20|21 Season: Shana Tucker Quartet Performance Program

THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 2021 UPSTAGE AT THE PHILLIPS CENTER

SHANA TUCKER QUARTET 2020|2021 SEASON

SHANA TUCKER QUARTET SHANA TUCKER — VOCALIST/CELLIST | SCOTT GIDDENS — PIANIST WILLIAM LEDBETTER­— UPRIGHT BASS | AL SERGEL — DRUMS Sponsored by DRUMMOND COMMUNITY BANK | EAD CORPORATION | ENTERCOM COMMUNICATIONS

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ellist. Singer-Songwriter. Arts Advocate. Teaching Artist. Collaborator. Cultural Conduit. In each role, Shana Tucker is a builder-of-connections, whether she’s associating STEM concepts with backbeats or engaging a packed house through candid song-storytelling in performance. Shana’s unique genre of ChamberSoul™ weaves jazz, roots, folk, acoustic pop, and a touch of R&B into melodies that echo in your head for days. Of her work, Shana says, “I’m intrinsically drawn to acoustic instruments because of their resonance, warmth, and intimacy. ChamberSoul brings the musicians and their audience close, and makes the music tangible, no matter how large or small the room is.”

A Long Island, N.Y., native, Shana studied cello at Howard University in Washington, D.C., where she took her first dive into improvisational performance and honed her singer-songwriting skills. She later received her degree in violoncello performance from CUNY-Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music, where she studied with master cellist Marion Feldman. Shortly after the release of her debut CD, SHiNE, in 2011, Cirque du Soleil recruiters heard an NPR interview with Shana about her ChamberSoul songwriting and performance style, and invited her to be cellist/vocalist for their show, KÀ, in Las Vegas, where she performed for five years before returning to North Carolina.

A sought-after collaborator, Shana performs and records with legendary jazz saxophonist/composer Bennie Maupin, jazz flutist/composer Nicole Mitchell, Grammy-nominated NuSoul collective The Foreign Exchange, and countless others. Recent North Carolina collaborations include performing a cello/vocal duet with soprano Andrea Edith Moore for Singing on the Land, a project that coordinates musicians to perform acoustically at historic sites across the state; They Are All, an exploration of living with Parkinson’s Disease, choreographed by Murielle Elizeon and Tommy Noonan; Continuing To Tell, a multidisciplinary public-space performance that highlights the history of Civil Rights in Durham, N.C.; and Kamara Thomas’ Country Soul Songbook series, also featuring Rissi Palmer, Kym Register, and Phil Cook.

Shana was named the first-ever artist in residence at the Wortham Center for the Performing Arts in Asheville, N.C., for their 20192020 concert season. In spring 2018, Shana was resident teaching artist at Springhouse Community School in Floyd, Va., where she co-presented Courageous Conversations, a semester-long course about racism, intersectionality, and how to be an authentic, effective ally with Head of School Jenny Finn.

A front-line advocate for arts education, Shana is an accomplished teaching artist, with more than 20 years experience with community engagement, workshops, lesson planning, and artist residency facilitation. Working with students from Pre-K through college and lifelong learners, Shana is currently an Artist Fellow with A+ Schools of North Carolina, a teaching artist with United Arts Council of Raleigh/Wake County, and Durham Arts Council, and has been a teaching artist with Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts since 2015.

Sponsored in part by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture.

NEW AT UF PERFORMING ARTS

DRIVEWAY THEATRE PROJECT

ith the Driveway Theatre Project (DTP), we’re bringing a new kind of block party to neighborhoods throughout Greater Gainesville!

The way it works is simple: UFPA teams up with community members like you to bring together friends and neighbors around a performance in driveways, backyards, community centers, and even places of business. You provide the space and invite the people, we provide the magic of performance. Whether it’s bringing actors, musicians, dancers, or all three, we will work with you to figure out the most appropriate performance type for your gathering.

The DTP will be an effort that meets people where they are both geographically and socially, providing performances at no cost and removing many of the boundaries that hinder folks from attending performances inside our venues. But providing no cost performances and removing these boundaries is a serious undertaking, and to realize the full potential of DTP we will need your support.

To us, success would entail DTP performances taking place at homes and community centers across Gainesville’s east, west, north, south, and in surrounding communities.

Further, relevance is key to DTP success. These events need to marry fun, the social glue of performance, and historical context into the experience. UFPA’s audiences are varied, and so too should be the Driveway Theatre Project’s.

We believe that with your help, we can grow DTP into an initiative that garners national notoriety and potential major foundation funding. Engagement with our surrounding community has always been a priority at UFPA, but this project would take things to a new level.

For further information about the Driveway Theatre Project, contact Sorrell Fields, UFPA Director of Development, sfields@performingarts.ufl.edu, 352.273.2480

SPRING 2021 EVENTS TICKETS ARE ON SALE NOW!

YUVAL RON ENSEMBLE WEDNESDAY, APRIL 14 | 7:30 P.M. UPSTAGE AT THE PHILLIPS CENTER

KANDACE SPRINGS THURSDAY, APRIL 1 | 7 & 9 P.M. UPSTAGE AT THE PHILLIPS CENTER

ALL DATES, TIMES, AND VENUES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE.

ORDER ONLINE OR CALL THE PHILLIPS CENTER BOX OFFICE —

PERFORMINGARTS.UFL.EDU | 352.392.ARTS LEARN ABOUT UFPA’S SAFE ATTENDANCE POLICIES ON OUR WEBSITE:

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