The Concert Hall welcomes back Paula Poundstone – one of comedy’s most nimble and disarming comic imaginations whose talent for creating humor on the spot is the stuff of legend. She is set to take the stage on Thursday, April 21 at 7:30 pm.
Paula Poundstone is known for her smart, observational humor and a spontaneous wit that has become the stuff of legend. Time magazine, in the March 2020 “Best of” issue, listed Paula’s HBO special, “Cats, Cops and Stuff” as one of The 5 Funniest Stand-Up Specials Ever. Paula can be heard weekly as the host of the comedy podcast, “Nobody Listens to Paula Poundstone” and as a regular panelist on NPR’s comedy news quiz, “Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me!”
Also, an author, Poundstone’s second book, “The Totally Unscientific Study Of The Search For Human Happiness” (Algonquin 2017) was one of eight semi-finalists for The Thurber Prize for American Humor, the highest recognition of the art of humor writing in the United States. The audiobook was one of five finalists for the Audio Book of the Year AUDIE award.
Paula was the first female comic, in its then 73rd year, to perform at the White House Correspondents dinner. She was the first female standup, in its then 5th year, to win the ACE award for Best Comedy Special on Cable television. She is recognized in innumerable lists, documentaries and literary compendiums noting influential standup comedians of our time.
Pioneers of Four-Hands Jazz, Stephanie and Paolo | April 30
The Concert Hall presents another performance in the ‘Artists You Should Know Series’ with the pioneers of four-hands jazz, Stephanie and Paolo on Saturday, April 30th at 7:30 pm at the Concert Hall. The audience will be seated on the stage with the artists for an intimate, personal experience in music.
Stephanie Trick, a leading exponent of stride piano, and Paolo Alderighi, one of Italy’s foremost jazz pianists, met at a piano festival in Switzerland in 2008. Three years later, they started to collaborate on a four-hands piano project dedicated to classic jazz, preparing arrangements of songs from the Swing Era, as well as drawing from the ragtime and blues repertoire. They explored the formula of four-hands duets on one piano, rarely used in jazz, in their first two albums, “Two for One” and “Sentimental Journey”. Their partnership continued with “Double Trio Live” and “Double Trio Always”, recorded in the piano trio setting, but with two pianists instead of one. In 2018, they released their first album on two pianos, “Broadway and More”. Their latest project is a double album, “I Love Erroll, I Love James P” and it features the compositions of two legendary figures of jazz piano, Erroll Garner and James P. Johnson.
The four-hands piano duo has performed in a variety of venues, including the Gilmore Keyboard Festival, Jazz at Filoli, the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, the Kobe Jazz Street Festival in Japan, the London Jazz Festival, the Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival, the Ascona Jazz Festival in Switzerland, the Silkeborg Riverboat Jazz Festival in Denmark, the Bohém Ragtime & Jazz Festival in Hungary, Teatro Dal Verme Milano, Jazzland in Vienna, Jazz Bistro in Toronto, and other jazz clubs.
Both Stephanie Trick and Paolo Alderighi have a background in classical piano. Stephanie graduated cum laude from the University of Chicago with a Bachelor of Arts in Music. Paolo has a degree in Piano Performance from the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan, Italy, and graduated cum laude from Bocconi University in Management of Arts, Culture and Communication.
Tickets are available online at www.durangoconcerts.com or by phone Monday through Friday, 12 pm – 5 pm at 970-247-7657. Lobby doors open one hour before showtime, and Concert Hall opens one half hour before showtime.
The Community Concert Hall (CCH) at Fort Lewis College continues its music series, LIVE @ The Smiley Café featuring a POP-UP PERFORMANCE by singer
songwriter, Brice Beaird, Friday, May 6, 7:30 pm at the Smiley Café located in historic downtown Durango. There is limited seating available in this small, intimate venue with beer, wine & coffees available for sale.
