Don’t Forget! Yuletide Baroque Concert: Jazzin’ With the Classics

Friday, December 27, 4 p.m., Emmanuel Episcopal Parish

— from Jeffrey Cohan —

Emmanuel Episcopal Parish and Music at Emmanuel presents the seventh YULETIDE BAROQUE & BEYOND, this year subtitled for the second year in a row JAZZIN’ WITH THE CLASSICS FOR CHRISTMAS with soprano Linda Tsatsanis, jazz flutist, clarinetist and pianist Martin Lund and classical flutist Jeffrey Cohan on Friday afternoon, December 27, 2013 at 4:00 PM at Emmanuel Episcopal Parish in Eastsound. This completely new program follows last year’s immensely popular premiere. Please call (360) 376-2352 for more information. The suggested donation will be $10, and those 18 and under are free.

These three renowned classical and jazz artists and friends meld their musical perspectives in an unusual collaboration and a unique celebration of the Yuletide season that is guaranteed to generate an abundance of Christmas cheer. Tsatsanis, Lund and Cohan will team up to bridge contemporary improvisational jazz and the “art music” of baroque and renaissance times. Instrumental musicians have “jazzed up” melodies familiar to them in the style of their day for centuries, and this team’s virtuoso improvisations on Yuletide favorites, and their unique renditions of classical standards such as arias from Handel’s Messiah will bring together the best of jazz and classical worlds.

Soprano Linda Tsatsanis

LINDA TSATSANIS Hailed as “ravishing” (New York Times) and possessing “sheer vocal proficiency, a bright, flexible voice, big but controlled, shaded with plentiful color” (Boston Globe), Canadian soprano Linda Tsatsanis enjoys an active and diverse career. Ms. Tsatsanis’ versatile voice makes her equally comfortable on the opera stage and concert hall while being able to sing intimate renaissance song or world premier performances such as a stunning arrangement made for her, cello and string orchestra of the Preludes of Bach’s Cello Suites. Ms. Tsatsanis has appeared as soloist with the Seattle Baroque Orchestra, Auburn Symphony, Pacific Musicworks, Orchestra Seattle, Helios Opera, Pacific Baroque Orchestra and has recently been presented by the Early Music Society of the Islands (Victoria, BC), Indianapolis Early Music Festival, San Francisco Early Music Society, and Magnolia Baroque Festival. Ms. Tsatsanis holds degrees from the University of Toronto and Indiana University. She has a solo album with Origin Classical, And I Remain: Three Love Stories, described as a “seductive recital of the darker sides of 17th-century love” (Gramophone), and can also be heard on recordings by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Naxos. Currently Ms. Tsatsanis lives in Seattle, Washington.

Musician Martin Lund

MARTIN LUND Martin Lund, one of the most diverse musicians in the universe, has played with some of the great blues artists of our time and worked in the studios of LA as a composer, arranger and musician with artists like Mel Torme to Isacc Hayes. His eclectic background has allowed him to move freely through any style of music from classical to rock and from jazz to Broadway. He is equally adept at clarinet, saxophone, flute and piano. Martin is a well- known performer and teacher who produces one of Orcas Island’s most popular summer music events, The One World Music Festival, a jazz-based musical variety show with Orcas Island’s best musicians and top-notch talent from beyond the islands. Martin graduated from the University of Washington with a BA in both music and music education.

Flutist Jeffrey Cohan

JEFFREY COHAN Flutist Jeffrey Cohan has performed as soloist in 25 countries, both on modern and early transverse flutes from the Renaissance through the present. The winner of many important competitions and awards, he has performed throughout Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the United States, and worldwide for the USIA Arts America Program. Many works have been written for and premiered by him, including five new flute concerti since 2000. He is artistic director of the Capitol Hill Chamber Music Festival in Washington, DC, the Black Hawk Chamber Music Festival in the Midwest and the Salish Sea Early Music Festival in the Pacific Northwest. He can “play many superstar flutists one might name under the table” according to the New York Times and is “The Flute Master” (headline) according to the Boston Globe.