JAZZ ICON LEE SHAW IN CONCERT AT SAINT ROSE

ALBANY (February 10, 2010) -- The Massry Center for the Arts will swing with exciting acoustic jazz when Capital Region jazz legend Lee Shaw brings her trio back for a concert at The College of Saint Rose.

The Lee Shaw Trio – Shaw on piano, bassist Rich Syracuse and drummer Jeff Siegel – will perform Thursday, March 11, at 7:30 p.m. in the Kathleen McManus Picotte Recital Hall, Massry Center for the Arts, 1002 Madison Ave., Albany. The concert is presented by Premiere Performances II at The College of Saint Rose. Admission is $10 or $5 with a Saint Rose I.D.

Shaw has had her own acoustic jazz piano trio for more than 40 years, during which time she performed in numerous clubs, concerts, and festivals throughout the United States and Europe. Out of her laser-like musical intensity comes a true mastery of the piano, and her tonal palette is huge. Owen McNally of The Hartford Courant notes that Shaw is “a modest, irresistible person of immodest, irrepressible talent. She comes across both in the interview and at the keyboard as an artist who had a virtually religious calling for jazz, come what may.” Bill Milkowski, in Jazz Times, observes, “her harmonic language is expansive, her time impeccable, her touch divine.” She has been a guest on Marian McPartland’s NPR program “Piano Jazz” and can be heard frequently on WAMC’s “The Roundtable.” Shaw was inducted into the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame in 1993 and awarded an honorary doctorate from Saint Rose in 2002. In 2008, Shaw’s alma mater, the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma, honored her, along with 10 other women from the institution’s 100-year history, as an international leader in music.

Opened in 2008, the critically acclaimed Massry Center features the 400-seat recital hall, Esther Massry Art Gallery, choral and instrument rehearsal rooms, teaching studios, piano labs and classrooms.  Albanyjazz.com recently bestowed its “Local Hero Award (Venue Division)” on the center, while Metroland named it the region’s “Best New Arts Complex” for 2009. The $14 million, 46,000 square-foot gem recently achieved LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold certification, ranking it among the Capital Region’s most energy-efficient and Earth-friendly buildings.

For more information about the March 11 concert, contact Berrnadette Speach at 518-337-4871 or speachb@strose.edu.

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