February 17, 2009
Contact: Karen Cardinal
Accounting, Web and Marketing Manager, Mead Art Museum
413/542-2551
Contact: Sara R. Leonard
Concert and Production Manager
413/542-2195


AMHERST, Mass.— The yearlong Amherst College Music festival Faultlines: Mapping Jazz in the 21st Century continues at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, March 10, with a concert saxophonist Bruce Diehl and guitarist Adam Larrabee in the 17th-century Rotherwas Room of the Mead Art Museum. The duo’s performance, which will draw upon a rich repertoire of jazz standards and original compositions, is free and open to the public. Seating is limited, so early arrival is recommended.

In conjunction with the jazz series’ exploration of “faultlines” between musical genres, the Mead is presenting an exhibition of prints that reinterpret canonical scenes and styles in ways that both reference and improve upon tradition. “Hendrick Goltzius’s Life of the Virgin: Surpassing Tradition, for example, explores this 16th-century artist’s series of six prints—known affectionately as his Master Prints—and their relationships to past masters, including Albrecht Dürer and Raphael,” explained the exhibition’s curator, Susan Anderson, interim Andrew W. Mellon Coordinator of College Programs.

Diehl, who directs the Jazz Ensemble and Jazz Combos at the college, is a member of the Jeff Holmes Big Band and has collaborated with Ingrid Jensen, Clark Terry, Branford Marsalis, Dave Pietro, the Eastman Wind Ensemble and many others. In addition, he has appeared as a performer, clinician and adjudicator at numerous colleges, music festivals and music camps and holds degrees from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the Eastman School of Music.

Larrabee recently appeared on recordings by Bruce Hornsby, classical mandolinist Marilynn Mair and the emerging sax prodigy Grace Kelly. He performs in a number of styles, such as classical music, bluegrass and jazz.  He has also been commissioned by the New England Conservatory’s Contemporary Music Festival, The Milton Academy Chamber Orchestra, The Virginia Commonwealth Classical Guitar Ensemble and other presenting organizations. A sought-after clinician, he has taught at the New England Conservatory and currently teaches at Virginia Commonwealth University, the University of Virginia and the Woodberry Forest School.

The Faultlines festival includes concerts, performance workshops, talks and roundtable discussions, all free and open to the public and all guaranteed to generate passionate debate about the nature of jazz and its relationship to American cultural identity. The festival is made possible through the generous support of the Amherst College Arts Series Fund; the Amherst College Departments of Music, English and American Studies; the Amherst College Mead Art Museum; the UMass Amherst Fine Arts Center’s Solos and Duos Concert Series and Magic Triangle Concert Series; and the Northampton Center for the Arts’ A World of Piano Concert Series.

The Mead Art Museum houses the art collection of Amherst College, totaling more than 16,000 works. An accredited member of the American Association of Museums, the Mead participates in Museums10, a regional cultural collaboration. During the academic term, the Mead Art Museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to midnight and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday. For more information, please visit the museum’s Web site, www.amherst/museums/mead, or call 413/542-2335.

For more information about Diehl and Larrabee’s performance, or any events associated with Faultlines: Mapping Jazz in the 21st Century, visit the festival website at www.amherst.edu/faultlines or call 413/542-2195.

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