Come to pianist Jacqueline Schwab’s Sunday, November 26, 2023, 4 p.m. performance at Nacoochee Presbyterian Church, to reflect on our American heritage and refresh your spirits, and hopefully to find renewed energy to address our challenging times. Jacqueline, heard on Ken Burns’ Civil War and numerous other documentaries by him, will feature pieces from her Burns soundtrack performances. She will also share a few pieces of her own work on immigrant music celebrating our cultural diversity, which has been inspired by Ken’s piercing window into American history. From Burns’ documentaries, you will hear Jacqueline’s interpretation of composer Jay Ungar’s well-loved Ashokan Farewell, along with well-known vintage American standards, such as Be Thou My Vision, Tenting on the Old Campground and Take Me Out to the Ballgame, as well as lesser-known period tunes, such as the traditional Scottish Sae Merry As We Hae Been, ragtime, spirituals and more. She will share stories about the tunes and speak about Ken’s unusual way of working with music—how he elicits emotive musical performances and uses music to amplify his messages and shed historical light on our lives today.
Jacqueline is looking forward to returning to perform in welcoming Sautee! She spins musical stories out of the myriad strands in the American quilt, with the spirit of community music making at their heart. Her signature playing features in over a dozen of Ken Burns’ documentaries, including his Grammy-winning Civil War, Baseball, Lewis and Clark, Mark Twain, The War and his recently-released Benjamin Franklin, as well as in other PBS documentaries, such as The Irish in America—The Long Journey Home. She has performed at the White House for President Clinton and (twice) on national PBS with the American Pops Orchestra, and she has accompanied Scottish singer Jean Redpath on public radio’s A Prairie Home Companion and on CBS’s Late Show with David Letterman. She is well known to the traditional dance world for her groundbreaking playing with the Bare Necessities ensemble. Her recently-released solo album I Lift My Lamp—Illuminations from Immigrant America celebrates vintage music from American immigrants. Jacqueline graduated from New England Conservatory, majoring in piano improvisation. She grew up in Pittsburgh and has since lived in Boston and on Cape Cod. She is married to Rev. Edmund Robinson, brother of Sautee resident Courtney Johnston, and currently serving First Parish (Old Ship Church) UU in Hingham, MA.
For more information, see: https://www.jacquelineschwab.com
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A link to Jacqueline’s performance for Boston’s (W)GBH Holiday Special concert, a formal performance with a time limit (her short set starts approximately 11:45)
A free-will offering will be taken at the performance.