Ellen Rowe’s Annual Mother’s Day Concert

A Mother’s Day Collaboration:

Sunday, May 14^th, 2023 at 2:00 PM

KCH is proud to continue what has become an annual Mother’s Day tradition with jazz pianist Ellen Rowe! This year, she welcomes award-winning Southeastern Michigan jazz vocalist Emma Aboukasm and Marion Hayden – stellar bassist and icon of the Detroit music scene. Come and enjoy a Mother’s Day afternoon of music with these celebrated women in jazz!

Ellen Rowe, piano
Emma Aboukasm, vocals
Marion Hayden, bass
Ellen Rowe, piano

Ellen Rowe, jazz pianist and composer, is currently Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Jazz and Contemporary Improvisation at the University of Michigan. She is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music, and previously served as Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Connecticut. Winner of the Hartford, CT Advocate Readers’ Poll for Best Acoustic Jazz, Ms. Rowe has performed throughout the U.S., Europe, South Africa, and Australia. CDs out under her own name include “Sylvan Way”, “Wishing Well”, “Denali Pass” and “Courage Music.”  Her latest project, “Momentum – Portraits of Women In Motion”, was released in January of 2019. When not leading her own trio, quartet or quintet, she is in demand as a sideman, having performed with a wide variety of jazz artists. Ms. Rowe’s compositions and arrangements have been performed and recorded by jazz ensembles and orchestras around the world, and she was recently a composer-in-residence at the Eastman School of Music and the University of Wisconsin at Madison.  She is on the Board of the International Society of Jazz Arrangers and Composers and also serves as the Coordinator for the JEN Sisters In Jazz Collegiate Combo Competition, in addition to being an in-demand clinician.

Emma Aboukasm, vocals

Emma Lee co-produced her debut album Rise To It(under the alias, Emmalee) with Scott Gwinnell, featuring Gwinnell on piano, Marion Hayden on bass, Sean Dobbins on drums and Tristan Cappel on alto sax. The album features classic jazz standards and original compositions by Emma. You can stream the album in the music section below.

Aboukasm won the Youth Vocal Jazz Competition in Detroit in 2014. In 2015, she made the top 5 finalists out of 2,000 applications worldwide in the International Sarah Vaughan Vocal Jazz Competition. There, she performed for a panel of judges including Christian McBride and Cyrille Aimée and played tracks from her CD on WBGO radio in Newark, NJ.

Currently, Emma Lee Aboukasm resides in southeast Michigan, collaborating with a variety of musical projects from the National Arab Orchestra to the Scott Gwinnell Jazz Orchestra, Craig Strain Orchestra and numerous smaller groups. She continues to write original compositions and arrange new versions of old songs, offering a new sound to listeners from all walks of life.

Marion Hayden, bass

Born in Detroit, MI, a crucible of jazz, Marion Hayden is one of the nation’s finest proponents of the acoustic bass. Mentored by master trumpeter Marcus Belgrave, Hayden began performing jazz at the age of 15. She has performed with such diverse luminaries as Bobby McFerrin, Nancy Wilson, Geri Allen, Regina Carter, Steve Turre, Lester Bowie, David Allen Grier, James Carter, Dorothy Donegan, Joe Williams, Lionel Hampton, Frank Morgan, Jon Hendricks, Hank Jones, Bobby Hutcherson, Larry Willis, Vanessa Rubin, Sheila Jordan, Mulgrew Miller, Annie Ross and many others. She is a co-founder of the touring jazz ensemble Straight Ahead- the first all woman jazz ensemble signed to Atlantic Records. She is a member of the Detroit International Jazz Festival All-Star Ambassadors touring ensemble.

Widely recognized as a standard bearer of culture and artistic history, Hayden received a 2019 Art X Grant and a Creators of Culture Grant for original musical works. She was Artistic Director for a 2018 Knight Arts Foundation Grant encouraging young women in jazz. In 2016 Hayden washonored for her work as a performer and educator with the prestigious Kresge Artist Fellowship – a 1 year fellowship and grant award given an elite group of creative artists. She was the recipient of a 2016 Jazz Hero Award.- a national award given by the Jazz Journalists Association recognizing people who have made a significant contribution through their artistry and community engagement.

As an arts advocate, Hayden has served as Grant Panelist for the Detroit Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs, Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs, Art-Ops and the Highland Park Cultural Commission. She also serves as panelist or consultant for South Arts, Detroit Sound Conservancy, Charles Wright Museum of African American History, the Kresge Foundation, Jazz Education Network and Society of the Culturally Concerned.

A passionate advocate for youth music education, Hayden teaches for Michigan State Univ. Community Music School Detroit and is an educator in residence for the Detroit Jazz Festival. As well, she conducts the Next Gen Ensemble- a performing group of some of the areas best young musicians. Hayden holds faculty positions in the Jazz Studies Departments at University of Michigan and Oakland University. Hayden is the Bass instructor for the Geri Allen Jazz Camp, Newark, NJ. , and in 2021 will join the faculty at Centrum Jazz, Port Townsend, WA.

COVID-19 Policy for Indoor Concerts at Kerrytown Concert House

• Masks are welcome and available as needed.
• Please do not attend a performance if you are feeling ill or have any symptoms of COVID-19.