Registration is required for all events–whether or not a charge is involved. Club members register for themselves and their guests by using our online system, by emailing us, or by calling our office at 212-697-5300. Of course, we welcome any questions about any of the events that we’ve created.
The Olympic Experience
Monday, November 11 6:30 p.m. reception, 7:00 p.m. program Free for Club members, $10 for guests
Ever wonder what it is like to be an Olympic athlete, to train, compete, maybe even win at the highest level? With the 2020 Tokyo Olympics fast approaching, the spotlight is once again beginning to shine on the world’s top athletes. We have invited a panel of experienced guests to shed light on the Olympic experience, including the challenges faced while training for the games (often while working a day job). Panelists include:
Kris Karlson, Williams ’85, World champion sculler, finished 4th in the Women’s Quad rowing event at the 1992 Barcelona Games, served as the team doctor at the 2008 Beijing Games for the US rowing and triathlon teams
Carol Brown, Princeton ’75, 4x Medalist at Worlds, Bronze in 1976 Montreal Games in the Women’s 8+ rowing event
Jason Read, Temple ’00, Gold at the 2004 Athens Games in the Men’s 8+ rowing event, 2x Gold medalist at the World Rowing Cup
Moderator: Jack Carlson is a rowing coxswain, designer, and author. He represented the United States at three World Championships, and won a bronze medal at the 2015 World Rowing Championships in Aiguebelette, France. He is an alumnus of Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and Oxford University.
Williams Jazz Ensemble presents “New Musical Express”
Friday, January 10 8:00-10:00 p.m. $10 for members, $20 for guests (includes 1 glass of wine)
The music of Mary Lou Williams, Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn
Under the direction of saxophonist and Lyell B. Clay Artist-in-Residence Kris Allen, the 16-piece Williams Jazz Ensemble returns to the Club to present a program of works by three seminal composers of America’s original art form. The Ensemble last appeared at the Club in February 2018, to a large and enthusiastic audience. This performance will showcase musical portraits with a wide range of subject matter, from the locomotive (“New Musical Express” and “Take The A Train”) to the literary (“Star Crossed Lovers” and “Eighth Veil”), the geographic and cultural (“Ad Lib on Nippon”) all the way to the existential (“Blood Count”).
Also featured are Ellington’s beloved arrangements of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” and Benny Carter’s iconic “Symphony in Riffs.”
Throughout the program each band member will be featured, both as individual soloists and in the creation of “head arrangements,” wherein band members collaborate for on-the-spot group improvisations.
400 Years: An African American Musical Portrait
Wednesday, February 19 6:30 p.m. reception, 7:00 p.m. program Free for Club members, $15 for guests
Avery Sharpe’s 400: An African American Musical Portrait, is a sweeping musical-historical epic that commemorates 400 years (1619-2019) since the arrival of the first enslaved Africans to the shores of the Colony of Virginia, marking the advent of slavery in North America.Tracing that history through music, Sharpe seeks to further the storied legacy of those 400 years, bringing his own imagination and compositional gifts to the endeavor.
In this presentation, Sharpe will use a combination of storytelling, imagery, and musical performance to guide guests through the centuries: from the beginnings of chattel slavery to the Civil War and Reconstruction, through the Great Migration and the World Wars to the Civil Rights Era, the Obama presidency and the present day.As 400 proceeds chronologically, each step in the historical narrative is mirrored by a journey through musical styles including African music, spirituals, gospel, ragtime, blues, bop, and soul.
Avery Sharpe is an Artist Associate in Jazz Bass, and Jazz Coach at Williams College.He is also Faculty Advisor for the Williams Gospel Choir and affiliated faculty for Africana Studies.Sharpe has performed and recorded with jazz greats such as Dizzy Gillespie, Wynton Marsalis, Yusef Lateef, Bobby McFerrin, Pat Metheny, and Billy Taylor.As a band leader, he has released over 13 albums on his own artist record label, JKNM Records.As an educator, he has presented at the University of Massachusetts, Williams College, Berklee School of Music, Bates College, the University of Miami, and at colleges in Peru, Brazil, Australia and elsewhere. His awards include The NAACP Martin Luther King Jr. Special Achievement Award, several National Endowment for the Arts Grants and the NEFA 1997 Achievement in Jazz Award.
