People are buzzing about the upcoming show that some are calling “the greatest folk concert Long Island has seen in decades!”
On Nov. 20, the Hillwood Recital Hall at the Tilles Center for the Performing Arts on the Brookville campus of LIU Post will host “David Amram’s 84th Birthday Concert: Remembering Pete Seeger.”
Not only is it a birthday bash for a world-renowned artist and a musical celebration of perhaps one of the world’s most influential folk artists, it’s also a benefit for the nonprofit Gold Coast Arts Center, an organization dedicated to supporting and promoting the arts through education, exhibition, performance and outreach—something that Amram has done throughout his own long career.
Topping the bill is the octogenarian birthday boy himself, David Amram, and his quintet, featuring Kevin Twigg, Rene Hart, Robbie Winterhawk and Adam Amram. Also scheduled to appear are Amram’s close compatriots who’ve also shared the stage over the years with the late, great Pete Seeger, including Peter Yarrow (of Peter, Paul and Mary fame), Tom Chapin, Holly Near, Guy Davis, Garland Jeffreys, Kim & Reggie Harris, Joel Rafael, The Amigos, The Chapin Sisters, Bethany & Rufus and the Connecticut State Troubadour Kristen Graves.
“This family of musicians feels honored to mark David Amram’s 84th birthday with a celebration of the life of our mutual friend, Pete Seeger,” said Rafael on his website, adding that they still feel Seeger’s presence today.
Seeger was 94 when he died in January of this year.
“We credit Pete as a great organizer and musician who blazed a path for so many by indelibly linking his music and activism,” said Rafael. “We thank him for bringing songs like ‘Guantanamera’ and ‘Wimoweh’ to the United States; for turning the traditional song, ‘I Will Overcome,’ into ‘We Shall Overcome,’ and teaching it to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Pete Seeger brought American Folk Music into the homes of millions of Americans and those in countless countries around the world.”
David Amram is another trailblazer, whose musical journey as a composer, conductor, multi-instrumentalist and author has bridged classical, jazz and world music. He’s performed with Dizzy Gillespie, Willie Nelson, Leonard Bernstein, Tito Puente, Odetta, Allen Ginsberg, Nina Simone, Betty Carter and even Jack Kerouac, to name a few of the diverse talents with whom he’s performed for seven decades and counting.
Read about Jeck Kerouac’s time on Long Island
Who but Amram can claim Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, Aaron Copland, Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning as some of the influential mentors that helped him find his unique path? He continues to travel the world as a composer, conductor, soloist, bandleader, visiting scholar and narrator fluent in five languages. But on Nov. 20, he’ll be coming to Long Island’s North Shore: 720 Northern Blvd., Brookville, to be exact. The tantalizing evening kicks off at 7 p.m. at the Tilles Center for the Performing Arts. It promises to be a truly legendary night of great music.
The Gold Coast Arts Center is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting and supporting the arts through education, exhibition, performance and outreach. For more than 20 years, they have been bringing the arts to tens of thousands of people in our area free of charge. They also sponsor artist-in-residencies at schools, after-school art programs, special assemblies, teacher-training workshops, as well as parent-child workshops to students, senior citizens, teachers and others in underserved communities throughout our region. An affiliate of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts: Partners in Education Program and the National Gallery of Art, the Gold Coast Arts Center has also sponsored the Gold Coast International Film Festival, now in its fourth year, which has furthered their outreach.
Tickets went on sale Oct. 2, for $55 in advance, and can be purchased by visiting movementmusicrecords.com. For an additional $45, concertgoers can meet and greet the performers at a special VIP event backstage.
Hillwood Recital Hall at the Tilles Center for the Performing Arts, Long Island University at CW Post (aka LIU Post), 720 Northern Blvd, Brookville. 516-299-2752. For more information about this legendary gig, visit tillescenter.org.
To learn more about the Gold Coast Arts Center, go to goldcoastarts.org.
