George Colligan: Fredson the Jeffy

Sunday, August 22, 4:00 p.m.
Live-streamed on YouTube, RSVP on Facebook! Limited in-person tickets available here!

Colligan presents original works mixing 20th century European classical techniques with jazz and improvisation in a unique collaborative and genre defying set.

George Colligan is one of the great jazz pianists of his generation, earning an international reputation as multi-instrumentalist (drums, trumpet, organ, keyboards), composer, accompanist, teacher, bandleader, and blogger (jazztruth.blogspot.com). Winner of the 2015 DownBeat magazine Critics Poll (Keyboard), Colligan has had a long association with living jazz legend Jack DeJohnette; his recent tour took Colligan around the U.S. with An Evening with Jack DeJohnette and Savion Glover. He also toured the US and Canada as a leader with his trio featuring legends Buster Williams and Lenny White. With over 130 albums to date as an accompanist, Colligan has worked with a long list of jazz greats, including John Scofield, Buster Williams, Cassandra Wilson, Don Byron, Ravi Coltrane, and many others. Colligan, a New York resident for 15 years, now lives in Portland, Oregon where he is an associate professor at Portland State University. He recently won the PSU College of The Arts Dean’s Council Award for Research, Scholarship and Creativity in 2020, and also won the Researcher of the Year Award from the PSU College Of The Arts in 2021. His latest album, Theoretical Planets: Long Term Goals (PJCE Records), is his 34th as a bandleader and features PSU faculty and alumni.

Lisa Lipton, clarinetist, impresario, and arts entrepreneur assumed the role of Executive Director of Opera Theater Oregon in April, 2017. She studied at Portland State University for her undergrad as well as The Central Chinese Conservatory of music in Beijing. As one of the founders of Contemporary Portland Orchestra Project, longtime collaborator of Filmusik, and other new music collectives in PDX, she is an avid performer and advocate of new music. As a performer she is extremely versatile having performed with numerous symphonies in the region and festivals such as Decibel festival, TBA festival, PDX Pop Now!, Music FestNW, Astoria Music Festival, and many others. She currently serves as Principal Clarinet with the Salem Orchestra. She aspires to continue the dialogue of sharing new ideas and relevant art with the Portland community and is excited to continue this work through Opera Theater Oregon into the future.

Lineup: George Colligan, piano and compositions; Lisa Lipton, clarinet; Micah Hummel, drums

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