Thursday, October 15th at 7:30 PM
JP Concerts presents Beatrice Greene with Brandon Guillermo, Kim Taylor Knight and Veronique-Anne Epiter. $10 admission fee at the door. The music of Beatrice Greene celebrates, comforts, challenges and sometimes cries out. When she touches the piano, she touches your soul. A native of the Bronx, New York, Beatrice first tinkled on the piano at age three. She started piano lessons at age six, followed by the trumpet at age eight. In the sixth grade she started playing the French horn, performed in the Bronx Borough-wide Band by the eighth grade. Beatrice attended the High School of Performing Arts in Manhattan as a piano major, and performed as principal French horn in the All-City Band. She remembers conducting her high school orchestra and performing at Carnegie Hall in the City-wide orchestra in junior high as two memorable moments.
Despite her many successes, her father forbade a music major in college. Beatrice began lecturing in history and philosophy, although still a student. Her passion for social justice, led her to choose law as a career. She graduated from Howard University, passed the bar and engaged in a successful public law practice. Within two years after hearing a symphonic performance, she returned to study music-the music called "jazz".
Her voice through the music articulates her deepest emotions she feels unable to birth verbally. She uses musical colors to represent emotions from the abyss of pain to highest joy, in her compositions and arrangements of spirituals. Her music and arrangements are written for everyday folk to comfort, to experience joy and relate to sadness, and to inspire people to actualize their dreams. Her music speaks of life, love, social justice, spirituality (she attended seminary for some years). Beatrice honors people through compositions that are colored by emotion, reflection, European classical and jazz classical training, African percussion training, blues, ragtime, spirituals, Latin music and sounds of the city; all on her musical color pallet.
Beatrice graduated from Berklee College of Music as a piano performance major, where she studied with Donald Brown formerly with "Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers". She also studied composition with George Russell at New England Conservatory, and West African drumming and dance. Determined to "get music out of her system", she attended a summer program at Berklee College of Music, only to fall in love with music all over again. She completed her music degree in jazz piano while performing in local clubs, teaching music and practicing law. She re-discovered or unearthed her gift of composition while on this odyssey.
In 2005 Beatrice received a commission from the Women's United Nations Reporting Network to write and perform a composition, honoring those who fight internationally to end violence against women based on tradition and culture, at Andover Newtown Theological School. Her poems and essays interweave philosophy, social justice, theology, science, and a profound love of nature. She holds degrees from Berklee College of Music, the College of Wooster, and Howard University.
Recently she has performed at the Higher Education Ministries concert, The Hidden Meaning of the Negro Spirituals, as well as numerous church services and Andover Newton Theological School. Currently Beatrice has been commissioned to write for hopes to complete a choral piece by the end of this year. In addition, she successfully coordinated Women Artists in Action, an artists goals' organization, and does lecture/demonstrations about the creative process of composing.
Beatrice enjoys astrophysics, water color painting, hiking, dancing and cooking. From a very young age Beatrice appeared to be a good companion to older people as they recovered from illness…perhaps her "early" ministry. A favorite book "The Swamp Fox" about the life of Francis Marion gives insight into her sense of adventure. Beatrice engages the audience by explaining the story, and music techniques she employs in her compositions; an integration of composer, performer, minister and educator.
Brandon Guillermo is a second generation American with roots in Grenada and Curacao, West Indies. He has played with a variety of artists including Frank Wilkins (keyboard), Tim Engels (bass), Alvin Terry (drums); Beatrice Green (pianist); Isaura Oliveira (dancer). Teaching and performing at Shady Hill School, Cambridge MA. Brandon reports that he started seriously playing tumbadora ("conga") at the age of 10, given by his father, who taught him his first rhythm. He grew up in the New York City area and was exposed to many different ethnicities especially involving the drum culture. His skills were honed at Central Park, Prospect Park and Kingston Park among other environments. His home contained recordings in every genre from Frank Sinatra to Olatunji to Bach. Arriving in Boston in 1973, Brandon connected with friends at the New England Conservatory and Northeastern University African American Institute, and has continued exploring and representing the culture to this day.
Kim Taylor Knight is teaching artist who combines training in dance (ballet) music and theatre in her storytelling business called, "Story in a Box". As a public school teacher in Boston, her work includes developing and collaborating across the curriculum using movement and music with folktales, myths and fables, to create unique learning events. Her background is in theatre, dance and music-commonly referred to as the "lively arts" is integrated into her philosophy of learning through play. Due attention is paid to enhancing literacy and 21st century skills by utilizing differentiated instruction and the multiple intelligences: visual, kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, verbal, spacial and logical. She has worked extensively with English Language Learners (ELL), and other special and diverse learners. Originally from Iowa, Kim's Norwegian heritage is a basis for her program, "Troll Tales". Kim currently is a full time teaching artist at the Curley K-8 school.
Veronique-Anne Epiter is an artist in various disciplines and a mother. She started writing poems and a collection of illustrated children's tales at the age of twelve. Born in France, she graduated as a singer from Perpignan Conservatory (France) and co-published/ illustrated a poetry-book before moving to Boston in 1983. Veronique studied with Blair McClosky at the Boston Conservatory and graduated in Vocal Pedagogy/Therapy in 1990. She gave her graduation recital at the French Library. She is now a certified voice technician and a member of the McClosky Institute of Voice and wants to use her expertise to help children with asthma and learning disabilities. She did multiple vocal and visual performances as a member of Boston's Piano Factory artist community, NEWOCA, SPITFIRE (Gallery at the Piano Factory, AAMARP, Harriet Tubman House, Zeitgeist Gallery, West-End Branch Library, UMass Boston) and as a yearly "On My Own Time" show participant (1999 award). She was interviewed live and featured in poetry, visual art, song and dance on BNN-TV. Veronique has taught voice privately, done art/singing sessions with disabled children (Franciscan Hospital), and as a language teacher used drawings/collages and choreographed original songs written for/with children. Veronique sings classical and jazz as well as spiritual songs. She also writes in several languages. Her artistic expression is one that addresses all cultures, all faiths, with a message that has been consistent since she was twelve years old: Peace.
Program
Gratitude
Beatrice Greene, Composer/Pianist; Brandon Guillermo, Percussion
Nueva Luz, Nuevo Corazon
Beatrice Greene, Composer/Pianist; Veronique Epiter, Lyricist/Vocals
Composition for John Deacon and all Community Activists
Beatrice Greene, Composer/Pianist
Poem, Loved One
Beatrice Greene, Poet/Reader
Transformation Tapestry
Beatrice Greene, Composer/Pianist; Kim Taylor Knight, Choreography/Dance
Kumbaya,Traditional African American Spiritual
Vernoique Epiter, Vocals, Brandon Guillermo, Percussion
Spirit Warriors
Beatrice Greene, Composer/Pianist
Quintessence
Beatrice Greene, Composer/Pianist; Brandon Guillermo, Percussion
For All My Princes
Beatrice Greene, Composer/Pianist; Brandon Guillermo, Percussion
Celebration
Veronique Epiter, Poet/Reader
Beatrice Greene, Composer/Pianist; Brandon Guillermo, Percussion