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.@LakeStreetDive’s legendary front woman Rachael Price & talented composer @TheActualVilray unite as duo @RachaelNVilray for an intimate performance of their debut album @KimmelCenter 12/13. More info @ KimmelCenter.org
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Lauren Woodard
215-790-5835
LWoodard@kimmelcenter.org
Jessica Christopher
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KIMMEL CENTER CULTURAL CAMPUS PRESENTS
SONGBIRDS RACHAEL PRICE & VILRAY FOR AN
INTIMATE PERFORMANCE OF THEIR DEBUT ALBUM
RACHAEL & VILRAY
DECEMBER 13, 2019
“It’s a special kind of magic when two voices meet and immediately sound like they’ve never been apart. The voices of acoustic duo Rachael & Vilray are magical enough on their own, but when they blend in song the results are utterly sublime.”
—Chronogram
"Rachael Price combines Amy Winehouse, Rita Hayworth and R&B charisma."
- Billboard
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (Philadelphia, PA, November 6, 2019) – The Kimmel Center Cultural Campus welcomes Lake Street Dive legendary front woman, singer/songwriter Rachael Price and Brooklyn composer/singer/guitarist, Vilray, for an intimate performance of their debut album Rachael & Vilray at the Kimmel Center’s Perelman Theater on Friday, December 13, 2019 at 8:00 p.m. Rachael & Vilray are a duo that grew from a shared reverence for the pop music of the 1930s and 40s and its wide range of emotions.
With simple arrangements and a guitar for accompaniment, they perform original works and revive forgotten gems of the jazz big bands and western swing ensembles. Their sound recalls both the warmth of radio's golden age and the intimacy of parlor concerts in a time before recordings.
“The Kimmel Center Cultural Campus is home to genre-bending performances and Rachael & Vilray’s artistry transcends generational barriers, gathering inspiration from past decades while creating a sound inimitably their own,” said Anne Ewers, President and CEO of the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts. “We are thrilled to host this duo for the first time, bringing diverse & timely arts experiences to Philadelphians.”
Rachael Price is a jazz vocalist and frontwoman of four-piece band, Lake Street Dive. Her love of jazz started at the young age of five, after she heard Ella Fitzgerald sing “The Lady and the Tramp.” In 2003, Price received an honorable mention at the Montreux Jazz Festival’s International Jazz Vocal Competition.
One year later, she was a semi-finalist at the Thelonious Monk Institute Vocal Competition, where she was the youngest competitor in its history. The same year, she made her U.S. jazz festival debut at Yale’s Jazz on the Green when she opened for Joshua Redman. In 2006, Price won the Independent Music Award for Best Gospel Song with her recording of “My God, My Adored One” with the Boston Praise Collective and has appeared in concert as a featured vocalist with the T.S. Monk Sextet.
Vilray is a contemporary composer who can truly evoke, not merely imitate, Tin Pan Alley tunes from the thirties and forties, a period that he and Price have both long been passionate about. These songs are truly transporting. One can easily believe they could have been plucked from the soundtrack of an old Hollywood musical or from a now-forgotten Broadway show. But the fact that they are utterly original, written by Vilray himself expressly for this project, makes them all the more impressive and even more delightful to hear.
Price and Vilray first met in 2003 as students at the New England Conservatory of Music. Even then, Price recalls, Vilray had a nimble mind and quick wit when it came to lyrics: “That’s when I knew Vilray was a good songwriter…Vilray was able to take any subject and write excellent poetry about it, funny rhymes, and he would sing the songs.” But at school, says Price, “I didn’t know Vilray and I shared a love of this particular time period of jazz. It was all I liked to listen to before I got there and everyone at school was listening to more avant-garde, free stuff that I had yet to be exposed to. So I hid my love of traditional jazz music. I didn’t know then that he played it perfectly.”
With Rachael & Vilray, the duo adds a new chapter to the American Songbook, an opportunity to hear tomorrow’s standards today.
Other featured upcoming performances at the Kimmel Center Cultural Campus include: The Conversationalists (November 7 – 9, SEI Innovation Studio), Béla Fleck & The Flecktones (December 3, 2019, Verizon Hall), and A Soulful Christmas (December 10, 2019, Verizon Hall).
RACHAEL & VILRAY
Kimmel Center Cultural Campus’ Perelman Theater
December 13, 2019, 8:00 p.m.
Tickets
Tickets are on sale now starting at $25.00. Tickets can be purchased by calling 215-893-1999, online at www.kimmelculturalcampus.org, or at the Kimmel Center Box Office. Group sales are available for groups of 10 or more and can be purchased by calling 215-790-5883. See www.kimmelculturalcampus.org for more information.
The Kimmel Center Cultural Campus
Located in the heart of Center City, Philadelphia, our mission is to engage the region’s diverse communities with art through performance and education. Our Cultural Campus serves more than 1 million guests per year and includes the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, the Academy of Music, and the Merriam Theater- representing more than 160 years of rich history for the performing arts along Philadelphia’s Avenue of the Arts. We are home to eight esteemed Resident Companies: The Philadelphia Orchestra, Opera Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Ballet, The Philly POPS, PHILADANCO, The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, The Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and Curtis Institute of Music. With nearly 9,000 seats per night, we are the region’s most impactful performing arts center, and the second largest in the country. Our Cultural Campus serves as a preeminent and inclusive place to enjoy exceptional experiences that reflect the spirit of our region by cultivating a creative and socially-responsible environment where our community shares experiences that are delivered with pride, integrity, and respect. As a 501 c 3 nonprofit organization, we collaborate on, present, and produce a broad range of relevant and meaningful events, we serve as an active gathering space for social and community events, we educate the region’s young people through access to quality arts experiences, and we provide support to artists in the creation of new work. TD Bank, America’s Most Convenient Bank, is our proud sponsor of the Kimmel Center’s 2019-2020 Season. American Airlines is the official airline of Broadway Philadelphia. For additional information, visit www.kimmelculturalcampus.org.
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