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New York, NY (Top40 Charts) On November 11th, 2023, the Windham Hill composer and pianist Liz Story will present a solo piano concert at Carnegie Weill Hall, celebrating the 40th anniversary since the release of her first of eleven albums. Windham Hill founder Will Ackerman will introduce Ms. Story at the performance.
The concert celebrates Ms. Story’s forty-year career and caps a remarkable year for the musician, both personally and professionally. Ms. Story resumed performing last year after recovering from a debilitating brain hemorrhage she suffered in 2019. In August, Sony Music honored her with the release of “The Essential Liz Story,” a thirty-song collection curated by the artist to represent her most important original compositions, and in October Sony will release “Liz Story Songs of Christmas,” which presents all of her holiday music in a single collection. In January, the influential composer’s entire sheet music catalog was made available digitally to pianists worldwide, eighty-six titles in all.
Ms. Story studied classical piano since childhood, but after meeting the legendary jazz pianist Bill Evans at New York City’s The Bottom Line in 1976 she was inspired to begin composing jazz and contemporary music. In November 1983, Windham Hill released Ms. Story’s seminal album “Solid Colors,” which she will play in full at the November 11th Carnegie Weill Hall concert. Also included in that concert will be many of her other original compositions, as well as some of her beloved arrangements of jazz standards and holiday music. Tickets to the performance are available on the Carnegie Hall website. For more information or to request an interview with Ms. Story, contact Omomuki Artist Relations at [email protected].
A native of California, Liz began her classical musical training as a child. In her twenties, Liz moved to New York City, where she intended to continue her formal classical piano studies at Hunter College. But after meeting the legendary jazz pianist Bill Evans at New York City’s The Bottom Line in 1976, she was inspired to begin composing jazz and contemporary music. Liz recalls, “It was suddenly clear how I was to study music.” She approached Evans and asked if he taught jazz. He did not, he told her, but recommended the legendary jazz teacher Sanford Gold, with whom Liz began studying. She later returned to Southern California to study with Dick Grove.
Still playing exclusively from sheet music and chord charts, Liz took a job playing background music at a restaurant in Los Angeles. She recounts, “The old upright piano was missing its front casing, and there was nowhere to put the sheet music. I panicked, and then sat down and improvised and pretended to play.” These compositions eventually found their way onto tape and into the hands of Will Ackerman, the founder of the record label Windham Hill. He signed her to record her debut album, “Solid Colors,” released in 1983. Between 1983 and 2005, Liz released ten full-length albums: seven albums of primarily original solo piano compositions (“Solid Colors,” “Unaccountable Effect,” “Part of Fortune,” “Speechless,” “Escape of the Circus Ponies,” “17 Seconds to Anywhere,” and “Night Sky Essays”); two albums of jazz standards (“My Foolish Heart” and “Liz Story with Joel DiBartolo”); and a beloved holiday album, “The Gift.” Liz also wrote or arranged many songs that were released in Windham Hill collections over the years. She received a GRAMMY nomination in 1988 for her song “Reconciliation.”
In 2011, Liz moved in with her parents in their Los Angeles home to be their full-time caregiver. During this period, she performed single concerts occasionally around the U.S. as a solo artist and in ensembles with other Windham Hill musicians.
In 2019, Liz suffered a brain hemorrhage while on stage for a performance in Phoenix. With the help of a fundraising campaign and the support of devoted friends and fans, Liz went through a lengthy rehabilitation (see her thank you video). In August 2022, Liz gave a concert at the Yavapai College Performing Arts Center in Prescott, Arizona, where her music was enthusiastically received by an audience of friends. Liz marked her official return to performing with a powerful performance at The Old Church in Portland, Oregon in May of 2023.
For more information, see www.LizStory.com
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