CONCERT: 6 PM
HOUSE OPENS: 5 PM
(pay per order food and drink courtesy Sen Restaurant)
TICKETS ON SALE 10/23 at 12 PM
Choose your own reserved seats! (Click here for Floor map)
FRONT ROW TABLES
General Ticket: $49 per seat
Member Ticket: $44 per seat
SECOND ROW TABLES
General Ticket: $39 per seat
Member Ticket: $35 per seat
THIRD ROW TABLES
General Ticket: $29 per seat
Member Ticket: $26 per seat
“It’s not the things you do at Christmas time but the Christmas things you do all year through.”
– The Secret of Christmas, Ella Fitzgerald
April Varner, a supreme vocalist, bebop technician, and contemporary storyteller invites audiences to a beautiful evening of holiday songs and homages to Ella Fitzgerald. Praised by DownBeat as an artist with “impressive range,” and by The New York City Jazz Record as “masterful in improvisational scat and the art of vocalese, Varner dazzles, connects, and deeply resonates with audiences across generations.
Varner is joined by Konrad Paszkudzki on piano, an artist who is recognized for his interpretations of classic American Jazz and the Great American Songbook and hailed as a “rising-star pianist” by JazzTimes. In the words of Wynton Marsalis, “he has a pearly touch, a sense of history, a sense of drama, a love of the blues, and an elegance which is borne of high minded dedication"
Join us early starting at 5 PM to purchase a drink and/or small bite to eat from Sen Restaurant’s mobile team, and settle in for a cozy evening of music that warms our hearts and lights up our souls.
ABOUT THE PERFORMERS
APRIL VARNER
Vocalist
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APRIL VARNER has gained steady momentum as a supreme vocalist, a bebop technician and a contemporary storyteller. The Toledo-born New Yorker has toured the world as a leader and a highly sought collaborator, and her music has received wide recognition in the New York City Jazz Record, Hot House Jazz Guide, NPR affiliate WRTI Radio, DownBeat, Paris-Move and UK Jazz News, among others.
Dazzling audiences with her growing mastery of the American Songbook and her creative approach to the vocalese tradition, April also shares videos online, many of which have gone viral, working through her own transcriptions of iconic solos from architects of hard bop, and amassing more than 100K+ followers on Instagram. But what fuels April’s artistry is her desire to connect with other improvisers. She has collaborated with a roster of emerging artists and living legends, including Kurt Elling, Jane Monheit, John Pizzarelli, Ulysses Owens, Jr., Theo Bleckmann, Yasushi Nakamura, Benny Benack III, Emmet Cohen, Nicole Zuraitis, Luther Allison, Chico Pinheiro, Leandro Pellegrino, Dayna Stephens, Reuben Rogers and the recently departed Russell Malone.
She also has enjoyed wide recognition on the competition circuit as a Rising Star Jazz Vocalist in the 73rd and 74th Annual DownBeat Critics’ Poll; winner for one of DownBeat’s Best Albums of 2024; recipient of Honorable Mention in the ASCAP Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composers Competition and Winner of the 2023 International Ella Fitzgerald Jazz Vocal Competition. "
As First Prize Winner of the Young Concert Artists International Auditions, Narek was presented in debut recitals in New York at Merkin Concert Hall and in Washington, DC at the Kennedy Center. He has also performed at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall and the Morgan Library and Museum in New York, Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and for the Washington Center for the Performing Arts, Lied Center of Kansas, Buffalo Chamber Music Society, Artist Series Concerts of Sarasota, Weis Center for the Performing Arts, and Arizona Friends of Chamber Music. In recent seasons he has performed as soloist with the Riverside Symphony at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall, the Bard Festival Orchestra at Fisher Center and in recital at the Harvard Club, Ithaca College in New York, and Evergreen Museum and Library in Baltimore.
This season, Narek will perform the Mozart Concerto as soloist with the Edmonton Symphony in Canada and in recital at Brownville Concert Series in Nebraska.
Narek has performed extensively in Australia, Asia, and in Europe, including at the Musée du Louvre in Paris and the Palazzo del Principe in Genoa. He has appeared at the Tanglewood Music Festival, Marlboro Music Festival, Juilliard’s ChamberFest, the New York Festival of Song, Bard Music Festival, Bridgehampton Music Festival, Krzyzowa Music Festival in Poland, and Germany’s Usedomer Musikfestival. He has also performed as both a clarinetist and Klezmer soloist for the Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish off-Broadway production. In addition, Narek recently performed and spoke at the House of Representatives in Boston, Massachusetts for the 104th Anniversary Commemoration of the Armenian Genocide.
Born in Armenia, Narek’s family moved to Moscow when he was three. As a teenager, he won First Prizes in the International Young Musicians Competition in Prague and the Musical Youth of the Planet Competition in Moscow. He graduated from the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory as a student of Evgeny Petrov, received a bachelor’s degree from The Juilliard School, where he worked with Charles Neidich, and then earned a Master’s Degree with Mr.
Neidich at the Manhattan School of Music on a Leon Russianoff Memorial Scholarship.
KONRAD PASZKUDZKI
Pianist
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KONRAD PASZKUDZKI is recognized as one of the foremost interpreters of classic American jazz and the Great American Songbook.
Born in Perth, Australia, to Polish parents, Konrad discovered a passion for jazz at an early age. At just 15, he was admitted to the prestigious West Australian Academy of Performing Arts, where he completed his undergraduate degree in jazz piano. He quickly emerged as one of Australia's leading young jazz musicians, touring extensively with internationally acclaimed trumpeter James Morrison, who famously remarked, "To put it simply, he is jazz."
In 2009, Konrad moved to the United States on full scholarship to attend the University of Miami, earning his Master of Music degree at the age of 22. Three years later, he relocated to New York City, where he led the house trio at the renowned nightclub 54 Below before joining the John Pizzarelli Trio. Over the next seven years, he performed more than 1,000 concerts throughout North America, South America, Europe, and Asia, appearing at many of the world's most celebrated jazz clubs, concert halls, and festivals, including Café Carlyle, Birdland, The Blue Note, Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Blues Alley, Ronnie Scott's, the Montreal International Jazz Festival, and Walt Disney Concert Hall.
Throughout his career, Konrad has performed and recorded with an extraordinary roster of artists, including Wynton Marsalis, Bucky Pizzarelli, Christian McBride, Jeff Hamilton, the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, Bette Midler, Terrell Stafford, John Clayton, Debbie Harry, Jane Monheit, Catherine Russell, Monica Mancini, Samara Joy, Terry Gibbs, Bernard Purdie, Carl Allen, Daniel Jobim, Gary Burton, Kevin Mahogany, Pasquale Grasso, Benny Benack, Stella Cole and Joe Piscopo, among many others.
A Yamaha Artist and exclusive recording artist for Japan's prestigious Venus Records, Konrad is celebrated for his swinging, lyrical piano style that draws inspiration from Oscar Peterson, Erroll Garner, Ahmad Jamal, and Nat King Cole while honoring the timeless music of Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Jimmy Van Heusen, and other masters of the Great American Songbook. His trio has released eight critically acclaimed albums for Venus Records, earning an international following among jazz audiences.
In addition to maintaining an active international touring and recording schedule, Konrad has held a long-running residency at the legendary Carlyle Hotel in New York City for more than a decade. He serves on the Board of Directors of The Lyric Chamber Music Society, a New York-based organization dedicated to presenting classical and jazz performances and educational outreach programs across the United States. Konrad has also served as Artistic Director for several nonprofit organizations, music platforms, and arts institutions dedicated to preserving, promoting, and celebrating classic American jazz and the enduring legacy of the Great American Songbook.
Whether on the concert stage, in the recording studio, or as a curator and educator, Konrad remains dedicated to preserving and advancing America's great jazz tradition.