Jazz

Born in New York and reared in North Carolina, Teddy Burgh started playing flute in junior high school. There was no money for private lessons, so Burgh diligently studied his band music and supplemented his appetite by learning to play along with songs on the radio. Jazz, blues, marches, R&B, soul, and gospel music filled the Burgh house and influenced his musical development.

A front-line advocate for arts education, Shana Tucker is an accomplished teaching artist, with over 20 years’ experience with community engagement, workshops, lesson planning and artist residency facilitation. She currently serves as Executive Director for Kidznotes, an El Sistema-inspired music-for-social-change organization in Durham, NC. Shana’s unique genre of ChamberSoul weaves jazz, roots, folk, acoustic pop, and a touch of R&B into melodies that echo in your head for days, engaging audiences of all ages through candid song-storytelling in performance.

Musician, bassist, and composer- Kevin Beardsley is an in-demand musician ready to support any group he is a part of and help them sound their best, live or in the studio. Born in Sandwich, Illinois, Kevin’s family quickly moved to Apex, North Carolina in High School where he started to connect with the Triangle scene. He completed his Bachelors in Music at UNC Chapel Hill in 2019. (During which he won the UNC 360 Jazz Initiative with his composition “Connection”) 

The Dominican Jazz Project began when Dominican-born jazz artist, Guillo Carias, invited American jazz pianist and composer, Stephen Anderson, to perform with him and jazz artists living in the Dominican Republic for the 2014 Jazzomania Jazz Festival in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic that was hosted by Tony Dominguez and Carlos Francisco Elías.  The concert and associated clinic went beautifully, and the drummer, Guy Frómeta, invited Anderson to return to Santo Domingo to perform with him in his group for the Casa de Teatro Jazz Festival a few months later.  It was there that Anderson met Sandy Gabriel, a nationally renowned tenor saxophonist.  Their collective friendship grew further with that experience, and following the festival, they agreed to record together.  The result was their 2016 self-titled CD release, The Dominican Jazz Project, that was recorded in the days following the UNC Summer Jazz Workshop where the artists served as guest faculty and where Anderson serves as director. Soon after, renowned Dominican percussionist, David Almengod, joined the group.

Billie Holiday’s unique vocal approach and advanced sense of rhythm made her one of the most important and influential vocalists in American history. Her relentless fight to be treated as an equal – as a musician, a female, and an African-American – made her one of the most important American figures in the 20th century. Join us as we detail how she developed her unique vocal style and how she blazed a trail for women and African-Americans that would pave the way for future generations. This show features a multimedia experience of live music, narration, images, and video footage.