New Performers Added to Clearwater’s November 9 Power of Song Benefit

Photo by Econosmith

Hudson River Sloop Clearwater will honor legendary musician and activist David Amram with the Power of Song Award on November 9, at Symphony Space in New York City. The evening will begin at 6:30 PM with the world premiere of the film “David Amram: The First 80 Years”, directed by Lawrence Kraman.

The concert will  begin at 8:30 PM with performances by featured artists Pete Seeger; Peter Yarrow, of Peter, Paul & Mary; legendary Cuban saxophonist, Paquito D’Rivera; singer-songwriter, John Sebastian; New Orleans blues and gospel pianist/singer, Henry Butler; folk great, Tom Paxton; blues-man, Guy Davis; folk singer-actor, Josh White Jr.; and youth musicians from Clearwater’s Power of Song programs.

New to the lineup are music festival impresario, George Wein; Native American artists Matoaka Little Eagle and Powhatan Swift Eagle; and the talented young musicians from the award-winning ensemble Face the Music and the David Amram Quartet.

George Wein is the world-renowned musician and founder of the Newport Folk and Jazz Festivals as well as the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, JVC Jazz Festival among many others around the world. In 2005 Wein received the designation as Jazz Master from the National Endowment for the Arts, the nation’s highest honor in jazz.

Matoaka Little Eagle and Powhatan Swift Eagle introduce audiences to Native American culture using music, dance and storytelling and have performed in the US, Canada, and Europe at such venues as Saint John the Divine Cathedral, Albany State Museum, Town Hall, Symphony Space, Lincoln Center, and Kanatsiohareke, the traditional Mohawk community in Fonda, New York.

Kaufman Center’s Face the Music youth ensemble is the only student ensemble in New York City dedicated to performing music by living classical composers. Face the Music was founded in 2005 by Dr. Jenny Undercofler with eight students with unique passion for experimenting with music, the ensemble has now grown to more than 100 teens and pre-teens from over 40 elementary, middle and high schools from across the New York City area.

David Amram (born 1930) is an American composer, musician, conductor, and writer. As a classical composer and performer, his integration of jazz (including being one of the first noted as an improvising jazz French hornist), ethnic and folk music has led him to work with the likes of Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton, Willie Nelson, Langston Hughes, Charles Mingus, Pepper Adams, Leonard Bernstein, Sir James Galway, Tito Puente, Mary Lou Williams, Joseph Papp, Arthur Miller, Miles Davis, Arturo Sandoval, Stan Getz, Pete Seeger, Elia Kazan, Odetta, Lord Buckley Dustin Hoffman, Steve Allen, Machito, Earl “Fatha” Hines, Allen Ginsberg, Nina Simone, Gregory Corso, Bob Dylan, Steve Goodman, Hunter Thompson, Johnny Depp and Jack Kerouac throughout the course of his career. 

Ticket prices are $60, $80 and $125. To purchase tickets, or for more information, visit www.SymphonySpace.org. 

Proceeds for the evening benefits Clearwater’s Environmental Education Programs. 

For sponsorship opportunities please contact Heidi Kitlas at 845-265-8080, extension 7118. For more information about Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, please visit www.clearwater.org.