concerts are free — through the generosity of sponsoring companies and donations from individuals.
Each year, Chris succeeds in attracting amazing talent to Newton for the Summit. He speaks boldly and well about the results: “These are some of the very best talents making music today! We have searched high and low with great expertise in finding out who’s hot, who is innovative, and who is making incredible music. Excepting previous Newton Piano Summits, not since Dizzy Gillespie played in Newton over three decades ago have Newtonites had the opportunity to see this level of talent for free. These are the concerts people will talk about for generations.”
To date, the Newton Piano Summit has raised funds to cover two-thirds of its $16,000 budget. Over 80% of this budget goes to the musicians, sound engineers, and videographers — all of whom are donating a good portion of their time — who make the Summit a success. You may make tax-deductible donations via the Waban Improvement Society to support the Newton Piano Summit (WISNPS). For information about sponsorships, contact Chris Pitts at cbpitts@gmail.com.
See Newton Piano Summit for profiles of the eight headliners and some of the musicians they are bringing. In brief, they are:
- Hidemi Akaiwa: “Fasten your seatbelts because you are likely to have never heard music like what this keyboardist and composer performs … a new art form infusing the tenets of Japanese Zen with the sounds of jazz and microtonal contemporary classical music.”
- Kevin Harris: Teaching at Berklee School of Music and performing internationally, Harris is a “creative volcano … interweav[ing] traditional and contemporary music styles, visual arts, electronic media, science, and language … to activate the audience’s senses and personal curiosity.”
- Harold Charon: Charon “blew the house down” at last year’s Summit with his music featuring “influences from Latin, Salsa, Jazz and Timba — a Cuban genre of music based on Cuban son with salsa, American funk/R&B, and the strong influence of Afro-Cuban folkloric music.”
- Leo Blanco: Teaching at Berklee and performing at international jazz festivals, Blanco composes and improvises music blending folk music genres from his native Venezuelan Andes with European classical traditions. He is the first Latin American to win to the prestigious Boston Jazz Society Award.
- Dennis Montgomery III: A full-time Berklee faculty member and director of its Reverence Gospel Ensemble, Montgomery says, “Jazz has its roots in the negro spiritual, which is gospel music. Gospel is also the mother of a lot of other secular music that America has produced.”
- Utar Artun: “An arranger, composer, pianist, and drummer, … originally from Ankara, Turkey,” Artun records for Berklee’s Jazz Revelation Records and has composed “over 120 compositions for symphony orchestras and more than 160 pieces for brass and big bands.”
- Andrus Madsen: Well known in Newton as the Minister of Music at the Second Church and founder of Newton Baroque, Madsen is also known internationally for his work in early music, performing on the organ, harpsichord, clavichord, and fortepiano.
- Sylvia Berry: “One of North America’s leading exponents of historical keyboard instruments, … Berry is known not only for her exciting performances but also for the engaging commentary she provides about the music and instruments she plays … up and down the keyboard in lightning-fast scales and passagework.”
Here’s a brief video overview of previous Newton Piano Summits:
