UBCFA presents 'STREAMS: Jon Batiste At The Piano'

Mon, Mar 25th 2024 04:15 pm

University at Buffalo Press Release

Multi-Grammy and Oscar award-winner Jon Batiste announced today that he will bring exclusive shows to the East Coast in May. Featuring an evening of genius music composition and instrumental virtuosity, “STREAMS: Jon Batiste At The Piano” will visit The University at Buffalo Center for the Arts at 8 p.m. Friday, May 10.

Tickets for this special show go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday, March 29, at ubcfa.org, Ticketmaster or in person at the Center for the Arts ticket office. Visit jonbatiste.com for more information.

Of the forthcoming shows, Batiste shared, “I am at home on the piano. ‘STREAMS’ is stream of consciousness music that comes to me in the moment without rehearsal or preparation. Playing piano for me is like breathing. It's prayer, it's dreaming, it's conversation. I want to be in conversation with the audience and share this intimate creative space. It's a one-of-a-kind experience each time, a spontaneous flow state, completely improvised."

Batiste is currently on his headlining tour in support of his latest Grammy-nominated album, “World Music Radio.” The sold-out “Uneasy Tour: Purifying The Airwaves For The People” continues to earn rave reviews from critics including the Boston Globe, which described the show as “beautifully life-affirming,” while the Tennessean highlighted his ability to electrify audiences, noting he “brought the crowd to their feet in worship or hollering along to rock n' roll.” Relix Magazine echoed this sentiment calling the concert a “religious experience,” adding “this is the kind of music that will continue dominating airwaves for generations to come,” with the Toronto Star hailing Batiste as a “master of musical moments.”

Today’s announcement follows Batiste’s breathtaking performance at the 2024 Oscars, where he sang “It Never Went Away,” from the critically acclaimed Netflix documentary “American Symphony,” which was nominated for Best Original Song. Co-written and produced in collaboration with Grammy Award-winning artist Dan Wilson, the song appeared in the moving film – directed by Matthew Heineman and produced in partnership with Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground – which follows Batiste beginning in early 2022, when he finds himself celebrated with 11 Grammy nominations, including album of the year. Amid that triumph, he is immersed in his most ambitious challenge yet: composing an original symphony for a performance at the storied Carnegie Hall. However, this extraordinary trajectory is upended when his life partner, NYT bestselling author and Emmy Award-winning journalist Suleika Jaouad, learns her long-dormant cancer has returned.

In February, Batiste delivered another emotional performance at the 2024 Grammy Awards’ in memoriam tribute, where he honored music executive Clarence Avant by performing a medley of “Ain’t No Sunshine,” “Lean On Me” and “Optimistic,” featuring Ann Nesby. Batiste’s critically acclaimed album “World Music Radio” was nominated for five Grammy Awards that evening, including the highly coveted Album of the Year, Record of the Year and Song of the Year.

“World Music Radio” follows the success of Batiste’s historic and critically acclaimed 2021 album “WE ARE,” which swept the 64th Annual Grammy Awards, winning five awards, including Album of the Year. His career-spanning 14 nominations across seven categories is not only a first in Grammy history, it also proves his ability to defy genres – an assertion of which he undeniably upholds within this newest musical endeavor. The New York Times exclaimed the project is “a fantastical concept album that challenges music’s provincial genre borders, with a message of open-armed inclusivity for a fractured political era.”

In 2020, Batiste was honored with an Academy Award for Best Original Score for his work on the Disney/Pixar film “Soul,” which he shared with fellow composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. The score won him a Gramm® award and also garnered him a Golden Globe, a BAFTA, a NAACP Image Award and a Critic's Choice Award. Notably, Batiste became the second Black composer in history to win an Academy Award for composition (following the legendary jazz musician Herbie Hancock).

Tickets start at $54. For more ticket information, call 716-645-2787 or email [email protected]. The ticket office will open at 10 a.m. this Friday, and will resume normal hours of noon to 6 p.m. Tuesday-Friday.