Laurie Sears, on saxophone and flute, heads up this all-women group of Traverse City area jazz musicians featuring Laura Caviani, piano; Marion Hayden, bass; Gayelynn McKinney, drums; and singer Claudia Schmidt. Performing both original music by Schmidt and Caviani, as well as jazz standards. The evening at the Dennos Museum in Traverse City will also pay tribute to the African-American folk opera Porgy and Bess and to Mary Lou Williams, the great African-American jazz pianist and composer.
“The Celebrating Women exhibition project has an extensive amount of programming associated with it,” says Gene Jenneman, Director of the Dennos Museum Center, “I knew from the start that I wanted to have a performing component to the project as part of our concert series. To do so I turned to Laurie Sears to produce it. She is one of the great female jazz instrumentalists in the area and I was confident she would produce an outstanding concert for us, as she has in the past.”
Tickets are $25 advance, $28 at the door and $22 for museum members. Tickets may be purchased on line at or dennosmuseum.org by calling the box office at 231-995-1553.
The Dennos Museum Center’s galleries are open one hour before the concert for ticket holders and for a reception with the performers following the concert.
Presented in association with the Celebrating Women exhibition at the Dennos Museum Center, Celebrating Women in Jazz is a project commissioned by the museum with support from the Michigan Humanities Council.
This concert season is made possible at the Dennos Museum Center with support from the Robert T and Ruth Haidt Trust, the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency, the Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs, the Traverse City Area Chamber of Commerce, the Begonia Foundation, The Michigan Humanities Council with media support from WNMC 90.7 and TV 29&8. Housing for the performers is provided by the Cambria Suites and Days Inn.
The Dennos Museum Center is open daily 10 AM to 5 PM, Thursday’s until 8 PM and Sundays 1-5 PM. Admission is $6 adults, $4 children and free to museum members. For more information on the Museum and its programs, go to dennosmuseum.org or call 231-995-1055. The Dennos Museum Center is located at 1701 East Front Street, Traverse City, MI 49686, at the entrance to the campus of Northwestern Michigan College.