fbpx
Music

Blending Styles and Sounds, Glacier Symphony to Collaborate with Jazz Singers

The two singers, Halie Loren and Steven Santoro, have distinct styles of singing and performing, and the Jan. 18 concert will be split between an opening half featuring the music of Santoro, before the evening wraps with a second half dedicated to Loren’s music

By Mike Kordenbrock
The Glacier Symphony performs. Courtesy photo

A pair of jazz singers from opposite ends of the country are collaborating with the Glacier Symphony this weekend at McClaren Hall at FVCC’s Wachholz College Center for a performance that has been a year in the making and will feature new musical material and arrangements written just for this concert.

The two singers, Halie Loren and Steven Santoro, have distinct styles of singing and performing, and the Jan. 18 concert will be split between an opening half featuring the music of Santoro, before the evening wraps with a second half dedicated to Loren’s music.

The symphony’s artistic director, John Zoltek, said that both Santoro and Loren blend jazz and pop sounds, and he credited them as great songwriters.

“Their styles are very different, and it will be a treat for the audience to experience both of these artists coming from opposite coasts, and opposite styles and musical tendencies and delivery and weight.”

Jazz singer Steven Santoro. Photo courtesy of Glacier Symphony

Santoro recently recorded an album with the Turtle Island String Quartet, and he’ll be performing songs from The Great American Songbook, although the bulk of his set will be made up of original material, including a version of his song cycle “here.gone.” which Zoltek characterized as a sort of ironic contemplation of life that ranges from the pseudo-philosophical to the tender and sentimental. The song cycle was originally composed for a string quartet accompanied by jazz vocals, but the Glacier Symphony performance will include accompaniment by the symphony’s string orchestra. The show as a whole will feature a front line rhythm section featuring piano, bass, drums, solo horn and trumpet and some guitar. As such, Santoro has rearranged his music to account for the expanded set of musical players involved.

Based out of Massachusetts, Santoro is a longtime faculty member at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he has been on the music school’s voice faculty. Santoro has recorded his debut solo album with Atlantic Records co-founder Ahmet Ertegun called “Moods and Grooves,” and some of his other career highlights include working as a background vocalist for Sting on his “A Winter’s Night” PBS special.

“He’s a very, very dynamic performer,” Zoltek said.

Jazz singer Halie Loren. Photo courtesy of Glacier Symphony

For Loren, an Oregon-based singer who is originally from Alaska and tours extensively in Asia, this will be her second time working with the symphony in the last few years, with her debut coming as a singer at the symphony’s gala. She was so well received that Zoltek looked for an opportunity to bring her back to perform in front of a bigger audience, and he’s expecting that she will sing a mix of traditional jazz tunes, older pop songs, and originals. Some of the covers planned for her half of the show include Tracy Chapman’s “Give Me A Reason,” Edith Piaf’s “La Vie en rose,” Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World,” and Procol Harum’s “A Whiter Shade of Pale.”

Loren has multiple no. 1 albums on Billboard Japan, and she’ll be headed to the Flathead after a recent tour in South Korea, and a benefit concert in Eugene, Oregon to raise money for those in Appalachia who have been affected Hurricane Helene.

Special musical guests playing in the upcoming concert include trumpeter Zac Fawcett, trombonist Hank Handford, and Zoltek, who expects to pick up a guitar.

Zoltek said that his background is in contemporary jazz, and that it was his initial musical interest before he became a composer and conductor. He’s long had an affinity for jazz, and said that the Glacier Symphony has done a number of shows with jazz themes, including by performing ensemble pieces that he’s written.

“This jazz night is kind of a continuation of that, but there’s more of a focus on our two guest vocalist composer stars of the show, and it’s just like many symphonies across the country branching out and diving into different genres of music,” Zoltek said. “It’s good for widening the audience appeal, and doing something different, and in addition, it’s refreshing for the orchestra musicians as well.”

Looking ahead, the symphony has more performances in the coming months that Zoltek said are indicative of the wide musical umbrella under which it performs.

In February, the symphony will be performing with the Montral musical trio “Les Arrivants,” which plays a combination of Persian classical music, Arabic rhythm, and tango. The group is made up of one player on an oud, which is a kind of lute-type string instrument, drums, and a bandoneon, which is a kind of push-button accordion associated with tango music.

“The end result is a very, very interesting, rich amalgam of styles,” Zoltek said. The Les Arrivant show will include new compositions for the trio, as well as new compositions played with the symphony.

In March the symphony will be shifting back towards rock and pop, with a collaboration with Jeans ‘N Classics featuring the music of John Lennon. For more information about Glacier Symphony performances, go to https://glaciersymphony.org/.

The Jan. 18 Symphony Jazz Night featuring Halie Loren and Steven Santoro is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. in McClaren Hall at the Wachholz College Center.

[email protected]