Jazz Pianist Lenore Raphael Opens C-N’s Spring Concert-Lecture Thursday

Jazz pianist, educator and Steinway artist Lenore Raphael will perform as the first 2012 installment of Carson-Newman’s Concert-Lecture Series Thursday evening. The 7:30 p.m. concert will be held in Thomas Recital Hall, part of Tarr Music Center.

A native New Yorker, Raphael cites Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans and George Shearing as those artists who have most influenced her. She studied classical music at Manhattan’s High School of Music & Art before earning a BA in music at New York University. She channeled her classical training into jazz chops, switching genres after hearing Peterson in concert.

She studied jazz piano under Barry Harris and Mike Longo and has performed with Lionel Hampton, Ken Peplowski, Illinois Jacquet and Clark Terry. Her composition “Blues for OP” premiered at a memorial concert for Peterson that was held in conjunction with the 2007 International Association for Jazz Convention.

A longtime jazz educator, Raphael has taught piano throughout the course of her career and worked with other musicians to develop a jazz history curriculum for elementary school students. With vocalist Janet Lawson she developed a video series that has been used in settings across the country. Other work includes a coauthored series, “Scat Cat’s Adventures in Jazzland,” and a jazz theory text for senior students.

Her jazz workshop teaching has included California’s Orange County Performing Arts Center, the Denver School of the Arts, New York City’s The New School and the East Coast Jazz Festival. Her CDs include “The Whole Truth,” “Wingin’ It,” and “Class Act.” Her webcast, “Lenore Raphael’s JazzSpot,” airs on purejazzradio.com.