Paul Winter To Perform 30th Annual SUMMER SOLSTICE SUNRISE Celebration In June

Seven-time Grammy winning saxophonist Paul Winter's 30th Annual Summer Solstice Sunrise Celebration will take place at 4:30 a.m. on Saturday, June 21st at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, 1047 Amsterdam Avenue at 112th Street, New York, NY.

"Summer Solstice is one of the great turning points of the year, when the sun is at its peak and the days abound with the promise of life's fullness," Winter says. "Our aspiration, with this sunrise celebration, is to offer an experience of this resonance, in the mystical ambience of these early morning hours, through a deep listening journey within the awesome vastness of  the Cathedral."

"The ancients gathered at Stonehenge, to catch the first rays of the summer sun, in the lineage of universal acknowledgement of the Sun as a source of life, fertility, and good fortune. We have, in New York, this privilege of gathering in another stone forum, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. However, it has been an ongoing quest of our Summer Solstice Celebrations, over the years, to experience this turning point of the year in a new way – with the aural, rather than the visual – through the miracle of listening."

The Paul Winter Consort will include Paul Winter, soprano sax; Eugene Friesen on cello, pianist Henrique Eisenmann, and Tim Brumfield on the Cathedral organ.

The Consort will once again be able to feature the Cathedral's fabled Aeolian-Skinner pipe organ in the Summer Solstice music. In 2019, a fire in the crypt filled the Cathedral's historic organ with corrosive smoke, badly damaging the more than 8,500 pipes of the instrument. Now, after more than five years and a multi-million dollar restoration, the great organ is back in action. It will be played by Tim Brumfield, longtime Consort colleague and former Cathedral organist.

Why 4:30 a.m.? Paul Winter responds, "When I'm awake in the darkness before dawn – as the birds begin to sing and the Earth prepares to greet the Sun – I feel as if life is beginning again. There's something magical about that virginal time, when we're free of our habitual patterns and obligations. My dream of evoking this feeling in music was the original inspiration for our Summer Solstice Celebration. Our music begins in total darkness and proceeds in a continuous flow, emanating from different places in the Cathedral gradually. As the great stained-glass windows begin to illuminate, the light joins the sounds to carry us into the first dawning of summer.”

Immediately following the concert, all are invited to a tea reception in the nave of the Cathedral, where audience members can meet each other and the musicians. The reception is hosted by the Consort's friends from the Shumei Community of Japan, who offer complimentary green tea, roasted tea, and coffee.