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Seven-time Grammy® winning saxophonist Paul Winter's 29th
Annual Summer Solstice Sunrise Celebration will take
place at 4:30 a.m. on Saturday, June 22nd
at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, 1047 Amsterdam Avenue at 112th
Street, New York, NY.
The Paul
Winter Consort will premiere a new musical journey,
"Adventures in the Universe," inspired by composer Charles
Ives' aural-vision of a "Universe Symphony," a work that Ives
never realized, but which he encouraged future musicians to explore.
Winter says, "Our aspiration is to use the extraordinary acoustics
and space of the Cathedral to create a soundscape which might awaken in
the imaginations of listeners some sense of the vastness of space and
time in the universe."
Playing
with the Consort for the first time will be special guest Jeff
Beal on flugelhorn. A renowned jazz instrumentalist and
composer, Jeff is perhaps best known for scoring the Netflix show House
of Cards, for which he won his fifth Emmy.
The
flugelhorn will be a companion voice to Paul Winter's
soprano sax, among harmonic tapestries created by Brazilian pianist Henrique
Eisenmann and organist Tim Brumfield.
"Summer
Solstice is one of the great turning points of the year, when the sun
is at its peak and the days abound with the promise of life's
fullness," Winter says. "The ancients gathered at Stonehenge
to catch the first rays of the summer sun, in the lineage of universal
acknowledgement of the sun as the source of life, fertility, and good
fortune. We have, in New York, the privilege of gathering in another
stone forum, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. However, it has been
an ongoing quest of our summer solstice celebrations, over the years,
to experience this turning point of the year in a new way – with the
aural rather than the visual – through this miracle of listening."
Why 4:30 a.m.? Paul Winter
responds:
"When I'm awake in the darkness before dawn –as the birds begin to
sing and the Earth prepares to greet the Sun – I feel as if life is
beginning again. There's something magical about that virginal time,
when we're free of our habitual patterns and obligations. My dream of
evoking this feeling in music was the original inspiration for our
Summer Solstice Celebration.
"We
begin playing in total darkness at 4:30 a.m., embarking on a continuous
musical journey. Somewhere near the halfway point, listeners gradually
realize that the Cathedral's great stained-glass windows are beginning
to illuminate, as the light joins the sound to carry us into the
dawning of the summer."
Yoga Mat Section: There will be a section of the nave roped off for yoga
mats, for people who want to enjoy this deep-listening experience lying
down.
Visit Paul Winter's website HERE.
Paul Winter on Facebook.
Paul Winter on Instagram.
Paul Winter Consort on YouTube.
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