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Gualala Arts
Promoting public interest and participation in the arts since 1961.
Archive of past events: 2004 through 2014
Following intermission, the exciting Elena Pinderhughes Quintet will feature 13-year-old Bay Area jazz flute sensation and vocalist Elena returning by popular demand. To conclude the concert, both jazz prodigies will join forces for the first time in a thrilling Grand Finale! The quintet will perform Latin jazz and standards. Look for some surprises as well. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. for beer, wine and a martini bar along with savory and sweet tapas plates available for purchase. Limited open cabaret seating at 7:00 p.m. with the show starting at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $35 if purchased in advance (or $5 more the day of the event, if available). Call Gualala Arts at (707) 884-1138 weekdays 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Visa and MC accepted. Tickets are also available at the Dolphin Gallery & Shop, Violet's Boutique and Four-Eyed Frog Books in Gualala. Festival Music Coordinator and KTDE 100.5 FM personality Fred Adler will emcee the concert. Special thanks to Coldwell Banker Pacific Real Estate. Elena Pinderhughes: Flute & Vocals
She has been studying jazz, Latin jazz, and classical flute for five years. She is a member of DC Berkeley's Young Musicians Program (YMP) and performs regularly with the YMP Junior Jazzers, the San Francisco Latin Jazz Youth Ensemble, and Catch 22, a group she founded with her brother, Samora, who plays piano and composes for the group. Catch 22's repertoire includes Brazilian bossa novas, Latin jazz, bee bop, straight ahead jazz, and original compositions and arrangements by Samora. Through YMP, Elena has had the extraordinary opportunity to take week long seminars with many jazz greats including Frank Foster, Patrice Rushin, Rodney Whitaker, Herlin Riley, and Marcus Belgrave and to perform with trombonist Wycliff Gordon. She has studied with teachers in the United States and Cuba. In the U.S. her teachers have included: Donna Viscuso, Michelle Caimoto, Geechi Taylor, John Galloway, Ledine Osuki, Jim Meredith, Candice Johnson, and her brother Samora. Elena has performed at Carnegie Hall, Yoshi's, Pearl's, Yerba Buena Garden Summer Festival, SF Grammy Awards Annual Meeting, SF's Brazilian Carnival, and many other venues. She was featured at last year's Whale & Jazz Festival, performing with the Montclair Women's Jazz Ensemble; Gualala Arts is eagerly awaiting her return performance. Her debut CD, Catch 22, is available through CD Baby. She is also featured on a jazz CD produced by the Young Musicians Program entitled Future Gold. She can be reached at pinderhughes@yahoo.com. Grace Kelly
Mother Irene Chang Kelly believes that learning piano is the best way to prepare for a lifetime of music, and so Grace began piano lessons at age six. She began with classical training but soon changed to jazz because she had the propensity not to stick to the notes on the page but wanted to make up her own melodies. Grace wrote her first song "On My Way Home" at age seven. All public school students in Grace's hometown are required to choose an instrument and take a year of school-sponsored instruction in fourth grade, and Grace chose the clarinet. But this fourth-grader had already gotten hooked on another sound: the warm, almost-human voice of the saxophone. Her mom always loved [saxophonist] Stan Getz and would be playing him at home when they had Sunday brunch. Grace always wanted to play saxophone, but they didn't let you take it until fifth grade. So she started on clarinet. Grace couldn't wait until fifth grade, so halfway through fourth grade she started private lessons on the saxophone. When Grace was 12 she met Ann Hampton Callaway, a renowned cabaret artist, prodigious recording artist and award-winning songwriter. Seeing all that Grace had accomplished in those two short years, it is no wonder that when Ann Hampton Callaway met Grace she declared of Grace that "her sensitivity, control and focus as an alto saxophonist is impressive. When I played some songs of hers for the legendary drummer Victor Lewis [who has played with Duke Ellington, Stan Getz, and many more], he said, 'Wow, I love her sound.'" Grace currently studies saxophone with Jerry Bergonzi, Lee Konitz, and Allan Chase. She also studies composition, arranging, flute, drums, and piano. Having participated in the certificate programs at both Brookline Music School and the New England Conservatory Preparatory School, Grace is the youngest ever to complete the four year Jazz Studies Certificate Program at New England Conservatory Prep School. Grace began taking voice lessons this past year although she has been singing since she could talk; her soulful, versatile voice is quickly becoming one of her trademarks whether she's crooning a love song or belting out the blues. She has kept up with piano all of these years, but now mostly uses those skills in conjunction with her creativity to write original songs. A visit to the Kelly's proves this very quickly, for Grace is frequently trying out a new idea for a song on the piano or guitar or listening to one of her creations via Sibelius, a music notation program, connected to her keyboard. "Grace has always had an innate creativity. When she was younger she never really needed toys because she could make up stories, songs, and dances - entertaining herself for hours by standing in front of a mirror and performing for her own reflection. She remembers Grace practicing piano and ten minutes later she'll be making up songs instead of practicing. She's a very creative being," remarked Mrs. Kelly. Grace plays the alto saxophone, soprano saxophone, piano, some clarinet, flute, drums, bass and sings. The styles of music that intrigue Grace are many. Although jazz is her first love she embraces blues, funk, rock and contemporary styles. Some of the artists on Grace's nightstand are Paul Desmond, Joshua Redmond, Johnny Hodges, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Brad Meldau and Pat Metheny. Dave Brubeck, Lee Konitz, Phil Woods, Billy Childs, Steve Wilson and Frank Morgan are some of the instrumentalists Grace is currently listening to. As for singers, Grace is inspired by Ella, Sarah, Billy, Carmen McRae, Shirley Horn, Dianne Reeves, Ann Hampton Callaway, among others. Grace loves old movies and more recent romantic comedies. Some of her favorite actors are Julia Roberts, Sandra Bullock, Hugh Grant, Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Orlando Bloom, Cary Grant, and of course Princess Grace Kelly What does the future hold for this emerging musical powerhouse? Grace says she hopes to become better and better at playing all her instruments and to do a lot more composing and arranging. "I just want to share my music with as many people as I can, hoping that my music gives as them joy and pleasure." As Ann Hampton Callaway predicts, "There is no telling how far this child prodigy will go with the limitless possibilities of her voluminous talents. Grace is following her heart and that path is sure to lead her on a great adventure that all listeners, lucky enough to discover her, will relish." Grace has grown up loving jazz, and Broadway musicals. She likes to listen to Charlie Parker, Paul Desmond, Stan Getz, Lee Konitz, Phil Woods, Cannonball Adderley, Johnny Hodges, Frank Morgan, Dexter Gordon, and many more. Some of her favorite singers are Ella Fitzgerald, Dianna Krall, Dianne Reeves, Stevie Wonder, Ann Hampton Callaway, and Roberta Gamborini. Grace Kelly is a saxophonist, singer songwriter, composer/arranger from Brookline, Massachusetts. Having studied saxophone since the age of ten, she is rapidly making her way up in the jazz music world. Grace's talents far outstrip others her age. Now just fifteen, Grace has already recorded and/or performed with many notable musicians: Lee Konitz, Phil Woods, Frank Morgan, Cedar Walton, Ann Hampton Callaway, Jerry Bergonzi, Terri Lyne Carrington, Chris Potter, Adam Rogers, Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops, Dianne Reeves, Christian Scott, Billy Hart, George Cables, Ronnie Mathews, James Moody, John Lockwood, James Cotton, James Montgomery and has performed in many notable venues in the U.S. and Europe such as Carnegie Hall, Birdland, Dizzy's Club Cocoa Cola, Jazz Standard, Scullers Jazz Club, Regatta Bar, Kennedy Center, Blues Alley, Newport Blues Café, Boston Symphony Hall, Dakota Jazz Club, B.B. King's, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and Jazz Festivals such as Tanglewood, Detroit, Twin Cities, Marblehead, East Coast, Pittsfield and as far away as Tromso, Norway at the Nordlysfestivalen, (Northern Lights Festival).
Earlier in the day...Gualala Arts Center will host the sixth annual Chowder Challenge along with wine and microbrew tasting on Saturday, April 5 from 11:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. The mid-day event will also include Traditional New Orleans Jazz by Barnebey's Hot Four.The $20 admission includes a commemorative Redwood Coast Whale & Jazz Festival beer or wine glass, plus 15 tickets that can be used for the chowder tasting, the wine and microbrew tasting, fresh-baked breads from local bakeries and other soft beverages. Patrons may purchase tickets for just the Chowder tasting alone, or additional tickets at $1 each.
The Gualala Arts Center, located at 46501 Old State Highway in Gualala, CA, |
Kicking off The Main Event Jazz Concert at Gualala Arts Center is 15-year-old Boston area brilliant alto sax sensation, composer and vocalist Grace Kelly with her inventive ensemble, performing familiar jazz standards and her original compositions.
Flutist and vocalist Elena Pinderhughes will be 13 years old by the time of the 2008 Whale and Jazz Festival Main Event.
Born Grace Chung on May 15, 1992 in Wellesley, Massachusetts to Korean parents, Grace moved to Brookline, MA when she was two years old with her mother and sister after her parents divorced. Grace's mother married Robert Kelly in 1997 and a few years later Grace and her sister Christina were legally adopted by her stepfather and thus her name became Grace Kelly. Grace was brought up by a family that greatly appreciates music and the arts. When she is not busy with her burgeoning musical career, Grace likes to dance, act, and hang out with her friends. She picked up the acting bug from her sister Christina, currently a student at Harvard University. Grace also has two stepsisters and a stepbrother: Heather, Sara and Tim. Tim was a sergeant in the Marines and served twice in the war in Iraq.