Today, a wonderful day in Yonkers, including a lovely filet of sole stuffed with crab & scallops in an Italian restaurant near the Hudson river. Now enjoying coffee with a chocolate covered cream puff from a Hungarian pastry shop across from St. John Cathedral while taking a break from rehearsal. It’s going to be an amazing concert tomorrow! More info about the show below.
“A deep-listening journey in the mystical ambience of these early morning hours within this awesome space.”
At this annual solstice ritual, the Paul Winter Consort celebrates the first sunrise of summer within the vast acoustics of the world’s largest cathedral, New York’s Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Beginning in complete darkness, musicians surrounding the audience play continuously for two hours as the cathedral’s stained-glass windows gradually illuminate to usher in the longest day of the year.
For its 16th annual performance, the Consort will premiere music from their Grammy-winning album Miho: Journey to the Mountain, inspired by the architecture, landscape and antiquities of I. M. Pei’s Miho Museum in the Shigaraki Mountains near Kyoto, Japan.
Joining 7-time Grammy-winning soprano saxophonist Paul Winter are cellist Eugene Friesen; Armenian vocalist/percussionist Arto Tuncboyaciyan; Paul McCandless on oboe, English horn, and bass clarinet; Tibetan vocalist Yangjin Lamu; bansuri (Indian flute) master Steve Gorn; percussionist Glen Velez; Yukiko Matsuyama on koto; and Tim Brumfield on the Cathedral’s pipe organ.
“Summer Solstice is one of the great turning points of the year, when the sun is at its peak and the days abound with the promise of life’s fullness,” Winter said. “It is a serenely powerful time in which the beauty of the natural world can infuse our spirit, bring us alive to the present, and perhaps awaken a deeper sense of relatedness to the community of life, to the Earth, and to the cosmos.”
Winter welcomes this opportunity to present a more intimate and reflective musical journey, in which players and listeners alike can revel in the extraordinary acoustics of the Cathedral, with its 150-foot dome, 600-foot length and seven-second reverberation.
“My dream is to offer an experience of resonance, through a deep-listening journey in the mystical ambience of these early morning hours within this awesome space. By the end of the concert, there’s a feeling shared among the audience and musicians that together, we have taken part in the dawning of summer,” Winter said.
On the Miho album, Winter’s clear sax is intertwined with taiko drums, bansuri flute, sarangi fiddle, birdcalls, waterfalls, and bells of the Miho. All serve to form a shifting, meditative image of paradise reflected in Japan’s iconic Miho Museum and its collection of antiquities. World-renowned American architect I. M. Pei came out of retirement to design the museum, reached by a soundproofed tunnel meant to clear the mind and then by a graceful suspension bridge over a stunning gorge.
Immediately following the concert, the entire audience will be invited to a free tea and coffee reception in the nave of the Cathedral, during which members of the audience can meet each other along with the musicians.
“Our most profound event of the year.”
