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Quincy Jones Presents Young Jazz Talent at The Broad Stage, Santa Monica

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As part of The Broad Stage’s Jazz Council Initiative, the Quincy Jones Presents series kicks off this fall with an astonishing array of musical talent. The series starts with a concert with Justin Kauflin on November 22nd. Kauflin, a talented young pianist who lost his sight due to a rare eye disease at 11, will be the subject of Academy-Award winning producer Paula Dupre Pesmen’s upcoming documentary, Keep on Keepin' On.

The series continues into 2014 with performances by Singapore-born guitarist, singer, and songwriter Shun Ng on January 11th and pianist Emily Bear on February 22nd.

Produced by legendary producer, composer, musician and 27-time Grammy® Award-winning artist Quincy Jones, in partnership with Ben Wendel, an acclaimed Grammy nominated musician/producer, the Quincy Jones Presents series will focus on jazz mentorship and creating opportunities for young artists.

“Our goal,” says Wendel, who also produces the Under the Radar music series at The Edye, “is to expand jazz offerings in Los Angeles, increase jazz awareness and increase opportunities for young musicians.

“The fact that Quincy Jones is lending his support to The Broad Stage is great for the theater, but also for jazz in LA.”

The Jazz Council Initiative marks the commencement of the next five years of groundbreaking programming, original productions and an expanded capacity to create and produce innovative and compelling works at The Broad Stage and its adjacent black box space, The Edye Second Space.

In addition to Quincy Jones and Ben Wendel, The Broad Stage’s Jazz Council consists of music great, the Grammy® Award-winning composer and A&M Records Co-founder Herb Alpert; Jazz Bakery’s Ruth Price and Jeff Gauthier; owner of the Blue Whale jazz club, Joon Lee; West Coast Director of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, Daniel Seeff; and Grammy® Award-winning singer-songwriter Luciana Souza.

Quincy Jones Presents Justin Kauflin - Friday, November 22, 2013 / 8pm: Voted 2012's “Jazz Artist of the Year" by VEER Magazine, this talented young pianist lost his sight due to a rare eye disease at 11, but persevered to become one of 12 pianists selected worldwide to compete in the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz International Piano Competition. For the last three years, Academy-Award winning producer Paula Dupre Pesmen has followed Kauflin for the upcoming documentary Keep on Keepin' On.

Quincy Jones Presents Shun Ng – Saturday, January 11, 2014 / 8pm: Shun Ng is a gifted guitarist, singer, and songwriter who - despite having little access to music as a child in Singapore - is an acclaimed international performer. Known for his unique style of guitar-playing that infuses elements of Funk, Blues, Jazz and Motown, Shun dazzles audiences with his Fingerstyle technique and passionate groove.

Quincy Jones Presents Emily Bear – February 22, 2014 / 8pm: Only 12-years-old, Emily is an astonishing musical talent – composing, orchestrating and performing in a surprisingly diverse collection of styles. Her huge talent as a pianist is on display in the appropriately named album Diversity, her first album for Concord Records/Quest Records. For her concert at The Edye, Emily will seamlessly move from Classical to Jazz and Be-bop, demonstrating why Quincy Jones describes her as a “complete 360-degree package.”

Under the leadership of Director Dale Franzen and Artistic Chair Dustin Hoffman, the Broad Stage at the Santa Monica College Performing Arts Center opened its doors in October 2008. Inspired by Italian “horseshoe" theaters, yet conceived in an absolutely contemporary vernacular,The Broad Stage is an artist’s dream and an audience’s delight. Unlike any performance space inthe country, it is sublimely intimate with 499 seats and strikingly grand at the same time – allowing eye contact with artists from the boxes to the back row – forging a new kind of artist and audience experience in Los Angeles. Theater shows, dance, film, operas, musicals, symphony and chamber orchestras are presented on one of the city’s largest proscenium stages. In addition to The Broad Stage, The Edye Second Space, a smaller black box theater, presents new, developing and innovative work in theater, music and dance as part of the Under the Radar Series. Featuring younger, innovative artists and chamber pieces and plays, programming at The Edye is intentionally spontaneous, reflecting the dynamic nature of the space and allowing the latest, most exciting artists to be booked on short notice. The Broad Stage Arts Insights education and outreach program offers opportunities for cultural exposure through various student events, currently reaching 12,000students and diverse community members annually through over 30 free and low-cost events.

Quincy Jones was named by Time magazine as one of the most influential jazz musicians of the 20th century. For more than sixty years, Jones’ exceptional career has encompassed the roles of composer, record producer, artist, film producer, arranger, conductor, instrumentalist, TV producer, record company executive, magazine founder, multi-media entrepreneur and humanitarian. As a master inventor of musical hybrids, he has shuffled pop, soul, hip-hop, jazz, classical, African and Brazilian music into many dazzling fusions, traversing virtually every medium, including records, live performance, movies and television. As producer and conductor of the historic “We Are The World” recording — the best selling single of all time — and Michael Jackson’s multi-platinum solo albums Off The Wall, Bad and Thriller - the best selling album of all time, with over 50 million copies sold — Jones stands as one of the most successful and admired creative artist/executives in the entertainment world. He is the all-time most Grammy® Award-nominated artist with a total of 79 Grammy® Award nominations and holds the record with 27 Grammy® Awards. Jones has worked with such iconic artists as Miles Davis, Sarah Vaughan, Ray Charles, Dizzy Gillespie, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Dinah Washington, Cannonball Adderley, Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder, Tony Bennett, Herbie Hancock, Chaka Khan, Usher, Mary J Blige, John Legend, Robin Thicke, Alicia Keys and many, many more.

Grammy® Award-nominated master musician Ben Wendel has received numerous accolades for his expansive career as a composer, producer, conductor and founding member of the Grammy® Award-nominated group, Kneebody. Educated at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, highlights of his career include multiple domestic and international tours with such distinguished artists as drumming legend Ignacio Berroa, Thelonious Monk Piano Competition-winner Tigran Hamasyan, hip hop artist Snoop Dogg and Prince. In addition to playing saxophone and bassoon, Wendel also doubles on the piano. As a composer he has received an ASCAP Jazz Composer Award, was a winner in the 2007 International Songwriting Competition and received the 2008 and 2011 Chamber Music America “New Works Grant.” He is a former Adjunct Professor of Jazz Studies at USC and currently an Adjunct Professor at The New School in New York City. Since 2008, Wendel has produced The Broad Stage’s multi-genre performance series, Under The Radar.

The Broad Stage is located at 1310 11th Street, Santa Monica CA 90401. Parking is FREE.

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