Kevin Harris Project

- Chamber Music | Improvisational Music -

This event is presented in collaboration with Celebrity Series of Boston Neighborhood Arts

Pianist & Composer Kevin Harris presents “P U L S E”, an exciting and compelling though-composed chamber work combining improvised and fully notated music.

A distinctive trait of jazz pianist Kevin Harris is his desire to constantly grow, evolve, improve, and advance. His interest to interweave traditional and contemporary music styles, visual arts, electronic media, science, and language, is what distinguishes his music and what renders his performances unique experiences, meant to activate the audience's senses and personal curiosity.

For a brief or prolonged moment, a pulse can disturb or comfort any definition of status quo.

With this new composition, Harris chooses to celebrate the pulse that moves within us as individuals and as a collective community seeking to positively move society forward.

“P U L S E” is a compelling chamber composition for oboe, clarinet, violin, cello, acoustic bass, and piano, that aims to stretch repertoire and foster connection among disparate audiences using improvised and written music with jazz and classical musicians performing alongside each other.

One of the captivating elements of his ensembles, from duet to orchestra setting, is the level of comfort and understanding they have with one another. Harris is known for his diving into soulfully expressive conversations and playful exchanges of ideas with his musicians, while always providing the space to improvise in the moment.

Harris, with his fellow artists, endeavors to remind listeners of our personal and collective vibrations in search of equilibrium.

This project is made possible in part by a Live Arts Boston grant from the Boston Foundation

VISUAL ARTIST:

ITSUO KIRITANI

- Paintings Exhibit -

For Itsuo Kiritani is an accomplished Japanese artist who now splits his time between Mission Hill, Boston and Tokyo, Japan. He is well known for his pen and ink sketches as well as his larger scale paintings. As a native of Tokyo, he has long witnessed the city changing through its policy of ‘modernization’. This prompted him to sketch and paint the distinctive housing, the streets, and the lives of people. The aim was not merely to record, but to show how rich and beautiful the lifestyle of these areas is and was. In his own words: “I want others to realize that such a connected lifestyle is especially important in today’s modern world.””