Rick Bean Trio
Rick Bean – Piano
Rick has been playing professionally since the age of 14. In the earlier years, he performed with Urbie Green (star trombonist on the Tonight Show), Les Elgart, Larry Elgart, Buddy Morrow, Frankie Avalon, Warren Covington (Tommy Dorsey Orchestra), Ray McKinley (Glen Miller Orchestra), Tony Orlando and Dawn, Vaughan Monroe, and The Four Lads. In later years, Rick backed singers such as Marlene Verplanck, Mike Campbell, and Tennessee Ernie Ford in concert. Over the years, Rick has given many concerts for colleges and municipalities.
This year, Rick has been invited by Carnegie Hall in New York City to perform the Jazz Mass that he and James Kevin Gray co-composed. The work was premiered in Charlotte, NC in 2017, and was performed in sellout performances in Seattle, WA with the iconic Greta Metassa and the Bainbridge Chorale. In addition to the Carnegie Hall performance, Rick will be performing the Jazz Mass in concerts in North and South Carolina in 2022.
Rick has also written and published choral music. Rick has composed other works for a cappella and vocal ensembles such as Caritas and VOX in Charlotte. Rick worked closely with pianist and composer Loonis McGlohon for many years, and is currently working to perpetuate the performance of Loonis’ music as Chairman of the McGlohon Endowment. Rick and the Endowment have scored and performed “North Carolina Is My Home,” the tribute to North Carolina that Loonis co-authored and produced with fellow North Carolinian Charles Kuralt , in concert with the trio and with symphony.
Ron Brendle – Bass
A freelance bassist in the Charlotte, Ron area has performed and recorded with many notable jazz artists of international stature, including John Abercrombie, Chris Potter, Clark Terry, Hank Crawford, Andrew Hill, Charlie Byrd, Lee Konitz, Charlie Rouse, Mose Allison, Dom Flemons, Russell Malone, TS Monk, Joe Locke, and Frank Kimbrough. Ron is also the recipient of two North Carolina Arts Council Jazz Composer Fellowship Grants.
He graduated from Appalachian State University with a Bachelor Degree in music and studied bass with Charlie Haden at the Atlantic Center for the Arts.
“Brendle is a monster bassist, whether using the bow or playing with his fingers.” – Ron Wynn JazzTimes
“Brendle’s choice to remain in Charlotte has limited his exposure to wider audiences, which no doubt would find him to be a bassist of note were he to live in New York. Nonetheless, Here is the work of a progressive bassist with much imagination to share with appreciative listeners.” – Bill Donaldson Jazz Improv Magazine
Alfred Sergel, IV – Drums
Al has shared the stage with Grammy award winning artists and recorded on numerous Billboard charting albums. Sergel has 30 years of experience as a professional musician and educator with studies at Florida State University and Berklee College of Music in the area of percussion, drumset and jazz studies.
Currently, Sergel performs and tours regularly with Jason Upton, John Mark McMillan, Chad Lawson and Shana Tucker.
Sergel is adjunct faculty at The Kings University in Dallas, TX, Davidson College in Davidson, NC and Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, NC.
Sergel is a Heartbeat Cymbal Artist and endorses Roberts Drums.
Dawn Anthony
Dawn Anthony has served in the Charlotte area for years as a teaching artist and even longer as a performer. She enjoys utilizing music, history and technology to build bridges to promote arts immersion in education and unity within the community. Dawn believes that learning and performing experiences are inevitably enhanced through creative arts partnerships. In 2015 and 2016 Dawn presented a musical tribute to Ella Fitzgerald for the Jazz Arts Initiative at Blumenthal’s Stage Door Theater. In the fall of 2016, she partnered with her alma mater, Queens University of Charlotte for “Creative Crossroads”– an artist in residence concert and lecture series about the Harlem Renaissance expressed through music, poetry, dance and visual art. She will reprise this event at Queens University in the spring of 2018. Dawn performs in the Charlotte area and is the primary singer for the Charlotte Jazz Orchestra. Apart from performing, her primary focus is teaching artist with STUDIO 345 (an afterschool arts immersion program), JAI and DNAMuzic (her own arts program)– all of which are organizations that bring music education workshops to schools in the Charlotte area. Dawn recently authored her first children’s book entitled, “The Gift Way Up in the Closet” to encourage children to seek and exercise their gifts and talents—it’s available on her website and soon to Amazon! Dawn earned her degree in music from Queens University of Charlotte, but still pursues her love for learning, performing and teaching through cultural exchanges and musical collaborations beyond the stage and classroom.
CARITAS A CAPPELLA ENSEMBLE was formed in 2015, under the leadership of Artistic Director Cathy Youngblood. The group has inspired and delighted its Charlotte-area audiences with its challenging musical selections, its polished performances, and its vision to make an impact in the community. In 2017 Caritas A Cappella Ensemble was incorporated as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
The mission of Caritas, a cappella artistry with a purpose, is lived out through our efforts to stimulate, develop, and promote the appreciation of a cappella singing through public concerts, and through our donation of a portion of the proceeds from ticket sales to charitable organizations.
Cathy Youngblood, Artistic Director
Cathy Youngblood, pianist, organist and choral director, is a graduate of California Lutheran University where she obtained both a B.A. in Organ Performance (summa cum laude) and a M.A. in Music Education. She is the recipient of various awards and honors, among them, Theodore Presser Scholar, Assistant Director of the touring CLU Concert Choir, Director of the Madrigal Singers, Departmental Assistant in Music, and Woman of the Week in Guatemala’s magazine Revista Crónica. While living in Guatemala for 17 years, she became the founding director of the Choral Society of Guatemala, a 100-voice choral organization singing short form and major works accompanied by the Guatemalan Symphony Orchestra. She was also the first director of the acclaimed a cappella ensemble Capella Cantorum.
Cathy taught music theory and piano at Central Piedmont Community College, sustained a private piano studio for over 25 years, and developed a number of church music ministries, before retiring in 2020. She has composed choral works for sacred and concert use. In 2015 she became Artistic Director of Caritas A Cappella Ensemble, which focuses on a cappella artistry for the greater Charlotte area, and partners with local nonprofits in the community. She and her husband Quay make their home in Charlotte.
Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church
Good Shepherd is a group of “ordinary people following an extraordinary God.” Begun in 1980, it has been served by two back to back long-term pastors with a vision for being a good neighbor in the name of Jesus Christ. The church is known for its friendliness, a rich music ministry, and a distinct understanding of itself as a “neighborhood church.” The church is pleased to host Spring into Jazz and would be pleased to welcome you to worship or any other church activities. And in our best excited-whisper voice: (Rick Bean plays here every Sunday!!)