2021 Program

This organization is funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts and the SC Arts Commission. Thirteen Years of Joye in Aiken In this year of change, when it has sometimes seemed as if nothing might ever be normal again, one thing that has not changed is the importance of the arts in our lives. Especially where sources of hope and inspiration are few, the arts retain their power to energize and refresh us. And so it is with even greater pleasure than usual that we welcome you (digitally, to be sure) to the 13th Annual Joye in Aiken Festival and Outreach Program. Though COVID-19 has forced us to rethink timeframes, formats and venues in the interest of ensuring the safety of our community and our artists, we have embraced those challenges as opportunities. If a single Festival week presented dangers, could we spread the events out to allow for responses to changing conditions? If it wasn’t possible to hold an event indoors, could we hold it outdoors? With those questions and a thousand others answered, we are proud to present to you a Festival that is necessarily different in many respects, but that is no less exciting. And because it’s so central to our mission, we’re especially proud to introduce to you an important new dimension of our Outreach Program. With COVID making it impossible for us to present our usual Kidz Bop and Young People’s Concerts, we turned to our nationally-known artists for help. And their solution was perfect: two engaging series of instructional videos designed specifically for the children of Aiken County by these world-class musicians. With the enthusiastic help of the school district staff who recruited teachers and principals into the program, the videos have been presented this year to students in every elementary and middle school in Aiken County. And this underscores one of the great strengths of Joye in Aiken. Unlike many presenting organizations, we are fortunate to be able to call on a roster of artists who know and love Aiken because they have stayed with host families here, often returning year after year and staying in touch with their hosts. Between performances, they have taken long walks in Hitchcock Woods; they have drunk coffee on the sidewalk at New Moon; they have had drinks at The Willcox. They have visited our schools, and while they’ve been teaching, they have mentored and made friends with Aiken’s children. They are our team. This year, in addition to the artists you will see at our events, the team included Artistic Director for Jazz Riley Mulherkar; pianist/accordionist/composer Sam Reider, of Sam Reider and the Human Hands; jazz singer Alicia Olatuja; drummers Sammy Miller and Bryan Carter; vocalist Brianna Thomas; bluegrass fiddler Tatiana Hargreaves; and Venezuelan cuatro player Jorge Glem. In this most challenging year, we give special thanks to you, our donors and supporters, for helping us find our way forward on uncertain ground. Thanks to you, Joye returns. Thanks to you, the magic of the arts continues. Sincerely, Sandra Field Cody Anderson President, Board of Trustees Vice President Festival Artistic Curator Pianist Elizabeth Joy Roe has been hailed as “brilliant” (The New York Times), “an artist to be taken seriously” (The Chicago Tribune), and “a virtuosic powerhouse” (The Washington Post), and she was named one of the classical music world’s “Six on the Rise: Young Artists to Watch” by Symphony Magazine. The recipient of the prestigious William Petschek Piano Debut Recital Award, she has appeared as orchestral soloist, recitalist, and collaborative musician at major venues worldwide, from the Kennedy Center to the Seoul Arts Center. A recording artist for Decca Classics, she has recorded the complete Nocturnes by John Field as well as the Britten and Barber Piano Concertos with the London Symphony Orchestra. Additional career highlights include the PBS broadcast of “Jazz & the Philharmonic” (in which she performed alongside legends Bobby McFerrin, Chick Corea, and others); appearances on the BBC, NPR, and Medici TV; an artistic residency sponsored by the U.S. Embassy in Argentina; and directorial work for the National YoungArts Foundation. An avid chamber musician, she has collaborated with an array of distinguished artists, including Maestro Leonard Slatkin, violinist Daniel Hope, the Parker Quartet, jazz pianist Shelly Berg, and Decoda. In 2002, she co-founded the groundbreaking Anderson & Roe Piano Duo, whose concerts, compositions, and Emmy-nominated music videos have captivated audiences around the globe. She has served as artistic curator of the Joye in Aiken Festival since 2015. Ms. Roe earned her degrees at The Juilliard School as a full scholarship student, graduating with Scholastic Distinction. Committed to arts advocacy, she was one of the inaugural members of Carnegie Hall’s fellowship program, Ensemble Connect. She has subsequently held faculty positions at Smith College and Sonoma State University. In recognition of her educational and leadership endeavors, she was awarded the McGraw-Hill Companies’ Robert Sherman Award for Music Education and Community Outreach. Ms. Roe is a Steinway Artist and Soros Fellow. elizabethjoyroe.com Artistic Director for Jazz Riley Mulherkar has been recognized as a “smart young trumpet player” by The New York Times, praised by The Wall Street Journal as a “youngster to keep an eye on,” and is a 2020 recipient of Lincoln Center’s Emerging Artist Award for his work as “an original bandleader, composer, arranger, educator, community activist and advocate for jazz and the arts.” Riley works with a number of leading artists of our time, including Wynton Marsalis, Anna Deavere Smith, and Alan Cumming, and is a founding member of The Westerlies, a new music brass quartet that creates the rarest of hybrids: music that is both “folk-like and composerly, lovely and intellectually rigorous” (NPR Music). Riley also serves as Artistic Director for Jazz at Joye in Aiken, bringing leading young talent to the historic city of Aiken, South Carolina. Born and raised in Seattle, Riley moved to New York in 2010 to study at The Juilliard School, where he completed his Bachelor’s Degree in 2014 and his Master’s in 2015. In 2014, he was the first recipient of the Laurie Frink Career Grant at the Festival of New Trumpet Music. Riley is actively engaged in educational outreach, directing the Summer Advanced Institute at Seattle JazzEd, and serving as an ambassador for Jazz at Lincoln Center’s “Jazz for Young People” program in New York and St. Louis from 2016 – 2018. Riley is an Edwards Artist and performs on Edwards trumpets. rileymulherkar.com 2021 Festival Schedule May Time For Three Lawn at the Green Boundary Club 7:00 PM Sponsored by WJBF, and in part by Lynne and John Wills and Janney, Montgomery, Scott: Mr. Peter E. Sampson, Mr. Kenneth P. Wiland June The Joye of Jazz The Willcox 3:00 PM-9:00 PM Sponsored by Dana and Pat McMenamin; The Willcox, and in part by Drs. Lauren and Stefan Ploch June “Jazz Explosion” Concert U of SC Aiken Etherredge Center 7:00 PM Sponsored by Mr. and Mrs. Brian Bernard, Ms. Frederica M. Davis, Mr. and Mrs. Steve Homoki, Allan C. Sorensen Family June “Jazz Explosion” Jazz Camp Student Performance U of SC Aiken Etherredge Center 3:00 PM Sponsored by Jim and Sandra Field and in part by Collier-Jennings Real Estate and Security Federal Bank October The Parker Quartet First Presbyterian Church 12:00 PM Sponsored by Susan H. Adkins in memory of Dr. Carl R. Adkins Donor Events 2021 “Cocktails at Crossways” Reception The “Jazz Explosion” Jazz Camp with Time for Three Opening Reception 5:30pm, Friday, May 21 | Crossways 8:15pm, Thursday, June 24, 2021 | The Etherredge Center Sponsored by Mr. Cody Anderson and Mr. and Mrs. Fred Dohse For sponsors and donors at the $100 level and above For sponsors and donors at the $1,000 level and above Outreach Schedule 2021 Joye in Aiken Goes Virtual! Joye in Aiken has always been about the transformative power of the arts – for us as adults, and especially for our children. In every Festival and Outreach Program, our aim has been to forge experiences that lift, challenge, and renew our spirits by allowing us to participate in the very highest reaches of artistic expression. So in these unsettled times, we renew our commitment to excellence in the arts, with special attention (as always) to the needs of our schools and students. The Kidz Bop Jazz Concerts for elementary school students and the Young People’s Concert for middle school students continued this year in a new virtual format, bringing in-depth lessons directly into students’ homes and classrooms. Kidz Bop Goes Virtual (Video series produced by Artistic Director for Jazz Riley Mulherkar for elementary school students) This year, Kidz Bop went virtual to bring together artists from across the country to introduce Aiken’s elementary students to the unique jazz genre. Topics covered included South Carolina’s own jazz legends, the Great Migration, and the Harlem Renaissance. The series concluded with a Q&A with host Riley Mulherkar. These interdisciplinary videos allowed students not only to explore the tenets of jazz, but also to understand the social and economic influences of the period, thus gaining a broader perspective on American history through the lens of jazz. Guest artists were jazz percussionists Bryan Carter and Sammy Miller, jazz singer Alicia Olatuja, and trombonist Mariel Bildsten. Sponsored by SRP Federal Credit Union and Aiken Regional Medical Centers Stretch Your Ears: Listening to the World of Music (Video series produced by pianist/accordionist/composer Sam Reider for middle school students) Through a series of three interdisciplinary videos, musician and composer Sam Reider introduced students to the styles, elements, and history of American folk music while integrating content and standards of the middle school curriculum.

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