April 8, 2009
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 concludes Monday, April 27, with a screening of Music Inn: A Documentary Film, which details the vibrant jazz and folk music scene that existed in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts in the 1950s and early 1960s, followed by a discussion with the film’s producer and acclaimed drummer, composer and bandleader George Schuller at 5 p.m. in Pruyne Lecture Hall on the school’s campus.  The event is free of charge and open to the public.

Schuller has released several albums, including Round’bout Now and JigSaw. He leads several groups (Circle Wide, Schulldogs) and co-leads several others (Free Range Rat, Conference Call). He also appears on Joe Lovano’s Rush Hour and has recorded or produced albums with Orange Then Blue, Ran Blake, Luciana Souza and Gunther Schuller. Since graduating from the New England Conservatory of Music in 1982, he has performed with Dee Dee Bridgewater, Nnenna Freelon, Jaki Byard and Dave Douglas, among many others. Son of former Lenox School of Jazz (Music Inn) faculty member Gunther Schuller, George was only eight months old when he was first taken to the Music Inn.

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, 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.

For more information about the film screening, 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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