The Arts Center at Duck Creek in Springs presents this year’s online winter concert series, beginning Saturday, February 5. Working in conjunction with Bar Bayeux in Brooklyn and New York City-based non-profit KEYED UP! for the second time, music director Peter Watrous presents new musical talent to the Duck Creek community.
The online music series began during the first wave of the pandemic with Watrous’ COVID Commissions. This series of stay-at-home concerts brought together his curatorial rigor and stellar ear for up-and-coming acts for the benefit of artist and audience alike. While health guidelines have shifted since its conception, the online programming as an opportunity to share music with the Duck Creek audience all year long.
The following concerts will be performed live before an audience at Bar Bayeux. Recordings of the performances — courtesy of videographer Dan Carlson — will be posted on Duck Creek’s website and YouTube channel within a week of each show.
Kicking off the series on February 5, is Tyrone Allen II Quartet, featuring Tyrone Allen II, bass and leader, Neta Ranaan, saxophones, Lex Korton, piano, and Kayvon Gordon, drums. Allen began his musical journey at the age of three, taking lessons from his father, a teacher in DC public schools. Allen studied jazz and classical at the Eastman School of Music and the Berklee College of Music.
On February 12, enjoy Giveton Gelin Quintet, featuring Giveton Gelin, trumpet and leader, Micah Thomas on piano, Zoey Abadia, saxophone, Jayla Chee, bass, and Kayvon Gordon on drums. A recent Juilliard graduate, Bahamas-born Gelin taught himself to play the trumpet at ten years old. At twenty-two years old, Gelin has played with pioneers of the New York jazz scene such as Curtis Lundy, Bobby Watson, Roy Hargrove, Wynton Marsalis, Ben Wolfe, and Jon Batiste.
On February 19, Kazemde George Quintet performs, featuring Kazemde George, saxophone and leader, Sami Stevens, voice, Manuel Schmiedel, piano, Alon Near, bass, and Adam Arruda, drums. Based in Brooklyn, George holds degrees from Harvard University and the New England Conservatory. He is known for articulating emotionally direct melodies with a warm tones and guiding restraints.
On February 26, Courtney Wright Quartet performs, featuring Courtney Wright, saxophone and leader, Andrew Wagner, trumpet, Caelan Cardello, piano, and Eliza Salem, drums. A native of Woodbridge, VA, Wright is a composer and baritone saxophonist based in New York City, where she leads her own jazz orchestra and quintet. In 2021, she won the ISJAC/USF Prize for Emerging Black Composers and the Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award.
The NYC Jazz Record named Bar Bayeux as one of the “Best Venues of the Year” in 2021, and has partnered with the Arts Center at Duck Creek for online music programming since 2020. KEYED UP! is a non-profit organization whose Jazz Generation initiative creates musical enrichment opportunities for children and adults. The Arts Center at Duck Creek is a not-for-profit corporation operating fine arts programming on the East Hampton Town-owned property known as Historic Duck Creek Farm.