NINETY-FOURTH SEASON
Friday, April 4, 2025, at 8:00
BRANDEE YOUNGER TRIO
Brandee Younger Harp
Rashaan Carter Bass
Allan Mednard Drums
INTERMISSION
HIROMI’S SONICWONDER
Hiromi Piano and Keyboards
Adam O’Farrill Trumpet
Hadrien Feraud Bass
Gene Coye Drums
The program will be announced from the stage.
Please join a postconcert CD signing with Hiromi in the First Floor Rotunda. Merchandise will be available for purchase in the Orchestra Hall lobby before, during, and after this evening’s performance.
Funding for educational programs during the 2024–25 Season of SCP Jazz has been generously provided by Dan J. Epstein, Judith Guitelman, and the Dan J. Epstein Family Foundation.
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association acknowledges support from the Illinois Arts Council.
Chicago Jazz, DownBeat magazine, WDCB 90.9FM Jazz, and WBEZ Chicago are media partners for this event.
Brandee Younger Harp
Over the past fifteen years, Brandee Younger has been revolutionizing the harp’s role in modern music by stretching boundaries and limitations for harpists. In 2022 she made history by becoming the first Black woman nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition. That same year, she was nominated for an NAACP Image Award and later won the 2024 NAACP Image Award in the category of Outstanding Jazz Album for her latest recording, Brand New Life She has worked with cultural icons, including Common, Lauryn Hill, John Legend, Pharoah Sanders, and Christian McBride. Her original composition, “Hortense,” was featured in Beyoncé’s Netflix documentary Homecoming, and in 2019, Younger was selected to perform her original music as a featured performer for Quincy Jones and Steve McQueen’s Soundtrack of America. In addition to performing and recording, Brandee Younger is on the faculty at New York University, Steinhardt School, and the New School College of Performing Arts.
@harpista
Rashaan Carter Bass
Rashaan Carter grew up in the Washington (D.C.) area, forging an interest in music through the nurturing of his father, a saxophonist, and his mother, a jazz radio programmer. He gained experience in Washington’s local music scene and, after high school, moved to New York City to attend the New School University. At the New School, he studied with Buster Williams and worked with many of the university’s faculty, including Joe Chambers and Jimmy Owens. Since moving to New York, Carter has worked with Wallace Roney, David Murray, Henry Threadgill, Geri Allen, Nicole Mitchell, Benny Golson, Cindy Blackman, Antoine Roney, Sonny Simmons, and more. He has also studied with Ron Carter. Rashaan Carter regularly performs with a myriad of artists around the world and can also be found on various recordings.
Allan Mednard Drums
Drummer Allan Mednard was born and raised in Queens, New York. His early musical experiences involved New York City’s All-City High School Music program, Bayside High School’s Academy of Music, and Queens College’s Preparatory Studies in Music program. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree
in jazz performance from the City College of New York, where he studied with Carl Allen. He has performed around the globe with ensembles led by Jeremy Pelt, Ben Allison, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Aaron Parks, Alix Ambroise, the Le Boeuf Brothers, and many more.
He has worked with the Harlem School of the Arts, Carnegie Hall’s Musical Connections, and Bridge Arts Ensemble, providing music education opportunities throughout New York City and New York State. Mednard maintains an active sideman schedule and composes new music for his trio, which will release a debut recording in the near future.
Hiromi Piano and Keyboards
Hiromi has earned a reputation as one of the most explosive live performers in jazz history and a global ambassador for the art form. Her many triumphs include an NPR Tiny Desk Concert with two million views; representing her native Japan with a performance at the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo; winning the 2024 Best Music Score for the animated feature film Blue Giant (Award of the Japanese Academy); and a Grammy Award for a collaboration with fusion hero Stanley Clarke.
In 2023 she released Sonicwonderland, debuting perhaps the most expressive, dynamic, and versatile working band of her career, Sonicwonder. The group furthered Hiromi’s distinctive musical
alchemy: the spirit of classic jazz-rock fusion melded with classically rooted virtuosity, entrancing funk, pop flourishes, and, through O’Farrill’s trumpet, the art of acoustic jazz.
Over the past two years, Sonicwonder has continued to tour, advancing its deep chemistry and fearless sense of interplay. The results can be heard on Hiromi’s new Concord release and thirteenth studio full-length album, Out There, in which the group’s powerful rapport meets the pianist’s astonishing abilities as a composer on equal footing.
Over the last decade, Brooklyn native Adam O’Farrill has cemented himself as one of the most in-demand trumpet players on the international contemporary jazz scene. O’Farrill comes from a rich musical lineage: his grandfather was Cuban composer and arranger Chico O’Farrill; his father is the composer, pianist, and activist Arturo O’Farrill; his mother, Alison Deane, is a classical pianist and educator; and his brother and frequent collaborator, Zack O’Farrill, is a drummer and musicologist. Adam O’Farrill has been featured with Mary Halvorson, Vijay Iyer, Anna Webber, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Mulatu Astatke, Samora Pinderhughes, Son Lux, and Kaoru Watanabe. He has garnered widespread acclaim as a leader in his own right, most recently for the 2024 album HUESO.
Hadrien Feraud Bass
Hadrien Feraud was born in Paris on August 16, 1984. His parents, both musicians, immersed him early in many different musical styles, including rock and roll, blues, funk, new wave, traditional, and jazz. After brief flirtations with guitar and drums, he became curious about the bass, and at age twelve, when he heard Jaco Pastorius with Weather Report, he sealed his fate.
Feraud has shared stages with names such as Rido Bayonne, Cheick Tidiane, Marc Berthoumieux, Jean-Marie Ecay, Mokhtar Samba, Dominique Di Piazza, Nguyên Lê, Thierry Eliez, and Flavio Boltro.
In 2007 Hadrien Feraud released his self-titled debut album as a solo artist and recorded with Chick Corea on the albums Five Trios and The Vigil.
Gene Coye Drums
Gene Coye taught himself to play drums as a child. By the time he was a teen, he was playing in numerous community choirs and jazz ensembles spanning from Chicago to New York. Coye received his bachelor’s degree in jazz at the California Institute of the Arts, where he studied under famed jazz legend Joe La Barbera. While in college, Coye toured with Carlos Santana and his son, Salvador. Upon graduating, he quickly established himself as one of the most sought-after drummers in Los Angeles. He won a Grammy with the John Daversa Big Band and has been recording, touring, and performing in Europe and the United States with Seal, Larry Carlton, Bob Reynolds, Richard Bona, Mike Landau, Robben Ford, Stanley Clarke, and Terence Blanchard, among others.
Funding for educational programs during the 2024–25 Season of SCP Jazz has been generously provided by Dan J. Epstein, Judith Guitelman, and the Dan J. Epstein Family Foundation.