SUBSCRIPTION for three Sundays at 4:15 pm ($150)
SUBSCRIPTION for three Sundays at 7:15 pm ($150)
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All 2025 concerts will be in the 133-seat Vukasin Theatre in the Lesher Center for the Arts.
A limited number of single tickets may become available closer to each concert.
Nominated for five Grammys, singer/pianist Karrin Allyson moves with ease and authority from the Great American Songbook of Gershwin and Porter to the Great American Jazz Songbook of Duke and Thelonius and Miles and Dizzy, with infusions of the musical essences of Rio and Paris. Legendary jazz critic Gary Giddins said in the Village Voice: “Allyson brings a timbre that is part ice and part grain — incisive, original, and emotionally convincing.” This is an artist who brings plenty of heart and warmth to her singing, with an emotional range from bittersweet to sassy.
Her start: while attending the University of Nebraska Omaha on a classical music scholarship, Allyson began gigging as lead singer of “Tomboy,” an all-girl rock band. The NY Times has written “had Ms. Allyson followed a different path, she might have enjoyed a pop career along the lines of Bonnie Raitt’s “,
And the artist still says, “I am a Midwesterner at heart,” which perhaps explains her unassuming, clear-toned, deceptively sophisticated style.
Allyson lives in New York City but spends two days out of three on the road, performing at major jazz festivals, concert venues and clubs in the U.S. as well as repeated tours overseas — to Brazil, Japan, Australia and the great cities of Europe.
One of today’s most accomplished interpreters of the great jazz standards, John Pizzarelli is known for his brilliant guitar work and smooth vocals. On his thirty albums Mr. Pizzarelli has brought classic standards and late night ballads to a new generation ready to swing and swoon.He has gained a wide following from his numerous stage, screen and television appearances and is setting the standard for stylish, modern jazz.
He has been a special guest on recordings by such major names as Natalie Cole, Kristin Chenoweth, Rickie Lee Jones and Dave Van Ronk, as well as jazz artists such as Rosemary Clooney, Ruby Braff, Buddy DeFranco and, of course, his father Bucky Pizzarelli. He won a Grammy Award in the Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album category as co-producer of James Taylor’s American Standard in 2021.
Mr. Pizzarelli appeared on Broadway opposite Lesley Ann Warren, and has performed on on such national television shows as The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Conan, and Great Performances, the talk shows of Jay Leno, David Letterman, Regis Philbin as well as the the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Critics rank John Pizzarelli with the jazz greats who inspired him. “We’re as lucky to listen to Pizzarelli as Nat ‘King’ Cole fans were in the year before he became a legend,” raved The Village Voice. Fans agree; Pizzarelli has been named “Jazz Vocalist of the Year” in a Swing Journal Readers Poll.
At age nine Chestnut was enrolled in the prep program at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore. He later headed to Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he received the Eubie Blake fellowship, the Oscar Peterson scholarship, and the Quincy Jones scholarship.
After graduating from Berklee in 1985, Chestnut went on to work with vocalist Jon Hendricks and trumpeter Terrence Blanchard before joining jazz legend Wynton Marsalis. He toured for two years as the pianist for the Betty Carter Trio and has often said that playing with Carter was a form of graduate school.
By 1994, Chestnut had graduated from being an accompanist and band member by forming and leading his own trio, then releasing his major label debut album Revelations. The album, voted Best Jazz Album by the Village Voice, soared on the charts.
Chestnut has worked with such leading artists as saxophonists Donald Harrison and Joe Lovano; trumpeters Roy Hargrove and Freddie Hubbard; pianist Chick Corea, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Pops, and opera singer Kathleen Battle, as well as vocalists Vanessa Williams, Anita Baker, Bette Midler and Isaac Hayes.
Today he tours continually, playing at jazz festivals, clubs and concert halls around the world. He is a first call for the piano chair in such groups as the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and the Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Big Band. The NY Daily News has hailed Cyrus Chestnut as the rightful heir to Bud Powell, Art Tatum and Erroll Garner.
