The Carnegie Visual & Performing Arts Center hosts an evening to showcase budding local talent tomorrow, Thursday, January 21 at 7:30pm in the acoustically superb Otto M. Budig Theatre. The event will feature Cincinnati’s School of Creative & Performing Arts (SCPA) instrumental Jazz Combo, Meridian 8 vocal ensemble, and young composer and pianist Jonathan Carlisle. The event is the third in a series of six performances as part of the 2009-10 Carnegie in Concert series.
Meridian 8 is a vocal jazz octet featuring students in grades 9-12. Directed by SCPA music department chair Rick Hand, the ensemble features arrangements written for groups including Manhattan Transfer, and allows students opportunities to learn and practice improvisation and scat singing. The Jazz Combo is a similarly select ensemble of the school’s top instrumentalists, who cut their teeth on the masterpieces of the repertoire under director and respected local musician Erwin Stuckey.
SCPA pianist and composer Jonathan Carlisle will perform a number of original compositions. “It’s the type of music you hear in movies,” said Carlisle. “Strong melodies that you can really latch onto.” One piece Carlisle is particularly excited to perform at The Carnegie is entitled Metamorphosis. “It’s a dramatic piece about one thing evolving into another.”
Tickets to Carnegie in Concert performances are available for $18 at The Carnegie Box Office (Tuesday through Friday 12pm to 5pm), online, or by phone at (859) 957-1940. Students, holders of the Cincinnati Public Ratio Perks Card, members of the Carnegie, and members of Enjoy the Arts each receive a $3 discount.
Carnegie photo from CityBeat.