Performances
Vocalist Monica Mancini, daughter of the legendary Henry Mancini, and jazz saxophone superstar Dave Koz present an evening of American music gems, including familiar melodies from your favorite Hollywood films.
About the Artists
Monica Mancini, daughter of famed film composer Henry Mancini and the notable studio singer Ginny O’Conner Mancini, has carved out an impressive career as a concert performer, appearing with major symphony orchestras worldwide, including the Chicago Symphony, New York Pops, Boston Pops, Dallas Symphony, Seattle Symphony and the London Metropolitan Orchestra.
She began singing early on as a member of the Henry Mancini Chorus, which led to a successful career in the Los Angeles studios, where she appeared on countless film scores and recordings with such notable artists as Placido Domingo, Quincy Jones, and Michael Jackson. Her debut CD, simply titled Monica Mancini was the companion to her PBS television special, Monica Mancini: On Record.
The New York Times has described Mancini’s rich, expressive voice as “the glamorous vocal equivalent to diamonds flashing.” On her approach to interpreting a song, she says, “I always keep in mind the composers intention because I believe melodies and lyrics are crafted with a definite purpose. I want to bring out the beauty of the writer’s word through music.”
In a career that spans twenty years and a dozen albums, saxophonist Dave Koz has established himself as one of the most prominent figures in contemporary music. But as noteworthy as his body of recorded work and as entertaining his live performances and other past accomplishments might be, Koz finds himself in an era of dramatic and sweeping change where everything once taken for granted is suddenly up for grabs. For Koz – and for all of us in this new century – it’s a new day, full of new challenges and opportunities, and new rules that are still being written.
Koz embraces this era of change – and even the uncertainty that comes with it – on Hello Tomorrow, his first album for Concord Records. Released on October 12, 2010, Hello Tomorrow debuted at No. 1 on both Billboard’s Top Contemporary Jazz Albums chart and iTunes’ Jazz Album chart and was named the “Best Smooth Jazz Album of 2010” by iTunes. Hailed as “an event record” by The New York Times, it has already yielded two No. 1 singles: “Put The Top Down,” which spent 18 weeks at No. 1 on the Mediabase Smooth A/C chart (the longest stint at No. 1 of any of Koz’s chart-topping hits) and “Anything’s Possible.”
Music – and more specifically, the saxophone – have been Koz’s primary survival tools since his childhood and adolescence in L.A.’s San Fernando Valley. He started playing as a means to land a spot in his brother’s band, but somewhere along the way, “the saxophone became my best friend, my most trusted ally, because it enabled me to communicate feelings that I didn’t have the words for. In many ways, it saved my life.”