Spivey Hall Opens 2008/2009 Jazz Series, October 17

World famous Spivey Hall, on the campus of Clayton State University, is preparing to open its 2008/2009 Jazz Series on Friday, Oct. 17 with an 8:15 p.m. performance by the Kenny Barron Trio.

Lauded as "one of the top jazz pianists in the world" (Los Angeles Times) and "the most lyrical pianist of our time" (Jazz Weekly), Kenny Barron is a master poet of jazz piano with an unmatched ability to mesmerize audiences. A major headliner appearing at leading jazz venues and festivals internationally, he has been named "Best Jazz Pianist" by the Jazz Journalists Association four years in a row. His outstanding recordings have been showered with honors, including eight Grammy nominations for his featured recordings on the Verve label.

Tickets to this performance are $40 (Fifty percent off for Clayton State faculty and staff; Clayton State students pay just $10.)

Following Barron, on Saturday, Oct. 18, will be guitarist Robert Belinic making his Spivey Hall debut.

The sole winner of the 2001 Young Concert Artists European Auditions in Leipzig, and the first guitarist ever to win the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in New York, Croatian guitarist Belinic is "a genius, a poet, a super-sensitive musician" (SanDiego.com) Belinic has given recitals in New York at Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall and Merkin Concert Hall and in Boston at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. As concerto soloist, he has appeared with the Phoenix Symphony, and the Orchestra of St. Luke's in New York.

His Spivey Hall program will include: J.S. BACH/Belinic Prelude, Fugue & Allegro in E-flat Major, BWV 998; SOR Introduction and Variations on "Marlborough s'en va-t-en guerre"; MANGORÉ Vals No. 3, Opus 8, Julia Florida, Cueca; CAGALJ Four Dances for Guitar; BROUWER Sonata; and LAURO Two Venezuelan Folk Dances.

Tickets to Belinic’s 8:15 p.m. performance are $30. (Fifty percent off for Clayton State faculty and staff; Clayton State students pay just $10.)

For tickets to both performances, and more information, call the Spivey Hall Box Office at (678) 466-4200. Full-price tickets only are available online at www.spiveyhall.org (a per-ticket service fee applies).

A unit of the University System of Georgia, Clayton State University is an outstanding comprehensive metropolitan university located 15 miles southeast of downtown Atlanta.