Seven-time Grammy® winner Paul Winter’s 26th annual Summer Solstice Celebration will take place virtually on June 19, 2021, at 4:30 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time, from the cathedral-esque loft of Safina Center Creative Affiliate Paul Winter’s barn in the hills of northwest Connecticut. The concert, titled "Light of the Sun," will be live-streamed, with on-demand video available following the event.
Vocalist Theresa Thomason, whose exquisite, exuberant, and exhilarating singing voice has been beloved by the audiences of the Paul Winter Consort's Winter Solstice Celebrations for the past 25 years, will be the featured guest singer. “I have long felt that Theresa may well be the greatest yet-to-be discovered singer on the planet,” says Winter. Theresa Thomason is featured in the Consort’s recent album “Everybody Under the Sun.”
World-renowned cellist Eugene Friesen will be a special guest at this concert. Friesen has gained an international reputation as perhaps the most innovative cellist of our time. Eugene Friesen and Paul Winter will be part of a unique "Summer Consort," which will also include Brazilian pianist Henrique Eisenmann and bassoonist Jeff Boratko. This unusual ensemble, while only a quartet, will still have the original "three horn" configuration that has been primary to the Paul Winter Consort's instrumentation since the beginning. (Winter thinks of the cello as a "horn" also.) The great Aeolian-Skinner pipe organ of New York's Cathedral of St. John the Divine will also be heard in the concert.
Henrique Eisenmann is a young Brazilian pianist with deep roots in classical music and jazz, as well as the gamut of unique Brazilian genres. He came to the U.S. several years ago to study at New England Conservatory, where he is now on the faculty. He also teaches at City College of New York and is teaching improvisation to piano students at Juilliard. His first recorded collaboration with Paul Winter is on Winter's recent album “Light of the Sun.” Paul Winter describes Jeff Boratko as a "budding Renaissance man" who is a superb bassoonist and composer. "And he's the only bassoonist I know," continues Winter, "who is also an accomplished singer-songwriter."
From the early days of his college jazz sextet, which toured 23 countries of Latin America for the State Department and performed the first-ever jazz concert at the White House for the Kennedys in 1962, to his later ensemble, the Paul Winter Consort, Paul Winter’s concert tours and recording expeditions have taken him to 52 countries and to wilderness areas on six continents, where he has traveled on rafts, dog sleds, mules, kayaks, tugboats and Land Rovers. He has recorded over 50 albums, of which seven have been honored with Grammy® Awards. A free 8-track playlist, with music featuring each of the performers is available to stream or download HERE.
To purchase tickets, visit Stellar Tickets HERE.
More information about Paul Winter's 26th Annual Summer Solstice Celebration is available at solsticeconcert.com