Judy Carmichael
This concert will be a kickoff event for CSCC to become an All-Steinway school, a distinction held by only 135 institutions in the world.
Founded in New York in 1853 by German immigrant Henry Engelhard Steinway, Steinway & Sons is reputed to be one of the world’s finest makers of pianos. A Steinway grand piano takes nearly a year to build, and as many as 200 people may be involved in assembling its more than 12,000 parts.
A native of California, Carmichael moved to New York in the early 1980s and has maintained a busy concert schedule throughout the world ever since. She has toured for the United States Information Agency throughout India, Portugal, Brazil and Singapore.
In 1992, Carmichael was the first jazz musician sponsored by the United States government to tour China.
The musician critics have referred to as “astounding, flawless and captivating” (The New York Times) has played in a variety of venues from Carnegie Hall, to the Peggy Guggenheim Museum in Venice (the first concert ever presented by the museum) to programs with Joel Grey, Michael Feinstein, Steve Ross and the Smothers Brothers and countless festivals internationally.
In addition, Carmichael has done comic skits and performed her music on radio and TV (“Jo Soares” in Brazil, “Entertainment Tonight” in the U.S. and others) and performed recitals for everyone from Rod Stewart and Robert Redford to President Clinton and Gianni Agnelli.
Carmichael hosts and produces her own Public Radio Show “Judy Carmichael’s Jazz Inspired,” broadcast on more than 170 stations throughout North American and abroad and on NPR’s Sirius Satellite channel and XM Radio.
Carmichael also produced and hosted the 15-part series “Pet Style Radio with Judy Carmichael.”
Carmichael is one of a handful of musicians who approach jazz from a perspective of its entire history. Choosing to study jazz piano from its early roots on, she explores the music deeply, infusing it with a “fresh, dynamic interpretation of her own” (Washington Post).
The National Endowment for the Arts rewarded Carmichael’s knowledge of jazz piano with a major grant to present early jazz greats on film and to discuss the history and development of jazz piano with college students across the country.
Carmichael’s Grammy-nominated recording “Two-Handed Stride” teamed her with four giants of jazz, bassist Red Callender, drummer Harold Jones, guitarist Freddie Green and saxophonist Marshall Royal.
She has written two books on stride piano and numerous articles on the subject of jazz. She has served on a variety of music panels at the National Endowment for the Arts, spoken before the National Council on the Arts advocating for individual fellowship grants, and is one of the few jazz pianists honored as a Steinway Artist.
She has been included in a number of jazz anthologies and at one point, to her utter surprise, turned up in the Simon and Schuster murder mystery Murder Times Two as “the stride pianist Judy Carmichael,” the main suspect’s favorite piano player.
A master class will take place during the morning of Monday, Nov. 14, at 10 in the George R. Johnson Cultural Heritage Center Theater. The class is free and open to the public, and no knowledge of jazz or prior music experience is required.
Like the master class, the concert is free and open to the public. To order tickets, go to the Cleveland State website at www.clevelandstatecc.edu and click on the Judy Carmichael concert button.
Tickets will be mailed on or before Nov. 7. CD’s and books will also be available at the concert for purchase, and Carmichael will be signing autographs after the concert.
For more information about the concert or the master class, contact Tracey Wright, director of special programs and community relations, at 423-472-7141, ext. 341 or by email at twright05@clevelandstatecc.edu.
