GPAC PRESENTS PIANIST GEORGE WINSTON
10/30/08
The Germantown Performing Arts Centre presents pianist George Winston on Friday, December 12 at 8 p.m. Best known for his seasonal solo piano recordings Autumn, Winter Into Spring, December and Summer, George Winston plays over 100 solo piano concerts a year. His concerts feature a variety of styles, including his melodic folk piano, stride piano, R&B piano, Vince Guaraldi's Peanuts pieces, and more. Winston cites the pianists of New Orleans as the biggest influences on his own playing and, in 2006, released Gulf Coast Blues & Impressions - A Hurricane Relief Benefit, all proceeds from which he has donated to organizations involved in helping in Hurricane Katrina relief.
Winston and GPAC will also be helping local citizens with a canned food drive on the evening of the performance. All concert attendees are encouraged to bring a canned or non-perishable food item for donation to the Mid-South Food Bank.
WHO: George Winston
WHEN: Friday, December 12
TICKETS: Single tickets are $40, $50, and $60, plus handling fee, and are available now by calling (901) 751-7500 or online at www.GPACweb.com.
Box Office Hours: Monday through Friday between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. and
noon the day of performance. All major credit cards accepted.
WHERE: Germantown Performing Arts Centre
1801 Exeter Road
Germantown, TN 38138
CONTACT: For more information or to arrange an interview with the artist(s), please contact Carrie Corbett at (901) 751-7501 or carrie@GPACweb.com.
IMAGES: See attached
ARTIST WEB: www.georgewinston.com
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY:
George Winston was born in Michigan in 1949, but was raised primarily in Montana, and also spent his later formative years in Mississippi and Florida.
The extreme seasonal changes he experienced there later greatly influencing the pastoral feel of his music. Even as a child, Winston preferred instrumental music over vocal performances.
He did not take up music until after high school, however, beginning with organ and electric piano but moving to acoustic piano by 1971.
Influenced by the stride piano of Fats Waller and Teddy Wilson, Winston turned from rock and R&B to jazz, and soon released his first solo piano effort, Ballads and Blues 1972, after which he retired from music for the next several years.
Between 1980 and 1982 he recorded a trilogy of albums -- Autumn, December, and Winter Into Spring -- of impressionistic, seasonal-themed piano musings incorporating the melodic folk piano style that has become his trademark. Winston's music continued to grow in popularity and influence in the years to follow, but he eventually dropped from sight for the remainder of the 1980s, resurfacing only in 1986.
Finally, in 1991, Winston returned to action, completing his seasonal cycle with Summer; Forest followed three years later. In 1996, he paid tribute to another of his greatest influences with Linus & Lucy: The Music of Vince Guaraldi. A compilation album, All the Seasons of George Winston, was released in the spring of 1998.
In 2006, Winston released Gulf Coast Blues & Impressions - A Hurricane Relief Benefit, all proceeds from which he has donated to organizations involved in helping in Hurricane Katrina relief. His most recent CD is Montana - A Love Story.
Winston's current project is recording the masters of the Hawaiian slack key guitar for an extensive series of albums for Dancing Cat Records.
