Concert: George Winston

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Come and be a part of George Winston's unpretentious and soulful music. Book your tickets and be a part of this evening.

George Winston is best known for his melodic rural folk piano style. He was born in Michigan in the year 1949. He spent his formative years in Mississippi and Florida. He used to listen mostly to pop and R&B instrumental music (the late Floyd Cramer, The Ventures, Booker T & the MGs, King Curtis and many others) as well as many R&B artists, such as Ray Charles and Sam Cooke. He would listen to the radio faithfully for the 30 seconds before the hourly news when they would play instrumentals. He preferred instrumental over vocal performances. Inspired by blues, rock, R&B and Jazz, George began playing organ and electric piano in 1967. He turned from rock and RB to jazz and released his first solo piano effort, Ballads and Blues 1972. But after this he didn't released any other albums for the next several years.

I n 1979, William Ackerman met and talked with Winston about having a record for Ackerman's new record label - Windham Hill Records. At first George Winston played some slack-key guitar pieces he liked and then he played some of his night-time music on the piano. Ackerman liked it so much that he fell in love with the night-time music and it became the basis for the best-selling record Autumn, produced by Ackerman. George Winston has described the music on Autumn as "Christmas carols for Halloween". It became the best-selling record in the Windham Hill catalog (a position it held for many years) and was well-reviewed in Rolling Stone magazine. After this there was no looking back, all his subsequent records sold very well, December and Winter into Spring both went platinum.

Since 1980, George has released seven solo piano albums: Autumn(1980), Winter Into Spring (1982), December (1982), Summer (1991), Forest (1994) and Linus & Lucy-The Music Of Vince Guaraldi (1996), which features compositions by the late jazz pianist including Cast Your Fate to the Wind and pieces from the Peanuts TV specials. His latest solo piano album, Plains (1999), was inspired by his Eastern Montana upbringing. One of the best-selling artists on the Windham Hill label, he is considered to be a musician in the new age genre that reflect natural landscapes.. Although he is widely recognized as a "new age" artist, Winston's virtuoso piano is not classified by his fans in the same genre as easy-listening music along the lines of Yanni. He refers to himself as playing "Rural Folk Piano." Winston is often regarded as one of the greatest atmospheric piano composers of non-classical music. His album December is meant to capture the essence of the season, and his debut, Ballads and Blues 1972 - The Early Recordings, is an essential sample of 20th century American piano music.

A compilation album, All the Seasons of George Winston, was released in the spring of 1998, followed a year later by Plains. The new millennium brought anniversary editions of several of his landmark albums, including Autumn, December, and Winter Into Spring, as well as the 2001 album Remembrance: A Memorial Benefit, which was Winston's response to the tragic events of September 11, 2001. His 2002 release, Night Divides the Day, focused on the music of one of his earliest influences, the Doors. Montana: A Love Story from 2004 was inspired by Winston's childhood in Montana. An impressive solo piano outing, Gulf Coast Blues Impressions, released as a benefit set for hurricane relief, appeared from RCA in 2006. He has also recorded solo piano and solo guitar soundtracks for four children's animated videos, including The Velveteen Rabbit (1984 with narration by Meryl Streep), This is America, Charlie Brown - The Birth Of The Constitution (1988 for which he used mainly Vince Guaraldi's music), Sadako and The Thousand Paper Cranes (1995 with George on solo guitar and narration by Liv Ullman) and Pumpkin Circle (1997 with piano, guitar and harmonica with narration by Danny Glover). He was also the focus of a feature length video/DVD produced for PBS, entitled George Winston - Seasons In Concert, which includes live concert performances and interviews.

He describes himself as "rural folk piano" player. He is among the earliest and most successful proponents of the genre of contemporary instrumental music later dubbed new age. Outside of his piano compositions and performances, he is an accomplished blues harmonica and slack-key guitar player.

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