The 19th Annual Summer Solstice Celebration by the Paul Winter Consort with special guests trombonist Chris Brubeck (The Brubeck Brothers Quartet/Triple Play), multi-instrumentalist Paul McCandless (Oregon/Pat Metheny) and world-renowned pipe organist Timothy Brumfield will once again welcome the summer tonight, June 21st in the world's largest Gothic cathedral, St. John the Divine located at Amsterdam Avenue at 112th Street. Winter and colleagues will premiere a new work, "Morning of the Phoenix,"inspired by the two spectacular 100-foot long bird sculptures, entitled Phoenix, by renowned Chinese artist Xu Bing that were recently installed in the nave of the cathedral. Beginning in complete darkness at 4:30 AM, musicians play for two hours as the sun gradually illuminates the cathedral's stained-glass windows.
Immediately following the concert, the entire audience is invited to a tea and coffee reception in the Crossing of the Cathedral, during which members of the audience can meet each other along with the musicians.
"This may well be our most revolutionary event yet in the cathedral," says seven-time Grammy™ Award-winning soprano saxophonist Winter. "Given the unique spatial placement of the players, the visual dimension that will emerge, and the nature of our performing 'partners.' For we and the audience members alike will be 'consorting' with these two gigantic birds suspended above us."
The cathedral has recently mounted what perhaps is the most colossal exhibit of an artistic work that New York has ever seen. Over the course of two years, pioneering Chinese contemporary artist Xu Bing culled detritus from construction sites across the rapidly changing urban landscape of Beijing, and transformed it into his most monumental project to date: Phoenix (2008-10). An engineering feat, Phoenix is composed of a male and a female bird whose combined weight exceeds 12 tons.
The Paul Winter Consort first performed Summer Solstice in 1994 as a counterpoint to its popular Winter Solstice concert series, which attracts 10,000 audience members and is broadcast on 300 National Public Radio stations.
For more information or to purchase tickets please visit
http://www.solsticeconcert.com
or call 866.811.4111.
