Steven A. Young

Shostakovich's Cello Sonata belied the young composer's reputation as the 'enfant terrible' of early Soviet music. Steven Isserlis's praises it as ''the most popular cello sonata of the twentieth century.'' It features on this program alongside two other Russian masterpieces from pre-Revolutionary Prokofiev and Khrushchev era Kabalevsky.

Steven Feifke (pianist, composer, arranger/orchestrator and conductor) and Bijon Watson (lead trumpet) have joined forces to bring together a big band featuring some of the most well known names in all of jazz. These two artists are "frequent-flyer-mile" performers in a number of internationally acclaimed large ensembles and noticed one small problem in each one: there is almost no generation gap! The longstanding tradition spearheaded by artists like Art Blakey and Horace Silver of hiring the "young guns" for an ensemble has all but disappeared in recent years. In creating "The Generation Gap Jazz Orchestra," Bijon and Steven make the objective of this band to strengthen that tradition of mentorship that has shaped and defined the jazz idiom since its earliest beginnings.