Paul Winter, Composer of Flyways, Named to Receive Audubon Award
Grammy-winning saxophonist Paul Winter will receive the John James Audubon Center Award for Art Inspiring Conservation (AIC), just prior to a special public concert by the Paul Winter Consort, on Saturday, April 21. His newest project, Flyways, is a musical celebration of the great bird migration from Africa through the Middle East to Eurasia interweaving the voices of the birds with indigenous music from the cultures over which they fly.
Winter and the Great Rift Valley Orchestra will perform Flyways March 16 and 17 in New York's Cathedral of St. John the Divine. His sequel project, “Flyways of the Americas,” will be in partnership with Audubon, BirdLife International and Music for the Earth. Winter describes Flyways at http://www.flywaysmusic.org/about
"This extraordinary project weaves the sounds of many cultures that share a great migratory pathways with millions of birds;" said John Hannan, Senior Director of Strategic Gifts for the Atlantic Flyway & Director of Development for Audubon in Connecticut; "Just as Audubon’s art inspired the creation of the National Audubon Society to protect birds, Paul's composition encourages us to soar with the birds and embrace the cultures, wildlife, and landscapes from Africa through the Middle East to Eurasia. I can't wait to hear Paul's next project, Flyways of the Americas." More about Audubon's Flyways Initiative http://bit.ly/zQ7JZT
The April 21 “Friends of a Feather” concert featuring Paul Winter, along with the famed Paul Winter Consort, will be held at the Shannondell Performing Art Center in Audubon, PA, just two miles from John James Audubon’s first home in America (a national historic landmark). Proceeds from the concert will benefit the site, which features a world-class collection of Audubon art and provides environmental programs for thousands of school-aged children each year.
A limited number of VIP tickets, which include reserved seating and a private reception with Mr. Winter prior to the concert, can be purchased for $95 at http://pa.audubon.org or through Brown Bag Ticketing. Thirty-five dollar general admissions seats are also available.
Past recipients of the AIC include Scott Weidensaul, Pulitzer Prize nominated author of Living on the Wind, and Olivia Bouler, a young artist who raised more than $150,000 for Gulf Coast recovery efforts. The award honors an individual who, through their body of work or a single seminal work, uses art to communicate the real and intrinsic value of nature, interpret conservation challenges, and inspire humanity to take actions that will protect and preserve birds, other wildlife and the world we share.
For more than thirty years, as a saxophonist, band leader and composer, Paul Winter has integrated nature and music to a degree few have ever attempted. His use of traditional and nontraditional instruments, wildlife voices and the acoustics of natural spaces have earned him seven Grammys, as well as the United Nations Environment Program Award of Excellence. Listen to music from Flyways