Celebrity Series of Boston Presents Regina Carter's SOUTHERN COMFORT Tonight

By: Oct. 17, 2014
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Celebrity Series of Boston will present Regina Carter's Southern Comfort tonight, October 17, 2014, at 8:00pm at Sanders Theatre, Memorial Hall, Harvard University, 45 Quincy Street, Cambridge. This performance is sponsored by Donna and Mike Egan. Additional support is provided by the Expeditions program of the New England Foundation for the Arts, made possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional support from the six New England start art agencies.

Tickets for Regina Carter's Southern Comfort start at $30, and are available online at www.celebrityseries.org, by calling CelebrityCharge at (617) 482-6661 Monday-Friday 10:00 a.m.- 4:00 p.m., or at the Harvard Box Office, Holyoke Center, 1350 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge.

This performance marks Regina Carter's third appearance with Celebrity Series; her Celebrity Series debut was in 2002 and her most recent performance was in 2007.

Violinist Regina Carter is considered the foremost jazz violinist of her generation. As a result of the curiosity and passion in her musical journey, she was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship (a "genius grant"). In Southern Comfort(Sony Music Masterworks), she explores the folk music of the South. Southern Comfort thematically connects Carter's earlier albums I'll Be Seeing You: A Sentimental Journey (2006), which features her mother's favorite early jazz standards, and Reverse Thread (2010), which celebrates the tradition of African music re-imagined for violin, accordion, bass, drums and kora. She explores the folk tunes her paternal grandfather, a coalminer, would have heard as he toiled in Alabama - and the project expanded to include other folk tunes of the region.

Intent on bringing the past to the present time, Regina sought out distant relatives and books about the era in which her grandfather lived. From there, she went to the Library of Congress and the renowned collections of folklorists such as Alan Lomax and John Work III, digging deep into their collected field recordings from Appalachia. On Southern Comfort, Regina interprets her own roots through a modern lens.

Southern Comfort includes Carter's interpretations of Cajun fiddle music, early gospel and coal miner's work songs in addition to some more contemporary tunes. The musicians on this recording bring a different mixture of backgrounds to the project, including guitarists Adam Rogers and Marvin Sewell, bassists Chris Lightcap and Jesse Murphy, accordionist Will Holshouser and drummer Alvester Garnett, who also provided arrangements. Stefon Harris, Xavier Davis and Nate Smith also contributed arrangements.

Educational Event:

Learning From Performers at Harvard University with Celebrity Series of Boston, presents:

"Down Home: The Musical Heritage of the American South" a conversation featuring Regina Carter.

Master of improvisational violin and recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, Regina Carter will participate in a conversation entitled "Down Home: The Musical Heritage of the American South," co-sponsored by Learning From Performers at Harvard University and the Celebrity Series of Boston. Moderated by Prof. Ingrid Monson, Quincy Jones Professor of African American Music, the conversation will cover Carter's career and her latest recording, "Southern Comfort," which she describes as "music suggested by my grandfather's roots in Alabama"-interpretations of Cajun fiddle music, early gospel, and coal miner's work songs in addition to some more contemporary tunes.

Thursday, October 16, 2014 at 5:30 PM
Leverett House Old Library, 28 Dewolfe Street
Admission free (tickets/RSVPs not required)

About Celebrity Series of Boston

Celebrity Series of Boston was founded in 1938 by pianist and impresario Aaron Richmond. Over the course of its 76-year history, Celebrity Series has presented an array of the world's greatest performing artists, including Sergei Rachmaninoff, Arturo Toscanini, Ignace Paderewski, Artur Rubenstein, Vladimir Horowitz, Glenn Gould, Fritz Kreisler, Jascha Heifetz, Isaac Stern, Andrés Segovia, Kirsten Flagstad, Marian Anderson, Luciano Pavarotti, Béla Bartók, Igor Stravinsky, Martha Graham, Ballet Russe De Monte Carlo, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Mstislav Rostropovich, and the New York City Opera Company.

The Celebrity Series has been bringing the very best performers-from orchestras and chamber ensembles, vocal and piano music, to dance companies, jazz, and more-to Boston's major concert halls for 76 years. The Celebrity Series of Boston believes in the power of excellence and innovation in the performing arts to enrich life experiences, transform lives and build better communities. Through its education initiatives, the Celebrity Series seeks to build a community of Greater Boston where the performing arts are a valued, lifelong, shared experience-on stages, in schools, at home- everywhere. For more information on Celebrity Series of Boston, call (617) 482-2595 or visit us online at www.celebrityseries.org.

The Celebrity Series of Boston, Inc. receives generous support from Amy & Joshua Boger; Donna & Mike Egan; Gabor Garai & Susan Pravda; David & Harriet Griesinger; Paul L. King; The Little Family Foundation; Susanne Marcus Collins Foundation; Eleanor & Frank Pao; The John S. and Cynthia Reed Foundation; Sanjay & Sangeeta Verma; Nancy Richmond Winsten; Charlesbank Capital Partners LLC; First Republic Bank; Foley & Lardner; Massachusetts Cultural Council;The Peabody Foundation; PTC; Tufts Health Plan; The D.L. Saunders Real Estate & Hotel Investment Group, AMO; Vertex Pharmaceuticals.

Photo Courtesy of The Celebrity Series of Boston's Website



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