GMF Concert: Kate McGarry & Keith Ganz Ensemble
Join us for an unforgettable evening of enchanting melodies and captivating rhythms as Grammy-nominated jazz virtuosos, Kate McGarry and Keith Ganz showcase their incredible talent and chemistry.
Band: Guitar - Keith Ganz, Bass - Paul Creek, Drums - Clarence Penn
Singers: Lead Vocalist - Kate McGarry
All programs subject to change.
Individual concert tickets: $35 adult; $10 college student with ID; FREE for youth aged 18 and younger
Season pass (8 concerts): 15% off
More information and tickets available at GenevaMusicFestival.com.
Wheelchair accessible.
About KATE MCGARRY & KEITH GANZ ENSEMBLE
With 8 critically acclaimed albums and 3 GRAMMY® nominations, vocalist Kate McGarry is recognized as a jazz artist who brings authenticity and vitality to every song regardless of genre. The Wall St. Journal calls her music, “austere and elegant, an exceptionally appealing blend of folk and jazz.” The New York Times pronounced her singing, “astute and sensitive.” She has toured and recorded with jazz illuminati Fred Hersch, Kurt Elling, Maria Schneider, John Hollenbeck, Billy Childs, Luciana Souza, Theo Bleckmann, and TONY Award Winner Jason Robert Brown.
During her decade in NYC, McGarry served as a Lincoln Center Teaching Artist, U.S. State Department Jazz Ambassador, and Jazz Arts faculty member at The Manhattan School of Music. Downbeat’s 2016 Critics Poll named McGarry the #1 Rising Star Female Jazz Vocalist. She has been featured on iconic NPR shows such as Jazz Set w/DeeDee Bridgwater, Piano Jazz w/Marion McPartland, All Things Considered, as well as a host of nationally syndicated radio shows.
Guitarist/arranger/producer Keith Ganz is a 2019 GRAMMY® nominee known for his uniquely melodic voice on both electric and acoustic guitars. Lauded as a “sublime master of subtlety” by JazzTimes, Keith has performed extensively with major jazz artists including Harry Connick, Jr., Tierney Sutton, Luciana Souza, Kurt Elling, Gretchen Parlato, Gary Versace, and Jo Lawry. TV appearances include Oprah, Ellen, The Late Show with David Letterman, The View, and Australian Idol.
Kate and Keith have been musical and life partners for 17 years, producing 7 critically acclaimed albums together and earning two GRAMMY® nominations for Best Jazz Vocal Album. After honing their craft on the NYC jazz scene for many years and a stint out west at the California Jazz Conservatory, the couple has made their home in Durham, NC. Their latest album What to Wear in the Dark features vibrant, jazz-fueled rearrangements of songs by iconic songwriters of the 70’s that address the journey of darkness to light.
About CLARENCE PENN
Clarence Penn is one of the busiest jazz drummers in the world, a leader of multiple bands, a composer, a prolific producer, and an educator.
Since 1991, when he arrived in New York City, Penn has placed his unique blend of mega-chops, keen intellect, and heady musicianship at the service of a staggering array of A-list artists—a chronological short-list includes Ellis and Wynton Marsalis, Betty Carter, Stanley Clarke, Steps Ahead, Makoto Ozone, Michael Brecker, Dave Douglas, Maria Schneider, Luciana Souza, Richard Galliano, and Fourplay. Penn’s impressive discography includes several hundred studio albums (including the Grammy-winning recordings 34th and Lex by Randy Brecker and Concert in the Garden and Sky Blue by Maria Schneider) representing a 360-spectrum of jazz expression, and he’s toured extensively throughout the United States, the Americas, Europe, Japan, and Southeast Asia. He’s composed music for films and commercials, and produced tracks for numerous singers in the pop and alternative arenas. He earned a “Ten Best of 1997” accolade from the New York Times for his first leader recording, Penn’s Landing.
A graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University, where he was a protégé of Ellis Marsalis, Penn is active as an educator and drum clinician. From 2004 to 2012, he taught on the faculty of the Banff International Workshop in Jazz and Creative Music. He’s also served on faculty at the Stanford Jazz Workshop, the Saint Louis College of Music in Rome, Italy, and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Intensive Jazz Institute.
Penn currently leads several ensembles. His most recent “rhythmically intoxicating” recording is 2014’s “Monk The Lost Files”arrangements of the music of Thelonious Monk. Released on the Origin record lable, an amazing quartet comprising saxophonist Chad Leftkowitz-Brown, Pianist Gerald Clayton/Donald Vega, and bassist Yasushi Nakamura performing the music of Thelonius Monk with today’s modern jazz sensibility. Near completion is a “world music” studio project of songs and instrumentals that melds background voices—including his own—with a world class band.
Whether Penn is leading his own band or performing as a sideman, he brings to the table unfailing versatility and professionalism, an ability to find creative ways to interpret a global array of styles and idioms, and a stated intention “to play music that’s warm and organic for the people and for myself.”
