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ABOUT DIGITAL PROGRAMS

The Gallo Center has adopted the use of digital programs meant to be viewed on cell phones or other computer devices. This change has important public health, environmental and economic benefits: reducing close contacts between patrons and ushers, cutting our use of paper, and eliminating substantial printing costs. View the program only before shows begin or during intermissions. Please be considerate of other patrons and artists on stage by not viewing it during performances. Patrons who do not observe this courtesy and create distractions may be asked to leave. Thank you!

WHY YOUR SUPPORT MATTERS

The Gallo Center for the Arts is a non-profit performing arts center with a deep commitment to enriching the people and communities of California’s vast San Joaquin Valley. From the scintillating performances of its wonderful resident companies, to the great variety of world-class entertainment presented by the Center each season, to robust arts education programs for the region’s youth, this is where the magic happens.

From the beginning, the Center’s mission has been clearly defined: to provide an inspirational civic gathering place where regional, national, and international cultural activities illuminate, educate, and entertain. Since revenue from ticket sales and facility rentals only covers a portion of the costs associated with fulfilling this mission, the Center is dependent on the generous annual financial support from donors and program sponsors within our community.

LEARN MORE AT GALLOARTS.ORG/SUPPORTUS.

ABOUT THE CENTER

HOW TO BUY TICKETS

In Person: 1000 I Street, downtown Modesto

Online: 24/7/365 at GalloArts.org

By Phone: (209) 338-2100

TICKET OFFICE HOURS

Monday – Friday: 10 am – 6 pm, Saturday: Noon – 6 pm Closed Sundays

Ticket Office opens two hours prior to all events

EMAIL LIST

GENERAL INFORMATION

The mission of the Gallo Center for the Arts is to enrich the quality of life in the San Joaquin Valley by providing an inspirational civic gathering place where regional, national and international cultural activities illuminate, educate and entertain. The Gallo Center for the Arts celebrates the diversity of the San Joaquin Valley by offering an array of affordable cultural opportunities designed to appeal, and be accessible, to all.

The Center opened in September, 2007 and consists of the 440-seat Foster Family Theater, the 1,248-seat Mary Stuart Rogers Theater, the Marie Damrell Gallo Grand Lobby and a plaza serving both theaters, and the Modesto Rotary Music Garden.

As a regional non-profit performing arts center, the Gallo Center for the Arts presents internationally recognized touring artists in all disciplines, and also is home to four resident companies: Central West Ballet, Modesto Performing Arts, Modesto Symphony Orchestra and Opera Modesto. The Gallo Center for the Arts is a unique public/private partnership. Construction was funded jointly by the County of Stanislaus, which owns the facility, and contributions from more than 4,000 individuals and businesses given to a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization which today operates the Center.

PATRON EVENT INFORMATION

• Emergency exits are indicated by green exit signs located above each exit. For your safety, please check for the location of the exit nearest to your seat.

• The Gallo Center for the Arts is accessible to disabled patrons. Wheelchair seating is available in both theaters. Portable wireless listening devices are available at the Coat Check room at no charge. Please inform the Ticket Office of any special needs when ordering tickets.

• Food and beverages are not allowed in the theaters. (with the exception of bottled water and beverages served in theater cups.)

• Smoking is prohibited inside the building and within 20 feet of all entrances.

• Latecomers will be seated at the discretion of the Gallo Center for the Arts’ house managers.

• The use of recording equipment and the taking of photographs in Gallo Center for the Arts theaters is strictly forbidden. The Gallo Center for the Arts reserves the right to confiscate any such equipment and/or require offending customers to exit the premises.

• As a courtesy to artists and to your fellow patrons,

please turn off or silence any mobile device on your person. No texting, please!

• Restrooms are located on all three levels of the Center.

• Lost items will be held in the Coat Check room on the main level until the end of the performance. Thereafter, please contact Ticket Office at (209) 338-2100.

• All patrons MUST have a ticket to enter a performance regardless of age.

• Out of courtesy to other patrons, the Gallo Center for the Arts requests that no infants or toddlers attend any performance.

Groups qualify for discounts up to 15% on ticket prices to the many exciting performances offered by the Gallo Center for the Arts and its resident companies.

Secure your group reservation today for just 10% down of your total price!

EMPLOYEE PARTIES/REWARDS CHURCH OUTINGS CLUBS AND ORGANIZATIONS

BUS TOURS

CORPORATE ENTERTAINMENT

SENIOR CENTER OUTINGS

HOLIDAY, ANNIVERSARY & BIRTHDAY PARTIES

…AND MORE!

ONE CALL DOES IT ALL!

Our group sales manager, Jesica Sanchez, is at your service. Call her at (209) 338-5064, or send an email to jsanchez@galloarts.org.

In the history of Jazz music, there is only one bandleader that has the distinction of having his orchestra still performing sold out concerts all over the world, with members personally chosen by him, for nearly 40 years after his passing. Pianist and bandleader William James “Count” Basie was and still is an American institution that personifies the grandeur and excellence of Jazz. The Count Basie Orchestra, today directed by Scotty Barnhart, has won every respected jazz poll in the world at least once, won 18 Grammy Awards, performed for Kings, Queens, and other world Royalty, appeared in several movies, television shows, at every major jazz festival and major concert hall in the world. The most recent honor is a 2024 Grammy Win of Best Large Jazz Ensemble for “Basie Swings the Blues”! Other honors include their 2022 Grammy Nomination for Live At Birdland, a 2018 Grammy Nomination for All About That Basie, which features special guests Stevie Wonder, Jon Faddis, and Take 6 among others, and the 2018 Downbeat Readers Poll Award as the #1 Jazz Orchestra in the world. Their critically acclaimed release in 2015 of A Very Swingin’ Basie Christmas! is the very first holiday album in the 80-year history of the orchestra. Released on Concord Music, it went to #1 on the Jazz charts and sold out on Amazon! Special guests include vocalists Johnny Mathis, Ledisi, our own Carmen Bradford and pianist Ellis Marsalis. A BBC TV produced documentary on Mr. Basie and the orchestra entitled Count Basie: Through His Own Eyes premiered on PBS in the US and UK in 2019 coinciding with the orchestra’s 85th Anniversary. It features interviews by Quincy Jones, Scotty Barnhart, Dee Askew, John Williams, and several other important members and associates of Mr. Basie and the orchestra.

Some of the greatest soloists, composers, arrangers, and vocalists in jazz history such as Lester Young, Billie Holiday, Frank Foster, Thad Jones, Sonny Payne, Freddie Green, Snooky Young, Frank Wess, and Joe Williams, became international stars once they began working with the legendary Count Basie Orchestra. This great 18-member orchestra is still continuing the excellent history started by Basie of stomping and shouting the blues, as well as refining those musical particulars that allow for the deepest and most moving of swing.

William “Count” Basie was born in Red Bank, New Jersey in 1904. He began his early playing days by working as a silent movie pianist and organist and by eventually working with the Theater Owners Booking Agency (TOBA) circuit. In 1927, Basie, then touring with Gonzelle White and the Big Jazz Jamboree, found himself stranded in Kansas City, Missouri. It was here that he would begin to explore his deep love of the Blues and meet his future band mates including bassist Walter Page.

Walter Page’s Blue Devils and Benny Moten’s Kansas City Orchestra caught Basie’s ear and soon he was playing with both and serving as second pianist and arranger for Mr. Moten. In 1935, Bennie Moten died, and it was left to Basie to take some of the musicians from that orchestra and form his own, The Count Basie Orchestra, which is still alive and well today some 86 years later. His orchestra epitomized Kansas City Swing and along with the bands of Fletcher Henderson, Jimmy Lunceford, Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman, Basie’s orchestra would define the big band era.

While the media of the period crowned Benny Goodman the “King of Swing”, the real King of Swing was undoubtedly Count Basie. As the great Basie trumpeter Sweets Edison once said, “we used to tear all of the other bands up when it came to swing”. The Basie orchestra evolved into one of the most venerable and viable enterprises in American music with the highest levels of continued productivity rivaling any musical organization in history.

With the April In Paris recording in 1955, the orchestra began to set standards of musical achievement that have been emulated by every jazz orchestra since that time. One of the things that set Mr. Basie’s orchestra apart from all others and is one of the secrets to its longevity, is the fact the Basie allowed and actually encouraged his musicians to compose and arrange especially for the orchestra and its distinctive soloists such as Snooky Young, Thad Jones, Frank Foster, and Frank Wess on flute, who recorded the very first jazz flute solo in history. The orchestra also began to become the first choice for the top jazz vocalists of the day including Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett, and of course, Basie’s “Number One Son”, the great Joe Williams.

During the 1960s and throughout the 1970s and into the 80s, the orchestra’s sound, swing feel, general articulation and style began to become more laid back and even more relaxed. As 30-year veteran trumpeter Sonny Cohn once stated, “this is a laid...back...orchestra....a...laid...back...orchestra”. With very few personnel changes, the orchestra members were able to blend into one sound and one way of phrasing that is now known as the “Basie way”.

Since Basie’s passing in 1984, Thad Jones, Frank Foster, Grover Mitchell, Bill Hughes, Dennis Mackrel, and since September 2013, Scotty Barnhart, have led the Count Basie Orchestra and maintained it as one of the elite performing organizations in Jazz.

Current members include one musician hired by Basie himself: Trombonist Clarence Banks (1984). Long-time members include Doug Miller (1989, formerly w/Lionel Hampton), guitarist Will Matthews from Kansas City (1996), and members who have 15-25 years of service; trombonist Mark Williams, trumpeters Shawn Edmonds and Endre Rice, saxophonists Doug Lawrence (formerly w/Benny Goodman) and returning on lead alto, David Glasser. Newer members include bassist Trevor Ware, lead trumpeter Frank Greene III and trumpeter Brandon Lee, pianist Reginald Thomas, lead trombonist Isrea Butler, bass trombonist Ronald Wilkins, alto sax and flute Stantawn Kendrick and the youngest members, drummer Robert Boone and baritone saxophonist Josh Lee.

SCOTTY BARNHART is an internationally acclaimed Jazz trumpeter, composer, arranger, educator, author, producer, three-time Grammy Winner, and Director of The Count Basie Orchestra. Prior to being selected Director in 2013, he was its featured trumpet soloist for 20 years, and in 2015 was Executive Producer of A Very Swingin’ Basie Christmas!, the very first Christmas recording for The Count Basie Orchestra. It went to #1 on the charts. Under his leadership, the orchestra won the Downbeat Magazine Readers Poll as the #1 Jazz Orchestra in the world for 2018, and their 2018 recording, All About That Basie, featuring special guest Stevie Wonder, was nominated for a Grammy for Best Large Jazz Ensemble. The orchestra’s 2021 recording, Live At Birdland, also produced by Barnhart, immediately became a #1 Best Seller on Amazon, and was nominated for a 2022 Grammy Award. It’s 2023 release, Basie Swings The Blues, also produced by Barnhart, features blues legends Buddy Guy, Bobby Rush, Keb’ Mo’, and George Benson, won a Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble in 2024.

Scotty appears on three critically acclaimed recordings with pianist Marcus Roberts and over twenty others with artists as diverse as Tony Bennett, Diana Krall, and Ray Charles. He has performed with Frank Sinatra, Wynton Marsalis, Herbie Hancock, Quincy Jones, The Duke Ellington Orchestra, Nat Adderley, Aretha Franklin, George Clinton, Buddy Guy, Barbara Streisand, George Benson, and many others, been featured in the Asian Wall Street Journal, performed at The Academy Awards, and is in demand as a soloist and lecturer on jazz history all over the world. In 2009, Unity Music released his solo CD, Say It Plain. It reached #3 on the Jazz Charts.

Scotty is co-founder and Artistic Director of The Florida Jazz

and Blues Festival, and Professor of Jazz Trumpet with tenure at Florida State University, where two of his former students won 1st place in the National Jazz Trumpet Competition. His groundbreaking book, The World of Jazz Trumpet –a Comprehensive History and Practical Philosophy, was published in December 2005 to rave reviews. The updated edition contains over 55 interviews with many of the most important Jazz trumpeters of the last 100 years and is due for completion in 2024. He is a graduate of Florida A&M University with a degree in Music Education, and in 2017 he was honored as a distinguished alumnus with a permanent plaque and photo being placed within the Gallery of Distinction in the FAMU Department of Music. Barnhart has appeared as guest conductor and lecturer at such prestigious institutions at The Juilliard School of Music and others and is profiled in the book Trumpet Kings, which places him among the greatest jazz trumpeters in history. He was awarded The 2021 National Performance and Outstanding Leadership Award from The Newspaper Publishers Association of America, and The 2022 Distinguished Alumni Award from Florida A&M University. He resides in Tallahassee, Florida.

NNENNA FREELON BIOGRAPHY

Six-time GRAMMY® Award nominee Nnenna Freelon is a compelling artist and captivating performer with numerous accolades and activities including another GRAMMY® Award nomination for 2021’s Time Traveler! With her son Pierce Freelon, they made Grammy history by being the first mother and son nominated for the 64th GRAMMY® awards in separate categories. Their collaborative new recording, “AnceStars” (2023), marks her first family music recording with Pierce. Nnenna’s new Podcast “Great Grief with Nnenna Freelon” garnered Ambie Awards in 2022 and 2021, her debut seasons. She received the 2022 Jazz Masters Award from the prestigious “Women’s Jazz and Blues Association of Palm Springs,” and more. In 2023, Nnenna continues to star alongside TAKE 6, Tom Scott, Kirk Whalum and Clint Holmes in the critically acclaimed show “Georgia on My Mind: Celebrating the Music of Ray Charles,” where she is no stranger to the music of the master singer – she toured with Ray Charles, as well as many other greatest jazz artists including Al Jarreau, George Benson, Benny Golson, Ellis Marsalis, and others.

Nnenna is also a wife, mother, and sister who has experienced life’s amazing gifts, and also its heartbreak. The loss of her soulmate and husband, renowned architect Phil Freelon, in

2019 to ALS, followed by the loss of her sister Debbie in 2020 to cancer, have reshaped her way of being in the world. Her recording ‘Time Traveler’ is a reflection of this new territory and an intimate expression of her love for Phil and their 40year journey. Together “Great Grief with Nnenna Freelon” and ‘Time Traveler’ stand as a universal love letter to all who’ve lost someone dear.

In her ongoing efforts to foster community, the arts and education, Nnenna founded the NorthStar Church of the Arts in Durham. Such efforts to reach across diverse audiences follow such honors as The White House requesting Freelon to headline the Asia Pacific Economic Conference (APEC) for 300 Presidents, Premiers and Heads of State from around the world and the YWCA of North Carolina’s recognition of her outstanding artistry and dedication to education with their inaugural “Legend Award.”

As writer, composer and producer, Nnenna’s productions include the original theatrical presentation of The Clothesline Muse, a devised theatrical work of dance, music, spoken word, vibrant art and projections. She is also one of the stars of the musical theater piece. The play won a National Theater Project creation grant from the New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA), a much sought after honor only awarded to six worthy recipients. This is not her first stint acting. Freelon made her feature film debut in “What Women Want” starring Mel Gibson.

In the company of other great artists, Nnenna triumphed in composer Laura Karpman’s undertaking of Langston Hughes’ “Ask Your Mama” at The Apollo Theater and at an astounding Hollywood Bowl concert with opera superstar Jessye Norman and the indie phenom band The Roots. She also wowed audiences at SRO shows at the Tanglewood Jazz Festival with the Duke Ellington inspired “Dreaming The Duke,” with classical star Harolyn Blackwell and pop-jazz-crossover pianist Mike Garson. Her TV appearances on In Performance at the White House, on ABC celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, led to the versatile songstress/ composer having a featured song on the hit TV show Mad Men. That was followed by a new collaboration on tour with legendary guitarist Earl Klugh and with legendary pianist Ramsey Lewis.

Nnenna received from the National Association of Women In The Arts the “Youth Empowerment Through the Arts” Award and “Artist of the Year” Award. She was named a “Woman of Substance” by Bennett College for Woman, delivered the Keynote Address for the Arts Midwest Conference, and much more. Freelon is a winner of both the Billie Holiday Award from the prestigious Académie du Jazz and the Eubie Blake Award from the Cultural Crossroads Center in New York City.

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CENTER CIRCLES

*Charter

Gallo Center

for the a r t s

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Ginger Johnson, Chair of the Board

Marie D. Gallo, President Emerita† June Rogers, Director Emerita

Christina Gomez, Immediate Past Chair

Mel Bradley, Chair Elect

Sarah Grover

Juan Sánchez Muñoz, Ph.D. Jeff

Todd Aaronson

Angelica Anguiano

Rebeca Baeza

Victor Barraza

John C. Bellizzi

Jennifer Coehlo

Stacey Filippi

Robert Fores

Lou Friedman

Julian Gallo

Diane

Stephanie

Ann M. Veneman

Geoff Wong

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Mani Grewal Emma Grover

Irene Angelo†

Lilly Banisadre

Carl Boyett†

Joan Cardoza

Sheila Carroll

Suzanne Casazza

Paul Draper

Ron Emerzian

Ann Endsley

Kenni Friedman

Jaime Jimenez

Brian Kline

Kevin Luttenegger

Johann Ramirez

Catherine Rhee

Rosalee Rush

Robert Soria

John Schneider

Kate Trompetter

Philip Trompetter, Ph.D. Aaron Valencia

Colleen F. Van Egmond

Julie Vander Wall

Sue Zwahlen

FOUNDING TRUSTEES

Kate

Barry Highiet†

Jeanne

M.D.

Tony Mistlin†

M.D.

Schrimp

Fred A. Silva

Ray Simon

Delmar R. Tonge, M.D.†

Tom Van Groningen, Ph.D.

Doug Vilas

Carol Whiteside†

Jeremiah Williams

Alice Yip

Memoriam