SCMC Executive Director Cathy Holbrook states, “We are pleased to open ticket sales for St. Cecilia Music Center's 2021 Season! Due to the uncertain restrictions of COVID-19 that may still be in effect this fall, we have rescheduled the concerts that were originally to occur September through December 2020. The season will now start in January 2021 and run through June 2021. See all new dates below for all concerts in the 2021 Season. We were able to find new dates for all but one show. The Milk Carton Kids concert that was scheduled for December 10, 2020 has been cancelled. We hope to bring them to Royce Auditorium during the 2021-22 Season. All other artists that were to appear on the 2020-21 season will still be featured in 2021.”

We were able to find new dates for all but one show. The Milk Carton Kids concert that was scheduled for December 10, 2020 has been cancelled. We hope to bring them to Royce Auditorium during the 2021-22 Season. All other artists that were to appear on the 2020-21 season will still be featured in 2021.”

St. Cecilia Music Center Series Concerts planned for the 2021 Season: 
 
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Series
 “Magical Schubert”- January 28, 2021
“The Brahms Effect”- April 29, 2021
“Sensational Strings”– June 3, 2021
 
Spectacular Jazz Series
Joshua Redman with his Quartet – January 21, 2021
Delfeayo Marsaliswith the Uptown Jazz Orchestra – April 15, 2021
Dee Dee Bridgewook & Bill Charlap – May 8, 2021
 
SCMC Winterfest Jazz Festival
Christian McBride and Edgar Meyer – February 25, 2021
Christian McBride Trio withCyrille Aimée – February 26, 2021
Christian McBride with Inside Straight – February 27, 2021
 
Acoustic Cafe Folk Series
Shawn Colvin – January 22, 2021
Leo Kottke – February 18, 2021
Kat Edmonson – March 4, 2021
Rodney Crowell – March 25, 2021
Mark O’Connor – April 21, 2021
Sam Bush – May 6, 2021
Watkins Family Hour – May 13, 2021
Marc Cohn – May 23, 2021
 
Cathy Holbrook adds, “It is our sincere hope that by January 2021 we are able to hold concerts safely. If we are unable to do so, any and all ticket purchases will be refunded for any concert that does not take place. We hope you will purchase tickets now to support SCMC and have something musical to look forward to in the coming year.”
 
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Series 2021. 
 
The exquisite Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center plans to perform three outstanding concerts: 
 

• “Magical Schubert”will be the theme on January 28, 2021.This special evening of music will celebrate Schubert’s magical genius (barely recognized during his lifetime) with three of his most significant chamber music works: the lighthearted fantasy for Violin and Piano in C major, his splendid piano trio in B-flat major, No. 1, Op. 99, and his greatest piano duet, the Fantasie in F minor, a tragically beautiful farewell written during the final months of his life. CMS artists performing include Pianist Alessio Bax, Pianist Gloria Chien, Violinist Benjamin Beilman and Cellist David Requiro.

• “The Brahms Effect”on April 29, 2021, will recognize the works of music’s leading figurehead at the culmination of the Romantic era, Johannes Brahms. Brahms wasunsurpassed in his emotional range and innovative spirit, both of which laid an inspirational groundwork for a generation of composers to come. One such composer was Hungarian Ernő Dohnányi, whose Sextet in C major owes its formative elements to Brahms. His work and two Brahms trios of profound originality will have the audience transfixed. The April concert will be a highly moving performance experience and a major highlight of the entire season. April’s concert will feature a sextet of some of the most recognized CMS artists: Pianist Juho Pohjonen, Vioinist Paul Huang, Violist Matthew Lipman, Clarinetist David Shifrin, Horn player Radek Baborak, and Co-Artistic Director and Cellist David Finckel. 

• The“Sensational Strings”on June 3, 2021, with six CMS artists performing, will feature works by composer Antonín Dvořák, 20th-century master Erwin Schulhoff, and Beethoven’s Quintet for Strings in C minor. CMS artists to perform include Kristin Lee and Arnaud Sussman, violin, Matthew Lipman and Paul Neubauer, viola, and Keith Robinson and Inbal Segev, cello. The string sextet will treat the audience to a depth of sound and a wealth of texture unlike any other instrumental grouping. Listeners will be mesmerized by the rigorous technical demands, emotional depth, and mastery of these compositions in the hands of some of the best chamber musicians in the world.
  
  
  

Spectacular Jazz Series 2020/2021
 
Three exciting concerts are planned for the Spectacular Jazz Series in 2021:

•  The Spectacular Jazz Series will kick off on January 21, 2021, with the charismatic Jazz Saxophonist Joshua Redman. One of the most esteemed artists of our time, the ceaselessly innovative saxophonist Joshua Redman has become a legend in his own right. Critics and fans are blown away by Redman’s passionate live performances and acclaimed recordings. The Joshua Redman Quartet evokes a sound that is both challenging and provocative to hard-swinging, melodic, and soulful – music with a joyous and celebratory spirit. Redmond’s new Quartet album titled Come What May – the first since 2001’s Passage of Time – was released in Spring 2019. JazzTimes says it best: Joshua Redman is “unparalleled among horn players today.”

•  On April 15, 2021, Delfeayo Marsalis and the Uptown Jazz Orchestra will perform. Over the course of his prolific music career, acclaimed trombonist, composer and producer Delfeayo Marsalis has been praised for his “technical excellence, inventive mind and frequent touches of humor.”  He has also been heralded as one of “the best, most imaginative and musical of the trombonists of his generation.” Marsalis’ commitment to idea optimism and progressive musical thought coexists in modern New Orleans jazz as a conceptual cornerstone for both the Uptown Jazz Orchestra and their latest CD, Jazz Party. Uptown Jazz Orchestra performances are always a big party, opening and closing their concerts with second line numbers and engaging audiences to participate in the music. Marsalis, an NEA Jazz Master, has shared the bandstand with jazz legends Art Blakey, Max Roach and Elvin Jones, as well as pop icons Fats Domino, Ray Charles and George Clinton. Jeff Simon of the Buffalo Newsobserved, " Delfeayo is, in many ways, the most fun of the Marsalis’. He's the family trombonist and record producer…and he seems to be the family wise guy too!" 

• Two GRAMMY® winners will share the stage on May 8, 2021 – GRAMMY® and Tony Award-winning jazz vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater and world- renowned GRAMMY® winning jazz pianist Bill Charlap.  Dee Dee Bridgewater, over the course of a multifaceted career spanning four decades, has ascended to the upper echelon of vocalists, putting her unique spin on standards, as well as, taking intrepid leaps of faith in re-envisioning jazz classics. Bridgewater, a fearless voyager, explorer, pioneer and keeper of jazz tradition is a three-time GRAMMY®winner including her GRAMMY® for Best Jazz Vocal Album in 2011. Bill Charlap, one of the world’s premier jazz pianists has performed and recorded with many leading artists of our time, ranging from jazz masters Phil Woods and Wynton Marsalis to singers Tony Bennett and Barbra Streisand. In 2016, Charlap won the GRAMMY®for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album. Since 1997, he has led the Bill Charlap Trio, now recognized as one of the leading groups in jazz.

 
St. Cecilia Music Center WinterFest Jazz Festival 2020/2021
 
St. Cecilia Music Center WinterFest will feature acclaimed GRAMMY®-winning jazz bassist Christian McBride & Friendsfor a three-day festival in Royce Auditorium in February 2021:

• February 25 will feature McBride and Edgar Meyer for a double Double Bass extravaganza;

• February 26 will be a traditional jazz show showcasing McBride’s celebrated jazz career with his trio and special guest jazz singer Cyrille Aimée;

•  February 27 will be an evening with Christian McBride’s quintet, Inside Straight, for an unforgettable night of energetic and inspiring jazz.

The six-time GRAMMY®-winning jazz bassist Christian McBride is called a “force of nature, fusing the fire and fury of a virtuoso with the depth and grounding of a seasoned journeyman.” With a career now blazing into its third decade, the Philadelphia native has become one of the most requested, most recorded, and most respected figures in the music world today. From jazz (McCoy Tyner, Roy Haynes, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny) to R&B (Isaac Hayes, Chaka Khan, Natalie Cole, and the one and only Godfather of Soul himself, James Brown) to pop/rock (Sting, Paul McCartney, Carly Simon) to hip-hop/neo-soul (The Roots, Queen Latifah) to classical  (Kathleen Battle, Edgar Meyer, Shanghai Quartet), he is a luminary with one hand ever reaching for new heights, and the other extended in fellowship—and perhaps the hint of a challenge—inviting us to join him. 
 
Avery Fisher Prize winning bassist Edgar Meye ris in demand as both a performer and a composer. He has formed a role in the music world unlike any other. Hailed by The New Yorker as “…the most remarkable virtuoso in the relatively un-chronicled history of his instrument”, Meyer’s unparalleled technique and musicianship in combination with his gift for composition have brought him to the fore, where he is appreciated by a vast, varied audience. His uniqueness in the field was recognized by a MacArthur Award in 2002. In 2007, recognizing his wide-ranging recording achievements, Sony/BMG released a compilation of The Best of Edgar Meyer. In 2011, Meyer joined cellist Yo-Yo Ma, mandolinist Chris Thile, and fiddler Stuart Duncan for the Sony Masterworks recording The Goat Rodeo Sessionswhich was awarded the 2012 GRAMMY®Award for Best Folk Album. As a composer, Meyer has carved out a remarkable and unique niche in the musical world. One of his most recent compositions is the Double Concerto for Double Bass and Violin which received its world premiere July 2012 with Joshua Bell at the Tanglewood Music Festival with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Meyer and Bell have also performed the work at the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Aspen Music Festival, and with the Nashville and Toronto symphony orchestras. In the 2011-12 season, Meyer was composer in residence with the Alabama Symphony where he premiered his third concerto for double bass and orchestra. Meyer has collaborated with Béla Fleck and Zakir Hussain to write a triple concerto for double bass, banjo, and tabla, which was commissioned for the opening of the Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville.
 
Cyrille Aimée, acclaimed GRAMMY®-nominated vocalist, ventured from singing on street corners in Europe to dazzling audiences at the world’s most prestigious jazz festivals; from sneaking out to sing in gypsy encampments in her native France to acting on Broadway; from braving the notoriously tough audiences at New York’s Apollo Theatre to being called a “rising star in the galaxy of jazz singers” by The New York Times. Among countless accolades, Aimée won the Montreux Jazz Festival Vocal Competition and the Sarah Vaughn International Jazz Vocal Competition. As an actress, Aimée co-starred with Bernadette Peters in a Stephen Sondheim tribute at New York’s City Center which inspired her to dig deeper into Sondheim’s repertoire, resulting in her fourth and most recent album, Move On: A Sondheim Adventure.

 

 
Inside Straight is Christian McBride’s acoustic quintet formed in 2009. Kind of Brown, the quintet’s debut studio album, was released in 2009 when Will Lyman of PopMatters wrote “This music is unself-consciously traditional: it’s fun; it swings…it’s not experimental, but it gives superb voice to several brilliant players and one new discovery. And now Christian McBride, the finest bassist of his generation, is on track.” In 2013, the quintet released People Music. Corey Brown of Notreble said “The new album finds the quintet in hard-swing mode, delivering what they call “more road-tested, ‘lived-in’ Inside Straight” in an accessible way, and one that makes the audience part of the experience.”
 
Acoustic Café Folk Series 2020/2021
 
Eight outstanding shows are currently planned for the Acoustic Café Folk Series 2021 season: 
 

• Three-time GRAMMY winner Shawn Colvin will return to St. Cecilia Music Center on January 22, 2021 to commemorate her recently released album Steady On Acoustic. In October 1989, Colvin released her debut album, Steady On, a stunning introduction to an artist who quickly established herself as a mainstay in the singer-songwriter genre. The album was lauded for its confessional songwriting and well-crafted melodies, and for Colvin’s tender and provocative vocals. Colvin received the ultimate acknowledgement for Steady On when she was awarded the GRAMMY® award for Best Contemporary Folk Album. She swiftly amassed a dedicated and passionate fan base. To commemorate the 30th anniversary of this landmark album, Colvin released a newly-recorded solo-acoustic version. Steady On Acoustic strips each song to the core, placing Colvin’s songwriting masterclass on full display. “I’ve played these songs countless times, primarily as a solo acoustic artist,” she says. “All in all, this is the incarnation that feels most genuine. And so, to commemorate this milestone I decided to celebrate Steady On by recording it again, this time using only my voice and my guitar. This represents who I am as an artist and all I ever wanted to be, and I believe it does its predecessor proud.” Shawn Colvin will perform Steady On Acoustic in its entirety, as well as fan favorites, in what promises to be a very special evening for her new and longtime fans. 

•  St. Cecilia Music Center will bring back popular guitarist and Grand Rapids favorite Leo Kottke on February 18, 2021. Kottke, who has been described by Rolling Stone Magazine as “so good that he didn’t need a band” will entertain the West Michigan audience with his amazing six and twelve-string guitar picking genius. Kottke who has more than 42 years of touring under his belt, nearly 30 albums to his name and an astonishing array of material to choose from, will entertain the audience with his instrumental genius and engaging sense of humor. 

• The sweetheart of vintage pop and jazz, Texas native, Kat Edmonson will make her stunning appearance at SCMC on March 4, 2021. Edmonson began crafting her signature sound while performing in Austin’s local club circuit for years before releasing her debut LP Take To The Sky in 2009. She went on to tour worldwide with high profile acts including Lyle Lovett, Chris Isaak, Gary Clark Jr., Shawn Colvin, Willie Nelson, Smokey Robinson, Nick Lowe and more. With a sweetly mellifluous soprano echoing Blossom Dearie’s lighter-than-air approach, as well as, her gift for evocative songwriting, Kat Edmonson is a rare artist who embodies the spirit of the past while remaining resolutely au courant. Her unusually charming and seamless blend of old and new has garnered attention on “NPR Tiny Desk Concerts”, “Austin City Limits”, and “A Prairie Home Companion.”  She recently released Dreamers Do, an album that blends original compositions and reimagined mid-20thcentury classic Disney songs to tell a story which takes place over the course of one sleepless night. NPR Music recently stated that hernewest album is “a handsome showcase for her songwriting, which has grown ever more confident over the last decade,” while the Associated Press says the record “sounds like an alternate soundtrack to an Audrey Hepburn film.” Dreamers Do follows the release of her 2018 Old Fashioned Gal, which Billboard calls “an intimate journey from doubt to resolve and implied triumph.”

•  The legendary Rodney Crowell makes his debut in Royce Auditorium on March 25, 2021. Crowell is known as the founding father of the Americana genre. He is Nashville royalty and a national treasure, as well as a five-time Americana honoree and award winner. Crowell as a hit songwriter, as a chart-topping singer, and as a gruffly grinning member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame is still going strong. His prolific work has added another new album to a long list of titles. Rodney Crowell: Texas was released in August 2019. The album includes his work performed by him and well-known artists such as Vince Gill, Ringo Starr, Lyle Lovett, Willie Nelson, Lee Ann Womack, Steve Earle and other outstanding musicians. This album of classics is not a victory lap. It’s a field sprint, followed by a campfire circle. It’s Rodney Crowell playing guitar and singing with friends, live and in real time. With Crowell’s joyful ownership of songs that have become dear companions the audience will experience the depth of Crowell’s true nature during this special evening and his first appearance on stage at SCMC. 

• Mark O’Connor, will perform at SCMC on April 21, 2021. He's been applauded by The Los Angeles Times as “One of the most talented and imaginative artists working in music – any music – today”. O'Connor began his creative journey at the feet of American fiddling legend Benny Thomasson, and the iconic French jazz violinist Stéphane Grappelli. Now, at age 55, he has melded these influences into a new American classical music, and is perpetuating his vision of an American School of String Playing. O’Connor has won three GRAMMY®’s and seven CMA awards, as well as several national fiddle, guitar and mandolin champion titles. His distinguished career includes representing the United States Information Agency in cultural diplomacy to six continents and performing in front of several U.S. presidents, including being invited to the White House by President Ronald Reagan to perform as a teen. After recording a series of albums for Rounder and Warner Bros including his multiple GRAMMY®-winning New Nashville Cats, his recordings for Sony Classical with Yo-Yo Ma – Appalachia Waltz and Appalachian Journey – sold a million CDs and gained O'Connor worldwide recognition as a leading proponent of a new American musical idiom. O’Connor’s Fiddle Concerto released on Warner Bros. has become the most-performed violin concerto composed in the last 50 years. He will appear with The Mark O’Connor Band – made up of O’Connor family members.

• Sam Bush will appear at SCMC on May 6, 2021. There is only one Sam Bush. He’s released seven albums and a live DVD over the past two decades. In 2009, the Americana Music Association awarded Bush the Lifetime Achievement Award for Instrumentalist. Punch Brothers, Steep Canyon Rangers, and Greensky Bluegrass are just a few present-day bluegrass vanguards among so many musicians he’s influenced. His performances are annual highlights of the festival circuit, with Bush’s joyous perennial appearances at Telluride’s famed bluegrass fest earning him the title, “King of Telluride.” Bush says, “With this band I have now, I am free to try anything. Looking back at the last 50 years of playing newgrass, with the elements of jazz improvisation and rock-&amp-roll, jamming, playing with New Grass Revival, Leon, and Emmylou; it’s a culmination of all of that.” 

• Watkins Family Hour will grace the stage on May 13, 2021 with Sean Watkins and Sara Watkins performing brother sister their brand new album and other favorites by this powerful duo. Moving from one landscape to the next – literally and musically – is nothing new to Sean and Sara Watkins, who have performed separately and together for nearly their whole lives. Growing up near San Diego, they played countless shows at a local pizza place in Carlsbad, California, with their childhood friend, Chris Thile. As young adults, those three musicians broke out nationally as Nickel Creek, an acoustic ensemble that sold millions of albums, won a Grammy, and toured the world. Encouraged by a local club owner in Los Angeles, Sean and Sara formed Watkins Family Hour in 2002 as an outlet to try out some original songs and a few covers that wouldn’t work in Nickel Creek. That club, Largo, has since become the home base for Watkins Family Hour. With Nickel Creek on hiatus, Sean and Sara released multiple solo albums and pursued other collaborations, most recently with Sara’s involvement in I’m With Her. Returning to the studio this year in early 2020, Sean and Sara Watkins consider brother sister a duo-centric record – yet one that feels bigger than just two people. With Sean primarily on guitar and Sara on fiddle, and with both of them sharing vocals, the siblings enlisted producer Mike Viola (Jenny Lewis, Mandy Moore, J.S. Ondara) and mixer-engineer Clay Blair to harness the energy and honesty of their live sound. 
  
  
  

   

• Popular returning artist Marc Cohn will perform at SCMC on May 23, 2021. After winning a Grammy for his soulful ballad “Walking in Memphis,” Marc Cohn solidified his place as one of this generation’s most compelling singer-songwriters, combining the precision of a brilliant tunesmith with the passion of a great soul man. Rooted in the rich ground of American rhythm and blues, soul and gospel and possessed of a deft storyteller’s pen, he weaves vivid, detailed, often drawn-from-life tales that evoke some of our most universal human feelings: love, hope, faith, joy, heartbreak. Cohn followed up his platinum-selling debut with two more releases in the 1990s, at which point Time Magazine called him "one of the honest, emotional voices we need in this decade" and Bonnie Raitt declared, "Marc is one of the most soulful, talented artists I know. I love his songs, he's an incredible singer, and I marvel at his ability to mesmerize every audience he plays for."

Tickets
Season subscription tickets* to the 2021 SCMC WinterFest Jazz Festival, Spectacular Jazz Series and Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Concert Series are available online at www.scmc-online.org or by calling 616-459-2224. 
 
Single tickets** to WinterFest, Chamber, Jazz, and Folk concerts are also available by phone at 616-459-2224 or online at www.scmc-online.org. For each concert,a post-concert party in the Dexter Ballroom will be open to all ticket-holders giving the audience the opportunity to possibly meet the artists and obtain signed CDs of their releases.   
 
* Series Subscribers of SCMC WinterFest, Spectacular Jazz Series, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Series, and the Combined Jazz & Chamber Subscription (Jazz and Chamber) are offered with great benefits including 15-20% discount off single concert ticket prices. 
 
**Ticket prices: There is a $7 fee on each subscription ticket. Single tickets have a $3.00 per ticket fee. All concerts start at 7:30pm. (With the exception of Shawn Colvin who will have an opener at 7pm.) All concerts include a post-concert party for concert ticket holders. 
 
[A note from SCMC Executive Director Cathy Holbrook: “As we approach the new 2021 Season of Music at St. Cecilia Music Center, we are excited about the season. We know that we may be approaching a “new normal” this season and will hold the concerts with the safety of patrons in mind. The SCMC building will adhere to recommended cleaning and disinfecting protocol.]
 
SUBSCRIPTION TICKETS
Chamber Music Society Series
3-concert subscription
15% discount off single ticket prices
A Sec. Subscription $114
B Sec. Subscription $102
Plus: Add any or ALL of the three WinterFest concerts to your subscription and receive 15% off the single ticket price on festival tickets.
 
Spectacular Jazz Series 
3-concert subscription
15% discount off single ticket prices
A Sec. Subscription $137
B Sec. Subscription $119
Plus: Add any or ALL of the three WinterFest concerts to your subscription and receive 15% off the single ticket price on festival tickets. 
 
Chamber +  Jazz Subscription package
20% discount off single ticket prices
6-concert combination series 
A Sec. Subscription $236
B Sec. Subscription $208
Plus: Add any or ALL of the three WinterFest concerts to your subscription and receive 15% off the single ticket price on festival tickets. 
 
SCMC WinterFest Subscription package
3-concert subscription
15% discount off single ticket prices
A Sec. Subscription $123
B Sec. Subscription $111
 
 
SINGLE TICKETS
SCMC WinterFest Jazz Festival Single Tickets
 
Christian McBride & Edgar Meyer
Tuesday, February 25, 2021
A section $55          
B section $50
 
Christian McBride Trio & Cyrille Aimee
Wednesday, February 26, 2021
A section $45          
B section $40
 
Christian McBride & Inside Straight 
Thursday, February 27, 2021
A section $45          
B section $40
 
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Single Tickets 
 
Magical Schubert
Thursday, January 28, 2021
A section $45          
B section $40
 
The Brahms Effect
Thursday, April 29, 2021
A section $45          
B section $40
 
Sensational Strings
Thursday, June 3, 2021
A section $45          
B section $40
 
 
Jazz Series Single Tickets 
Jazz Saxophonist Joshua Redman
Thursday, January 21, 2021
A section $55          
B section $45
 
Delfeayo Marsalis Big Band
Thursday, April 15, 2021
A section $50          
B section $45
 
Dee Dee Bridgewater & Bill Charlap
Saturday, May 8, 2021
A section $55          
B Section $50
 
Folk Series Single Tickets 
 
Shawn Colvin
Friday, January 22, 2021
A section $45          
B section $40
 
Leo Kottke
Thursday, February 18, 2021
A section $45          
B section $40
 
Kat Edmonson
Thursday, March 4, 2021
A section $45          
B section $40
 
Rodney Crowell
Thursday, March 25, 2021
A section $60          
B section $50
 
The Mark O’Connor Band
Wednesday, April 21, 2021
A section $50          
B section $45