Grass Valley, CA — On Sunday, Sept. 6 at 2 p.m., baritone Omari Tau takes the stage at the Center for the Arts with two of his closest collaborators. Get ready for something unlike anything else on the Music in the Mountains calendar this year: a joyful, genre-defying blend of classical music, musical theater, jazz and more. Tau is joined by longtime friends Graham Sobelman on piano and Natalie Hagwood on cello for an evening built on connection as much as craft. “I blend classical music, musical theater, and jazz because this is who I am. I’m made up of all those things and more,” Tau says. “Why not do all the things I do and celebrate the composers I love, and do it with friends? When you get to make art with people you like, there is something that elevates the experience.”
The program is a love letter to Americana — familiar tunes and a few new ones that feel familiar, woven together by a cast of unforgettable characters: a serpent enticing Eve, the god of water, a maid secretly plotting revenge on those who wronged her. “We are tapping into the fullness of the human story, not necessarily the happy or the tragic ending, but all the stuff that gets us there,” Tau says. “It’s all about the journey.”
Audiences will hear dramatic works by Kurt Weill, a classic from Fats Waller’s Ain’t Misbehavin’, and an interactive, “very Cab Calloway” take on “It Ain’t Necessarily So” from George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, alongside music from a new generation of American composers, including selections from Tau’s own new album, Safe Thus Far.
About the Artists
Graham Sobelman is a musician and educator who has served as music director for Broadway Sacramento, Ensemble Theatre Company, B Street Theatre, Capital Stage and New Helvetia Theatre, with additional credits leading productions in Edinburgh, London and New York.
Natalie Hagwood is known for pushing the boundaries of the traditionally classical cello across a range of styles. She currently performs with Solabel, a Sacramento-based ensemble of jazz, folk and Broadway talents whose music carries messages of joy and social justice across genre lines.
Omari Tau is no stranger to Music in the Mountains audiences, having performed with the organization’s community engagement programs, holiday concerts and more. A Lion King alum (Banzai, with the Cheetah and Gazelle companies), Tau has performed with Sacramento Philharmonic & Opera, Santa Cruz Symphony, Modesto Symphony, the Alley Theatre, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, Broadway Sacramento, the MUNY and Theater Under The Stars, among others. He records with his band Solabel, performs as the co-founding artistic director with MIM favorite Rogue Music Project, and serves as Professor of Vocal Music at Cosumnes River College.
Music in the Mountains has been bringing world-class classical music to Nevada County since 1982.