The Harvard Opportunes
Festival Stage, Copley Square
10:00 a.m. - 10:45 a.m.

In 1980, two Harvard-Radcliffe students, Simin Yazdgerdi and Suzanne Goldsmith, transformed a loosely organized co-ed singing group called the Harvard Squares into Harvard’s first full-fledged mixed a cappella ensemble now known as the Harvard Opportunes. The group’s repertoire ranges from traditional jazz standards to contemporary pop, rock and timeless favorites. Over the years the Opportunes have won widespread acclaim for their intricate six-to-eight-part harmonies as well as for their stage presence and sense of humor. Though all are seasoned musicians, the Opportunes have academic concentrations spanning Harvard’s diverse curriculum, from biology to social studies to English. Our members hail from all over the country and the world and are involved in Harvard athletics, clubs, theater, publications, and service programs.

 

Sierra Hull
Festival Stage, Copley Square
11:00 a.m. - 11:45 a.m.

Articulate and engaging, Sierra Hull has already emerged as a leading light in a new generation of bluegrass musicians. Hull displays instrumental facility and musical maturity with Secrets, her national debut album. She began playing mandolin at age eight, and quickly became noted for her fluid, inventive picking, winning several mandolin and guitar championships. Hull has also developed into an exquisite vocalist, as amply demonstrated on Secrets.

Hull has made extensive festival appearances (such as Merlefest and Rockygrass), performances at the IBMA conventions and workshops, and the 2008 Americana Music Association Conference. She was also privileged to participate in the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) Honors and Awards show honoring Alison Krauss. She co-hosted (with Ryan Holladay) and performed at the Carnegie Hall Family Concert Series held in the renowned Isaac Stern Hall, and in February 2008 joined Ron Block, Bobby McFerrin, and Edgar Meyer at the same historic venue—after which the New York Sun praised her as a "wonderfully adapt" mandolin player and "a lovely singer."

 

Liz Longley
Festival Stage, Copley Square
12:00 p.m. - 12:45 p.m.

Liz Longley was recently named the grand prize winner of the 2009 Rocky Mountain Folk Festival's Songwriters Showcase. In addition to receiving a custom guitar, Longley will be performing next summer on the main stage of the prestigious festival. She was also honored as a finalist at Texas's 2009 Kerrville Folk Fest and New York's 2009 Falcon Ridge Folk Fest.

This past year, Berklee awarded Longley its highest honor for songwriting, the Scott Benson Scholarship. Her song "Rush" was chosen as the no. 1 song in Berklee's 2009 Songwriting Competition. She was recently selected by Berklee to represent the school at the annual Kennedy Center Conservatory Project in Washington, D.C. In addition to regularly sharing the stage with Livingston Taylor, Longley has opened for acclaimed acts such as Colin Hay, Nanci Griffith, Kenny Rankin, and Jonathan Edwards. Music icon John Mayer, who surprised Longley and fellow students when he broke into an impromptu rendition of her song "Queen," has described her music as "Gorgeous . . . just gorgeous!"

 

City Music All-Stars
Festival Stage, Copley Square
1:00 p.m. – 1:45 p.m.

The Berklee City Music All-Star Ensemble is composed of the best and brightest City Music students, all of whom have attended Berklee's Five-Week Summer Performance Program on full-tuition scholarships. The ensemble performs multiple genres of contemporary music, including jazz, pop, hip-hop, and rhythm and blues and is made up of talented urban teens from the Boston area. The All-Stars have performed in New York City at an event hosted by Quincy Jones to promote national music education for youth. The Berklee City Music program has also been nationally recognized as a recipient of the prestigious 2008 Coming Up Taller Award, and were featured performers at a ceremony, which took place in the East Room of the White House. 

 

 

Berklee Bob Marley Ensemble
Festival Stage, Copley Square
2:00 p.m. - 2:45 p.m.

The class entitled, The Music and Life of Bob Marley, was created by assistant professor of piano, Matt Jenson, at Berklee College of Music. Students enrolled in this class take an in-depth study of Marley's life, maintaining the utmost respect for the soulfulness of his music, for his message of love and his insistence that human consciousness be raised. Besides looking at Bob Marley as a person, they also perform his music on a weekly basis in the classroom. The group consists of auditioned singers and instrumentalists from around the world, ranging in age from 18-35. Jenson takes them on a biographical tour of Marley's fascinating life, and then rigorously coaches the ensemble for performances. The ensemble performs Jenson's meticulously written arrangements of the Jamaican icon's music, including additional horn parts, reharmonizations, and some new introductions and endings. The Berklee Bob Marley Ensemble has performed at many music venues and festivals, including the Montreal International Reggae Festival, the Vermont Reggae Festival, and the Berklee Performance Center.

 

 

Johnny Duke and the Aces
Festival Stage, Copley Square
3:00 p.m. - 3:45 p.m.

Johnny Duke and the Aces is a high-energy blues band that takes much inspiration from jazz, funk, country and rock. While having many original tunes to fill their sets, they also enjoy covering original versions of legendary tunes, covering a lot of inspirational ground. While adding a new edge to a classic style, Duke continues to impress with his showmanship, songwriting, and graceful guitar skills. In addition to sharing the stage with B.B King and David Bromberg, Duke has performed with Jimmy Buffett, Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, Jorma Kaukonen, Johnny Neel, and Toni Lynn Washington, among others. Duke is a recent graduate of Berklee, where he was showcased twice in their highly competitive Guitar Night. Through Berklee, he was invited to play the famous Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

 

 

Brady's Leap
Festival Stage, Copley Square
4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

The music of Brady's Leap has been described as "richly textured," in merry league with "a passion for the life of sound and word." Expect nothing less from this band of five poets and musicians who share their love of language and stories through music. Celtic ballads and snappy folk tunes, layered a cappella and instrumentals, from the eighth century to eight o'clock this morning--all of it fills the room and pulls each listener into every tune. Emerging from creative blends of folk, Celtic, rock, alternative, and blues, and the poetry of Ireland, Britain, and America, their latest CD, Heart of the Stranger, offers thirteen original or newly arranged songs, touching on subjects as far ranging as quantum physics and the Civil War. You'll hear a blues-country quarrel between a hard-bitten medieval Welsh poet and the women of his parish. You’ll hear a young lover dreaming whisky by the ocean, and weeping families boarding the infamous ‘Famine Ships’ for America— sung and played with dynamic harmonies, electric and acoustic guitar, fiddle, mandolin, bass, banjo, tin whistle, bones and bodhran.

 

Takeshi Ohbayashi
Boston Noir Launch Party
Boston Public Library, Johnson Building Lobby
7:00 p.m.- 9:00 p.m.

Japanese pianist Takeshi Ohbayashi, a finalist in the 2007 Montreux Jazz Festival's Solo Jazz Piano Competition, brings his innovative originals and arrangements to the Boston Noir. Ohbayashi was born in Hiroshima in 1987. He began to play piano at the age of two but changed to trumpet when he was 12. He met a jazz pianist recently who inspired him to take up the piano again and pursue his love of jazz. He quickly became recognized in his home city for his unique style, innovative original tunes and arrangements of jazz standards.

After establishing himself in Hiroshima and Tokyo, Takeshi won a scholarship to attend Berklee in 2007. He traveled to Montreux that summer to compete in the Montreux Jazz Festival's Solo Jazz Piano Competition. He was one of 16 semi-finalists chosen from hundreds of applicants worldwide. He is currently studying with Danilo Perez, Joanne Brackeen, Hal Crook, Dave Santoro, Ralph Peterson, and Terri Lyne Carrington.

 

Jordan Siegel
PRIVATE EVENT

Jordan Seigel_, from Westlake Village, California, started playing piano when he was five years old. Now at the age of 20, Seigel has performed at various prestigious events and venues such as Lincoln Center, the Berklee Performance Center, the Jazz Bakery, and the Playboy Jazz Festival. At Berklee, he has received several honors such as the Alex Ulanowski Award and the Jazz Performance Award. Jordan has been fortunate enough to study with Aaron Goldberg, Hal Crook, Russ Ferrante, Joanne Brackeen, and Danilo Perez.

 

Alex Wintz
PRIVATE EVENT

Born in California and raised in New York and New Jersey, Alex Wintz began playing guitar at the age of four. He has performed across the country and around the world, including in Singapore, Switzerland, and Canada; at the Monterey, Montreal, and Montreux jazz festivals; and at several U.S. venues including the Knitting Factory, Lincoln Center, Symphony Space, Smalls, Shanghai Jazz, and Ku'umbwa Arts Center.

Awards and honors include a Down Beat Student Music Award in 2006 for Outstanding Jazz Soloist in High School, Outstanding soloist at the NJ-IAJE jazz festival for 2 consecutive years, and an NJPAC Composition award; and seats the in New Jersey All-State Jazz Band and the New York Youth Symphony Jazz Band Classic.

Over the years, he has studied with great teachers such as Vic Juris, Hal Crook, Dave Santoro, Rick Peckham, Dave Stryker, and Joe Lovano. Alex is attending the Berklee and is in his junior year.

 

The Boston Book Festival thanks Berklee College of Music for sponsoring the music at Boston Book Festival 2009.