Live from Stone Chalet: Aaron Jonah Lewis

1917 Washtenaw Avenue,Ann Arbor MI 48104

16 January, 2022

Description

The second in our series partnering with the Stone Chalet Bed & Breakfast and Event Center. Stone Chalet is located at 1917 Washtenaw Ave, Ann Arbor, MI Limited in person seating available $20. Advanced registration recommended. Limited to 40 registered attendees. Livestream- donations accepted. “Lewis is one of the few performing musicians with the facility to build compelling musical bridges between the printed banjo music and techniques of the 19th century and the instrument’s journey into recorded sound by the turn of the 20th century.” Greg Adams, Archivist at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage Virtuoso banjo player and fiddler Aaron Jonah Lewis has been elbow-deep in traditional American music since their first lessons at the age of five with Kentucky native Robert Oppelt. Their concerts take audiences on a journey through the back roads of American old time and folk music, with detours through ragtime and early jazz. Lewis has taken blue ribbons at the Appalachian String Band Festival in Clifftop, WV, and at the Old Fiddlers Convention in Galax, VA, the oldest and largest fiddlers convention in the country. They spend most of their time teaching, touring as a solo performer, with the Corn Potato String Band, the Lovestruck Balladeers, and other projects. Lewis has appeared on dozens of recordings from bluegrass and old time to traditional jazz, contemporary experimental and Turkish classical music projects. They have taught workshops at the the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow and at the English Folk Dance and Song Society in London. They also play and teach banjo, mandolin, and guitar and are currently based in Detroit. As a banjoist, Lewis explores some interesting veins in the roots of Old Time, Bluegrass, Ragtime and Jazz music through their newest recording, “Mozart of the Banjo: The Joe Morley Project.” This project is devoted to the music of the great English prodigy and virtuoso composer Joe Morley (1867-1937), who wrote a significant body of great banjo pieces in a technique that people today call “classic fingerstyle.” Support for this concert is provided in part by the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, the National Endowment for the Arts, Stone Chalet Bed & Breakfast and Event Center and Michigan Medicine Gifts of Art. A unique non-profit arts organization, GLPAA was founded in 1978. Its mission is to encourage the cultural and artistic development of the Great Lakes region by supporting the performance careers of exceptional regional artists. By offering high caliber artists at affordable fees to regional performing arts presenters, we extend the strength and vitality of cultural enrichment to a greater and more diverse population. These presenters include college, church, and community concert series, regional orchestras, schools, libraries, and “non-traditional” venues such as community centers and nursing homes. Great Lakes PAA’s artists present concerts, recitals, master classes, workshops residencies, and educational programs throughout the Great Lakes region.   Because of its not-for-profit status, Great Lakes PAA can focus on artists’ talent and promise rather than their ability to finance the cost of managing a performance career. To that end, PAA seeks out and carefully selects talented artists from this region to join its roster and supports them by providing performance-career management services.