Big Time in Little River 2013

Saturday, December 7, 2013, 3:00 to 5:30

The Mendocino Music Festival invites you to the incomparable (and recently completed) Little River home of John and Kathy Danhakl. Entertainment will include Festival Big Band all-stars Kathleen Grace, Julian Pollack, Allan Pollack, Ralph Humphrey and Kim Cass. Admission will be $125 per person.

Enjoy Libations, Sensations, Delectables, Treats, and your Festival Family—all in a matchless setting!Click Here to Reserve Online Now

Kathleen Grace, Vocalist

Kathleen Grace is celebrated nationally as a skilled jazz vocalist, lyricist, composer and educator. A lover of American popular song, she is among the vanguard of an exciting movement of young jazz singers who are, in her words, stepping “outside the box of the American Songbook into the world of original music.” A finalist in the 2004 Montreux International Jazz Vocal Competition, she also was awarded a spot in the Betty Carter Jazz Ahead Residency for young composers at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Grace’s first CD, Sunrise, received critical acclaim as one of the top debuts of the year and earned a Blue Chip Award from IAJE jazz critic Herb Wong.  Mirror, released on the Monsoon label, established her reputation as a composer and lyricist. Her musical quintet, The Kathleen Grace Band, blurs the boundaries between musical genres using jazz language to explore the spaces between the worlds of folk, rock and jazz.  She has just finished recording her latest CD, No Place to Fall, scheduled for released this fall. In addition to being an inspired musician, composer, and performer, Grace is a passionate jazz educator who has served as a clinician for jazz ensembles, solo jazz programs and creativity workshops around the country. She teaches vocal jazz at the USC Thornton School of Music and serves as director of the USC CreSCendo Vocal Jazz Ensemble.

Allan Pollack, Saxophone

Maestro Allan Pollack has guided the Mendocino Music Festival as Artistic Director and Conductor since the first note was played in 1987. Festival fans also know Dr. Pollack as a talented musician, soloing on the saxophone on nights he leads the fabulous Festival Big Band.  His compositional skills come into play during the Festival’s Big Band Night, for which he often crafts arrangements for much-loved jazz classics.  With a Ph.D. in composition from UC Berkeley, Dr. Pollack has composed a variety of pieces especially for the Festival Orchestra and musicians: Albion Song: Jazz Concerto for Saxophone; The Spiral Dance for chorus and orchestra; Two Movements in Time for orchestra; From the Song of Songs for soprano and orchestra; A Summer Evening at the Boonville Fair for orchestra; a Vibraphone Concerto; and a String Quartet.  Over the years, memorable performances have taken shape under his baton including Verdi’s Requiem, Brahms’ Requiem, Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, and Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring.

Julian Pollack, Piano

Pollack began studying classical piano at age 5 with his mother, Susan Waterfall. In high school he participated in the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts’ Young Arts Program and was awarded the Level One Gold Prize in the jazz discipline. In 2006 he moved to New York to study jazz piano and composition at New York University. In addition to attending school he was featured on Marian McPartland’s “Piano Jazz” NPR series, opened at the Blue Note for Chick Corea and Gary Burton, performed as a sideman with Brian Lynch at the Village Vanguard, led his own jazz trio and worked with singer Grace Weber. In 2011 Pollack won an ASCAP Young Jazz Composers Award for his composition “Blackberry,” was featured in the film In Good Time, a documentary about the life of Marian McPartland, and received a commission from The French Will Never Forget for a September 11th ten-year commemoration. He also received a commission from the Camellia Symphony Orchestra in Sacramento to write a concerto for piano and orchestra which premiered in March 2012 and was performed again during the 2012 Mendocino Music Festival.  His CD with the Julian Pollack Trio, Waves of Albion, will be released this October. julianpollackmusic.com

Ralph Humphrey, Drums

A native of the San Francisco Bay area, Ralph Humphrey is one of Los Angeles’ most in-demand drummers. From early experiences playing the intricate rhythms and challenging meters of the Don Ellis Big Band or with Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, his recording and touring career spans nearly 40 years. In addition to his appearances at the Mendocino Music Festival with the Tierney Sutton Band, he has performed with jazz notables Wayne Shorter, Al Jarreau, Toshiko Akiyoshi and Lou Tabakin, Manhattan Transfer, Natalie Cole, Free Flight, Pete Christlieb, Joe Farrell, Alphonso Johnson, Milcho Leviev, Alan Pasqua and an assortment of mainstream artists including Seals and Crofts, Barbara Streisand, Jose Feliciano, Bette Midler, Captain and Tenille, Richard Carpenter, and Rita Coolidge. His most recent projects include Dancing with the Stars, American Idol, Charmed, Piglet’s Big Movie, Star Trek Enterprise, The Simpsons, ABC 50th Anniversary Special, Far From Heaven, Coca-Cola, and Ping golf clubs. Humphrey is also a long-time educator and is currently co-head of the drum department at the LA Music Academy.

Kim Cass, Bass

Kim Cass began his musical journey in his home state of Maine. With a strong passion for the electric bass guitar, he excelled in grade school jazz competitions. In high school, Kim began studying the double bass, and quickly made practicing this challenging instrument his priority. Upon graduating, Mr. Cass travelled to the New England Conservatory, in Boston. Here he found a wealth of great instructors and settings to develop as a bassist and composer. George Garzone, Ran Blake, Danilo Perez, and Joe Maneri were among his most influential teachers. Kim is currently an active freelance bassist and composer living in Oakland. He is currently recording a self titled solo project set to be released on the Table and Chairs label in Seattle.

Karina Ulrich, Executive Chef

Over the past 25 years, Karina Ulrich has brought her German love of cooking to first class restaurants, bed & breakfasts, and special events as both an executive chef and baker.

“As my German mother always said, “Love goes though the belly.” Having grown up in Europe, my philosophy toward food reflects an old world sentiment that food is far more than nourishment of the body; it feeds our hearts and souls. It connects us with our memories and our histories and can transport us both physically and spiritually to another time. Cooking for me is about bringing people together and nurturing them in the most primal of ways. Cooking is far more than a profession or a hobby; it is a passion that infuses everything from the ingredients I select, to the time and attention I put into menu planning and presentation of the finished product. Food also connects us to the Earth, which is why I strive wherever possible to use local, wild crafted and sustainable ingredients. I have cultivated relationships with local purveyors to insure that everything I prepare is fresh and life enhancing.” —KarinasCatering.com

Wines by Harmonique

Harmonique makes three different styles of gracefully aged Anderson Valley Pinot Noir wines and a Un-Oaked Chardonnay. A partnership between Bruce and Moira Conzelman and winemaker Robert Klindt, the name Harmonique recognizes a desire to create wines that harmonize with many foods and evoke a sense of their Burgundian heritage.

Sparkling Wines by Roederer Estate

Roederer Estate’s winemaking style is based on two elements: ownership of its own vineyards and the addition of oak-aged reserve wines to each year’s blend or cuvée. All the grapes for the Anderson Valley wines are grown on the Estate. Oak-aged wines from the Estate’s reserve cellars are added to the blend, creating a multi-vintage cuvée in the traditional Louis Roederer style. Only the cuvée (first pressing of 120 gallons/ton) is used; no premiere or deuxieme taille. The fermentation takes place in high-grade stainless steel tanks at 65 degrees Fahrenheit. Zero to minimal malolactic fermentation is used in order to ensure the wines age well and retain the fresh, precise and well-defined style that is one of the characteristics of Roederer Estate wines.

Generously Sponsored by Pamela Hudson Real Estate

Click Here to Reserve Online Now