FREE TICKETS for students pursuing jazz studies. 50% DISCOUNT for working musicians & music educators. See ticket link above for options. Learn about our Great Experience Guarantee and No Barriers policy.
Howard Levy & Chris Siebold
Jazz Coterie live music concert series welcomes renowned harmonica player Howard Levy and guitarist Chris Siebold to our pop-up jazz club in Wisconsin.
About Howard Levy — 2X Grammy Winner
Howard Levy is a master of the diatonic harmonica, a virtuosic pianist, innovative composer, educator, and producer.
Levy was born in Brooklyn and attended the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied piano and pipe organ. Later Howard enrolled at Northwestern University, where he played piano in the university’s Jazz Band. He also developed a love for the Blues, and began to play the 10-hole diatonic harmonica as a freshman.
“Levy has single-handedly revolutionized the harmonica.”
At the age of 19, Howard discovered how to play the harmonica as a fully chromatic instrument by developing techniques on it that had never existed before. This enabled Howard to take the harmonica out of its usual role as a Folk and Blues instrument, and into the worlds of Jazz, Classical, Middle Eastern music, and more. His discovery unlocked infinite possibilities for the harmonica world.
At home in many musical styles, he is a favorite with audiences worldwide and a recording artist sought after by Dolly Parton, Paquito D’Rivera, Donald Fagen, Paul Simon, Kurt Elling, Spyro Gyra, Chuck Mangione, Pete Seeger, Alan Jackson, and Tom Paxton among many others. Howard has appeared on hundreds of albums and several movie soundtracks.
“As Art Tatum was to the piano, so is Levy to the harmonica: a hyper-virtuoso whose feats can be admired and studied but never really replicated.”
As a member of Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Howard recorded 4 albums with the band including 2 Grammy-Winning recordings in 1996 and 2011. Howard also won a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition for Life in Eleven.
His solo album Alone and Together and his trio album Tonight and Tomorrow both received 4-star reviews from DownBeat Magazine. Howard also released a classical album featuring his Concerto for Diatonic Harmonica and Orchestra — the first concerto composed for the instrument.
“Levy’s harmonica playing is startlingly fluid and full of the technical prowess.”
Howard has played all over the world — including Carnegie Hall, Montreal Jazz Festival, Newport Jazz Festival, The Hollywood Bowl, The Esplanade, Spoleto Festival, Symphony Space, The Rochester Jazz Festival, and many projects for German Radio in Stuttgart, Koln, and Hamburg. He has also performed on The Tonight Show hosted by Johnny Carson and Jay Leno, and on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.
As an educator, Howard has taught at leading universities and conservatories, and online for TrueFire/ArtistWorks. His revolutionary technique book “Rhythms of the Breath” is the first of its kind to apply drum rudiments to the harmonica, influencing players around the world.
“Certainly no one playing jazz harmonica these days approaches the technical wizardry, stylistic breadth or improvisational creativity of Chicagoan Howard Levy.”
About Chris Siebold
Chris Siebold draws from a deep well of influences, and plays many styles of music including blues, bluegrass, jazz, world music and rock. He is a member of the internationally renowned fusion band Kick the Cat, and has played with many notable musicians around the world. He brings intensity, soul and his incredible technique to any style of music.
Chris is a native of Chicago, where he has lived and worked as a professional guitarist since 1996. He is a guitarist, composer/songwriter, arranger, singer, free-lance journeyman. In addition to playing with Kick the Cat, and Howard Levy's various ensembles, Chris has played with MAGGIE SPEAKS, Anne Harris Band, The Renegades, Andrew Ripp, and Patricia Barber among many, many others. He received a BA in Music and Guitar Performance from Elmhurst College in 1998. Upon graduating, he accepted an adjunct teaching position at the college and taught private lessons and led performing ensembles for 9 years. Notably, Chris was a featured guitarist on NPR’s “Prarie Home Companion”, and established the Elmhurst College Gretsch Guitar Ensemble in 2000 which is still going strong today!