April 03, 2006 -

Ottawa, Canada -- The National Arts Centre Orchestra will present the final two jazz masterclasses in its “Manhattan on the Rideau” series which uses broadband videoconferencing to link leading jazz faculty members of Manhattan School of Music (MSM) with accomplished music students at the National Arts Centre. Grammy-Award winning producer and arranger Mike Abene will teach jazz arranging on Wednesday, April 5, and vocalist Peter Eldridge will teach jazz vocals on Wednesday, April 19. Both sessions, produced by the NAC’s Hexagon Project in association with MSM, will take place in the NAC’s Fourth Stage from noon to 14:00. Admission is free.

Keyboardist Mike Abene (pronounced a-BEN-nee) will be demonstrating jazz arranging with the McGill Jazz Orchestra (Joe Sullivan, director) from the Schulich School of Music at McGill University in Montreal. The ensemble will have submitted and will then perform its own compositions for Mr. Abene who will then offer critiques. While they are in town, the McGill Jazz Orchestra will also perform a jazz concert at the Bayou Blues and Jazz Club (www.thebayou.ca), 1077 Bank St. (across from the Mayfair Theatre) on April 5 at 20:00; and will teach a school workshop at Nepean High School on April 6.

Michael Abene is a composer, arranger, keyboard player, and record producer. Michael joined the Maynard Ferguson band while still a teenager and was responsible for writing some of their most requested arrangements. He produced the Grammy-winning projects Digital Duke, featuring the Duke Ellington Orchestra, and The GRP All-Star Big Band-All Blues. He produced the Grammy-nominated GRP All-Star Big Band and The GRP All-Star Big Band Live and received nominations in the arranging category for all three big band records. Some of the other artists Michael has composed/arranged for are Dave Grusin, for which he received a 1998 Grammy nomination for the arrangement of “America” from Dave Grusin Presents West Side Story; Chick Corea; Buddy Rich; Dizzy Gillespie; the Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra; Liza Minnelli; Charles Aznavour; and the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band. Michael joined the faculty of Manhattan School of Music in January 1998, and in 2001 was instrumental along with department head Justin DiCioccio and the late Manny Albam in creating a course entitled “Jazz Composition and Arranging for the Studio Orchestra” and in 2003 creating a doctoral program in jazz.

Vocalist Peter Eldridge will teach a masterclass in jazz vocals to students from Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa. A masterclass is a one-on-one lesson in which a master musician teaches a selected student or ensemble under the watchful eyes of fellow students and members of the public. Thus the audience can learn from the master along with the talented student in the spotlight. Each masterclass involves 2 to 3 students in succession followed by question-and-answer.

Peter Eldridge continues to combine all facets of his musical talents into an eclectic mix of performing, recording, composing and teaching. He released his first two solo recordings in 2001 – the sophisticated pop of Fool No More, a collection of his original music, as well as the bittersweet standards found in Stranger in Town, featuring an all-star cast of jazz luminaries such as Michael Brecker, Lewis Nash, Claudio Roditi and Romero Lubambo. Both CDs were recorded for the independent label Rosebud Music. This comes after years of dynamic recordings with the Grammy award-winning vocal group New York Voices, which Peter co-founded with Darmon Meader. The group has been touring the world since 1989 and released its sixth CD in 2001, the critically acclaimed Concord album Sing Sing Sing, a swinging big band tribute produced by another Grammy winner, Elliot Scheiner. The New York Voices was recently voted “Favorite Vocal Jazz Group” in the 2002 Jazz Times reader poll.

- 30 -

For more information please contact:
Jane Morris, Communications Officer,
National Arts Centre Orchestra
(613) 947-7000, ext. 335
jmorris@nac-cna.ca