Nancy Stagnitta - flute, alto flute, piccolo Bob James - Piano This CD contains studio recordings of original compositions & arrangements that were performed in a live concert at the Interlochen Center for the Arts, Dendrinos Chapel on March 4, 2017. This concert was also captured on video and can be viewed in the archives of the Interlochen website. BOB JAMES (b. 1939), jazz pianist and composer/arranger/producer, earned Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from the University of Michigan in 1961-1962. Winner of the 1962 Notre Dame Collegiate Jazz Festival. Musical director for Sarah Vaughan from 1965-68 and is a founding member of the group Fourplay (thirteen albums including newest recording 'Silver' celebrating 25th anniversary) Other collaborations include, with Jack O'Brien--BMI award for best college musical for 'Land Ho' (1961) and the 1972 Broadway musical 'Selling of the President'; Hilary James (Flesh & Blood), Earl Klugh (1980 Grammy award for 'One on One'), David Sanborn (1986 Grammy award for 'Double Vision') Kirk Whalum (Grammy nomination for 'Joined at the Hip'), and Nathan East (2016 Grammy nomination for 'The New Cool'). Orchestrated the title song for Paul Simon's 1975 Grammy winning Album of the year, 'Still Crazy After All These Years.' Credits as producer /arranger include Neil Diamond, Blood Sweat & Tears, Kenny Loggins, George Benson, Grover Washington Jr., Freddie Hubbard, Hubert Laws. He received the State of Michigan Guvvy Award 2008 for International Achievement, and was elected to the U of Michigan School of Music Hall of Fame in 2014. He is the recipient of the first ever Traverse City Opera House Ambassador for the Arts award 2017. Toured the U.S. with the ground-breaking project 'Angels of Shanghai', combining jazz with traditional Chinese music, and the premiere U.S. performance was presented at Milliken Auditorium. He has recorded thirty solo albums, most recently 'Live at the Milliken Auditorium'. In the world of hip-hop his recordings, notably 'Nautilus', Take Me To The Mardi Gras', and 'Westchester Lady', are are among the most sampled tracks in the history of the genre. James composed the music for the long-running TV series, 'Taxi'. The song 'Angela' is one of the most recognizable themes in the history of TV music. His first Piano Concerto was premiered in 2015 by the Tokyo Philharmonic, and had its U.S. Premiere with the Traverse City Symphony in June 2016. For these recordings James performed on a Yamaha piano. NANCY STAGNITTA Praised for her 'brilliance and beauty of tone' by the Baltimore Sun, flutist Nancy Stagnitta is Instructor of Flute and Chamber Music at Interlochen Arts Academy, Artist/Faculty at the Amalfi Coast Music Festival in Italy, and principal flutist with the Traverse Symphony Orchestra. Appointed as U.S.I.A. Artistic Ambassador to southern Africa, she presented concerts and master classes in Angola, Botswana, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique and Namibia, and has performed at the Shanghai Conservatory, Biblioteca Universitaria di Napoli, Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow, and on the Voice of America Broadcast Network. A two-time recipient of the Maryland State Arts Council Solo Artist Award and a semi-finalist in the National Flute Association Young Artist Competition, she formerly served as flutist and piccoloist with the Sarasota and Baltimore Opera Orchestras and as concerto soloist with the National Gallery Orchestra. She collaborates with Paula Robison to host the annual Interlochen Flute Institute, and has appeared as Artist/Faculty at the Montecito, Hot Springs, and Quartz Mountain Music Festivals. Also active as a jazz flutist, Stagnitta was featured at the National Flute Association Convention in Chicago, and has been invited to perform as both recitalist and jazz artist at national conventions held in New York City, Las Vegas, San Diego, Anaheim, Kansas City and Washington, C.D. She has recorded for Capstone records, and her performances have been heard on National Public Radio's WETA in Washington, DC and KING FM in Seattle. Stagnitta's program at Interlochen has produced many successful flutists, including eight recipients of the $10,000 Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award through NPR's 'From the Top.' As a result of her holistic approach to teaching and her collaboration with the dance and physics departments at Interlochen, she was invited to present a lecture on the relationship between body alignment, resonance, and injury prevention at the 2011 Performing Artist and Athlete Science Symposium. Stagnitta earned Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from the Peabody Institute, where she received the Ashworth Prize. Her teachers include Robert Willoughby, Timothy Day, Mark Sparks, and Beatrice Keram. A Powell Artist, she plays a Custom 10k flute.