Juno-Award Winning Jazz Group Allison Au Quartet Visiting Quad-Cities
Born to a Chinese father and Jewish mother, and raised in the multicultural metropolis of Toronto, saxophonist Allison Au found music as a young child. Her work is a concoction steeped in the tradition of jazz but skillfully laced with elements of classical, pop, R&B/hip hop, Latin, and world music.
From Oct. 28 through Nov. 2, Au will bring her quartet into schools and community sites to provide musical outreach through a residency with Quad City Arts Visiting Artist Series.
The Allison Au Quartet won a JUNO Award (a Canadian GRAMMY) in 2016 for “Best Jazz Album of The Year: Group” for their album “Forest Grove.”
The quartet will visit 12 schools and community sites during their week of outreach work. Highlights of their residency include lecture/demonstration for students in Rock Island Academy, performances for the Pleasant Valley band students, workshops with music students at Black Hawk College and St. Ambrose, and an informal public performance at Mississippi River Distilling Company, LeClaire, Iowa, at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 29.
Formed in 2009, the Allison Au Quartet has toured extensively in Canada and the U.S. The group was awarded the TD Jazz Fellowship Scholarship in 2011 and The Margareta and Benno Nigg Scholarship in 2013 for three consecutive artist residencies at the Banff Centre. In 2017, the Allison Au Quartet was named a finalist for Toronto Arts Foundation Emerging Jazz Artist Award.
Their full-length public concert will be 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 2, at Quad City Arts, 1715 2nd Ave., Rock Island. Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for students and children, and will be available at the door. To purchase tickets online, visit www.quadcityarts.com/vas.
The 2019-2020 Visiting Artist Series brings 14 artists and ensembles, including a hip-hop dance ensemble, an electronic music producer, a Mexican folk-rock group, and string quartets, to visit the Quad Cities region from September 2019 through April 2020. For more information on these artists and details of their performances, visit www.quadcityarts.com/vas.
