EcoTones Concerts presents imaginative outdoor performances sited in local public nature spaces, exploring connections between humans and the natural world. EcoTones: The Urban Prairie @ Tower Grove Park’s Nee Kee Nee on May 4, 2024 includes a free family event for families with children ages 0-7 from 10:30am-11:45; and an All-Ages Ticketed Event 2:00-5:00 pm.
This whimsical, innovative live performance event invites audiences to interact with & listen to musicians along a half-mile “Music Trail” along Tower Grove Park’s Nee Kee Nee Stream (Osage for “revived water”), an enchanting and recently constructed trail surrounded by native prairie plantings alongside a recently day-lighted stream in Tower Grove Park’s eastern quadrant. A mobile audience will walk amongst instruments from all four instrument families playing small group chamber music inspired by the flora and fauna along the trail, interspersed with special trailside stations providing insight about the prairie ecosystem from volunteer naturalists. New music inspired by the prairie ecosystem, its super power roots, specific native plants, and the flora and fauna immediately alongside the trail will be performed.
10:30am - 11:45am: Free Family Event
check-in at Old Playground Pavilion, 3817 Main Dr, St. Louis, MO 63110
The free family event from 10:30-11:45am is offered in partnership with the St.Louis Public Library’s Carpenter Branch and invites families with children ages 0-7 to hear soloists and a chamber ensemble alongside the Nee Kee Nee Trail, as well a trailside story circle with a SLPL Carpenter Branch children's librarian, and hands-on naturalist stations about bees, butterflies, and native plants with Missouri Prairie Foundation and Missouri Department of Conservation volunteers.
2:00pm - 5:00pm: All-Ages EcoTones Event
check-in at Old Playground Pavilion, 3817 Main Dr, St. Louis, MO 63110
The All-Ages EcoTones Event from 2:00-5:00 features the members of the full St. Louis EcoTones Ensemble and naturalists alongside the “Nee Kee Nee Music Trail,” followed by an outdoor sit-down concert set in the wheelchair-and-stroller-accessible Stupp Amphitheater in Tower Grove Park’s Southeastern quadrant. Newly commissioned music inspired by the flora and fauna of Nee Kee Nee composed by St. Louis composer & trumpeter Daniel Campbell, St. Louis native saxophonist Chris Cheek, and new music by talented young composers Daniel Kent and Scotty Russell will be premiered at the event.
FAQ
A limited amount of bench seating is available at Stupp Amphitheater but audience members should plan to BYO-Everything: camp chairs, food and drink.
Audience members embarking on the Music Trail portion of the event should wear appropriate footwear.
In the event of rain, portions of the event will be moved under cover and inside the park’s Stupp Building (adjacent to the amphitheater).
Please visit www.ecotonesconcerts.org for tickets and for more information. Alimited number of free tickets are available on a first-come-first-serve basis by emailingecotonesconcerts@gmail.com.
The performance features St. Louis Region professional musicians from the SLSO as well as mainstay players on the regional & international jazz scene including Adam Maness (piano), Alan Ferber (trombone), Ann Choomack (flute), Aska Kaneko (violin), Bob Deboo (bass & composition), Danny Campbell (trumpet), BenDicke (drums), Jody Redhage-Ferber (cello & compositions), Kwanae Johnson (saxophones), Thomas Jöstlein (alphorn, French horn), Tricia Jöstlein (alphorn, French horn), Julie Thayer (alphorn, French horn), Vince Varvel (guitar) and talented young St. Louis musicians Daniel Kent (trombone) and Scotty Russell(saxophone).
Special thanks to our season nonprofit sponsor The Missouri Prairie Foundation, a program support grant from the Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis, our business sponsors Jackson Pianos (providing a grand piano for the event), Pure Air Natives seed company, Top Notch Violins, our partners the St. Louis Public Library Carpenter Branch, and donations from private individuals. We are so grateful for the support of all of these entities in making this innovative and unique event happen!
EcoTones founder & director Jody Redhage Ferber has performed on five continents in venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Radio City Music Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, Disney Hall (L.A.), Chicago Symphony Hall, the Barbican (London), Lollapalooza, and Austin City Limits; at the Montreal, Montreux, Cape Town South Africa & North Sea Jazz Festivals, Tokyo's Blue Note Jazz Club, the Village Vanguard, on NPR's Tiny Desk Concert Series and with pop icons Neil Diamond, Sufjan Stevens, Jay-Z, Beyonce, Meatloaf, the Roots, Clay Aiken, Enya, Duncan Sheik, Chromeo, and Sara Bareilles. She works as a recording session cellist for an array of artists and has recorded for Sesame Street. You can read more about her work as a cellist, composer, and presenter at www.jodyredhageferber.com