Sunday Night Jazz Showcase
Program #70 (May 10 at 8:00PM)
Pianists Walter Norris, Hal Galper and John Hicks are featured as part of the Maybeck Recital Series.
The Maybeck Recital Hall, also known as the Maybeck Studio for the Performing Arts, is a small performance space located in a private home in the Berkeley hills, built in 1914 by Bernard Maybeck. The studio has a rich tradition of musical performances dating back over 100 years.
The hall seats up to 50 people and was designed upon commission for the Nixon family, local arts patrons who wanted a live-in studio for their daughter Milda's piano teacher, Mrs. Alma Kennedy. The room is paneled in unfinished clear-heart redwood, which contributes to an unusually rich and warm, yet bright and clear acoustic quality.
Milda Nixon lived at the residence until her death in 1981 at the age of 92. Her adopted son, Charles R. Fulweiler, Phd., then held the house for several years. In 1987, the house was purchased by jazz pianist Dick Whittington, who opened the hall for public recitals.
Between 1989 and 1995, Concord Records produced 42 solo piano recitals in Maybeck Recital Hall. Each recital featured a different jazz pianist, and all 42 recordings were released on CD. Concord also recorded 10 jazz duets at Maybeck during the same time period. Those recordings were also released as a series of CDs sold by Concord.
