Music has always been color for me: the melted butter hue of B flat, the ripe watermelon flesh of a muted string orchestra, the cherry-wood grain of a solo clarinet. These associations only deepened after losing most of my vision, age fourteen. Letters had colors; months of the year had colors; voices, thoughts, tastes, all had colors, textures, and shapes.

I would muse with regret, improvising at the piano as a teenager, about my utter inability to translate the profound surrealism of this experience into a literal medium - printing out the portraits of my mind's eye for others to see, understanding of course that all of the meanings and nuances were purely associative; that, in the eyes of another beholder, this rich inner landscape would be reduced to an abstract tapestry of mush. During these same years, my brother was becoming a painter, spending hours in the little study off of the kitchen, stereo on and brush in hand, intent on an image while I goofed around on the computer.

It was decades later when we first began combining our two mediums in performance. It's true that I have never seen his work, but I can feel the wave of consciousness that we are riding together when we collaborate. One medium gives to the other, which gives back in return, the reverberant echoes of which creating a resonance that is palpable. Audience members who are less versed in appreciating jazz often get drawn in by watching the painting go - like a slow-motion music video - from solid-orange to fully-formed landscape in the course of an evening: rich swaths of emotion spilling across the canvas, constellating ocean waves from summers swimming in Emerald Isle or a forest-scape along the Cumberland River where he and I once went backpacking.

I'm really excited to be welcoming my brother to campus and for the opportunity for us to share what we do with the Santa Clara community.

This event is reserved seating. Learn more about the venue: Music Recital Hall.

TICKET PRICES:
Adult (A-D) $24.00
Adult (E-L) $28.00
Fac/Staff, Senior, 18 & under (A-D) $20.00
Fac/Staff, Senior, 18 & under (E-L) $24.00
SCU Students FREE.

Get more information about the SCU Student Free Ticket Program.

The performance schedule is subject to change at the discretion of SCU•Presents and the Department of Music. If there is a change in the schedule, you will be notified via the email that is associated with your ticket account.

Read detailed COVID Safety requirements here.