The Great American Songbook with Shana Farr & Jon Weber

3801 Ponderosa Street,Columbia MO 65201

06 April, 2023

Description

Shana Farr travels home to Columbia, Missouri with the world-renowned jazz pianist and music director, Jon Weber for a one-night-only concert event before heading to St. Louis. With over ten years of making music together, they will bring some of their favorite songs from their past shows. Songs by the great composers and lyricists of Broadway and Hollywood from Bernstein, Lerner & Loewe, Henry Mancini, Johnny Mercer, Cole Porter, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Stephen Sondheim, Carly Simon, Maury Yeston and more. The audience will help select a few pieces as well! ...And Jon Weber will be playing the piano that once belonged to the great American pianist and composer of ragtime, John "Blind" Boone at the Boone County History and Culture Center. SHANA FARR: Shana is a classically trained actress/singer and award-winning supper club/cabaret/concert performer who has played at venues such as Carnegie Hall (Weill Recital Hall), Jazz at Lincoln Center (Rose Theater), Feinsteins at The Regency, Feinsteins/54 Below, Birdland Jazz Club, Amarnick-Goldstein Concert Hall, Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center, and The Missouri Theatre as well as London's Crazy Coqs and The Pheasantry to name a few; and in 2022, she added Westminster Abbey to her roster. She has performed leading roles in musical theater, operettas and plays. New York highlights are: Ruth in Blithe Spirit, Marion Paroo in The Music Man, Hanna Glawari in The Merry Widow, Miss Lucy in Sweet Bird of Youth, Titania/Hippolyta in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Laurey Williams in Oklahoma!, Melissa Gardner in Love Letters, the title role of Princess Ida, Princess Margaret in The Student Prince, Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance, and Elsie Maynard in The Yeomen Of The Guard at venues including New York City Center, McCarter Theater, York Theatre Company, Rhynsburger Theatre, and with the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera amongst others. More Here JON WEBER: Jazz pianist Jon Weber has recorded and toured all over the world, winning numerous honors for performance and composition - scoring extensively for television since 1987. Gary Burton, Roy Hargrove, Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen and Avishai Cohen have all recorded Jon’s music, and his critically-acclaimed release, SIMPLE COMPLEX, rose to #1. Jon lives in New York City and hosts NPR’s “Piano Jazz with Jon Weber” after frequently serving as guest host for Marian McPartland. Weber is a consummate post-bop musician with a lithe technical ability and an ear for complex harmonic compositions. Largely self-taught, Weber displayed a knack for reinterpreting melodies early on and by age 3 could often have been found playing children's tunes on a toy organ. By his teens, he was attempting his own compositions and performing regularly with his jazz quintet occasionally opening for such big names as Freddie Hubbard and Stanley Turrentine. Around age 16, Weber began playing guitar and taught himself counterpoint, a skill that eventually garnered him experience arranging for various local ensembles including the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. Weber's post-high school years found him attending Wisconsin University and eventually settling in Chicago in the late-'80s. Since that time he has performed and recorded with a wide array of jazz artists. He released his debut album, Jazz Wagon in 1993 and the follow-up, Simple Complex in 2004. Showcasing an all-star group of jazz associates including trumpeter Roy Hargrove, tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander and vibraphonist Gary Burton, Simple Complex features compositions Weber began in high school and rediscovered years later. Nowbased in New York City, Weber travels extensively as a soloist and as a highly sought music director for top jazz and cabaret performers. More Here