STRAND THEATRE -- EQUINOX FORM PARTNERSHIP

Randy Weston, Keys of the City to be debut event Commitment to bring music back into the community ...New Programs to be launched

26 April -- Boston MA -- One is a grand dame of Boston Art Deco venues, tucked into a bustling neighborhood, staunchly serving the community. The other is the new music event and educational organization that has taken Boston by storm, injecting new paradigms into the citys cultural landscape.

The Equinox Music Festival and the Strand Theatre announced today that they are forming a new partnership, with The Strand becoming the Official Venue of the Equinox Music Festival and a home for Equinoxs Boston Jazz Repertory Orchestra. In addition, The Strand-Equinox partnership will soon yield new programs, developed collaboratively, including subscription series, youth orchestras and other educational outreach endeavors.

We have to bring the Strand into the 21st century,'' said Victoria Jones, Executive Director of the Strand Theatre. Partnering with the Equinox organization is a step in that direction". They have some very creative programming, and a foundation of educational outreach. It will fit in perfectly for continuing the rich Strand tradition of bringing cultural awareness and enjoyment.

One of our goals, stated Equinox Vice-President, Leonard Brown, is to bring the music back into the community. Due to a variety of social and economic factors, the music, the traditions, have moved out. Having a home at the Strand will allow Equinox to bring some of those traditions back to the community."

Jones, former executive producer at WHDH-TV (Ch. 7), took over the helm at the Strand January 2002, which was without a director since 1998. Jones immediately facilitated new partnerships within the Non-Profit world, developed and implemented new educational programs. The Strand has collaborated with the Huntington Theatre, Boston Jewish Film Festival and Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra
When it opened on Armistice Day in 1918, the 1,400-seat theatre was described in the Boston Traveler as Boston's first great movie palace,'' with its grand chandeliers, gilded Corinthian columns and Grecian figures carved in relief on the theatre's vast domed ceiling.

The original Wurlitzer organ - billed as the first in Boston - is showcased behind glass in the lobby. Posters from bygone shows promote performances by Cab Calloway, Dizzy Gillespie and Count Basie. Huge mirrors framed by elaborate gilded moldings reflect the theatre's earliest days as a vaudeville and film palace

Through the years, Fanny Brice, Milton Berle, Al Green, Tommy Dorsey, the Temptations and the Boys Choir of Harlem all performed at the Strand. The theatre was shuttered in the late '60s after falling into disrepair, and obtained by the city of Boston in the early '70s through eminent domain. It reopened in 1979 as the Harriet McCormick Center for the Arts.

As the Strand celebrates its 85th anniversary that began January, Jones, the new director, aims to recognize the theatre's past with a historic designation, and set a course for its future.

The Equinox Music Festival, Inc. is a 501(C) 3 Not-for-Profit Corporation that launched in 2001, to, among other reasons, support the Annual John Coltrane Memorial Concert. In 2002, the 2nd Annual Equinox Music Festival featured the 25th Annual John Coltrane Memorial Concert, the worlds oldest annual music tribute performance to the legendary Coltrane. Brown, along with percussionist Syd Smart, and the late Hayes Burnett, are the co-founders of the JCMC.
In its short, two-year history, Equinox has presented such legends and visionaries as, Alvin Batiste, Joanne Brackeen, Larry Harlow, Keith Copeland, Anthony Brown, David Murray and, at the same time, gave exposure to the new keepers-of-the-flame, such as Jeremy Pelt, Taylor Ho Bynum, David Bryant and many others.

The Equinox Educational Outreach Program has presented the Trinidadian steel pan music of Ron Reid, and the Indonesian-Dutch artists, Luluk Purwanto and the Rene van Helsdingen Trio to young audiences at Bostons Childrens Museum, an Institutional Sponsor with Equinox.

Equinox has also teamed up with another Institutional Sponsor -- the Inquilinos Boricuas en Accion and their award-winning Café Teatro series - to produce Café Teatro Especials

The Strand Theatre will also become the Official Home of Equinoxs Boston Jazz Repertory Orchestra, Bostons answer to the repertory orchestras of other cities, such as the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra in New York, the Smithsonian Jazz Orchestra in Washington, DC and the late Bill Russos Chicago Jazz Ensemble.

The BJRO, led by Carl Atkins and Bill Lowe, takes a different tack, not performing only exact transcriptions, but additionally, performing, live and now, the music of the legends, such as Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, Jabbo Ware, Sun Ra and putting the BJRO creative spin to it. The BJRO features new compositions and arrangements from Lowe and Atkins and other band members

Lowe, an educator and music historian as well, knows the value, and the responsibility, of a partnership with an institution like the Strand Theatre.
The community of a home", stated Lowe. The musician can stretch out, be more creative ... We can develop programming, feature more and different masters ... Write for large and small ensembles. And, being based in a theatre like the Strand, we can develop an audience. They can see us, warts-and-all, cheer for us like they would the Red Sox or Patriots. It all goes back to the history, when the great musicians lived in the neighborhoods that they performed in."

Randy Weston and Keys of the City to kick off Partnership
One of the first endeavors under the new Equinox -- Strand union is the new summer series, Keys of the City, Equinox will run from June, through September, ending inside the 3rd Annual Equinox Music Festival.

Highlighting featured pianists, organists and other keyboard artists, Keys of the City will open on Saturday, June 14th, with a solo performance by the legendary jazz pianist, Randy Weston. This opening performance will be a benefit concert, for the Strand Renovation Project, and the Equinox Educational Outreach Program.

Additional Keys of the City performers include Lazlo Gardony, Al Vega. Frank Wilkins, Rollins Ross, and others to-be-announced.

Were very excited," says Lisa Jones, Director of Marketing and Communications for the Strand. The Keys series is going to be our key to bringing traditional and alternative music back to the Strand ."

For more information on the Strand Theatre, please visit www.strandtheatreboston.com

For more information on the Equinox Music Festival, please visit www.jcmcsite.com