Marilynn Seits: News & Events

There was a wonderful art installation of 60 pianos scattered around NYC titled "Play Me I'm Yours"...Marilynn and some friends went to Lincoln Center and down to Chelsea to play on several of the pianos and everyone had a great time doing it!

New young students:
Eight year old Osamede began voice and piano lessons with Marilynn last Fall and is progressing very nicely. Six year old Dahlia began piano lessons in January and is learning to play by ear as well as read music. And seven year old twins Annya and Ben began piano lessons a few weeks ago and their older brother Josh is studying clarinet, piano and voice...they are a very musical family.

New adult student: Kathy Kettles has been singing jazz and standards for some time now and began studying with Marilynn recently to learn new songs and improve her jazz improv skills.

Last Fall, Marilynn began subbing for music teachers at The Dalton School in Manhattan, grades K through 3 and recently accompanied the Chorus for their February choral concert.

New students of Marilynn's at the Riverdale "Y" School of Music include Barbara Mann on piano and Katie Kilcommons, voice and piano.

In late January, Marilynn joined the faculty of Piano Schools of NYC, owned and operated by Vera Anselmo, a classically trained pianist and teacher from Moscow. Her piano school is quite large and covers the 5 boroughs of New York as well as Westchester County. So far, Marilynn has private students in Bedford Hills and the Bronx and also teaches group piano lessons at the Pablo Neruda Academy.

Marilynn travels to Scarsdale & Eastchester each week to give piano and music lessons to three families.
• Nine year old Eliot began on recorder and piano last year and is now studying saxophone at school. Marilynn is helping him with both sax and piano -- part of Marilynn's music education in college was learning to play sax, flute, clarinet, percussion, violin, organ and harpsichord as well as piano & voice.
• Six year old Lilah, Eliot's sister, loves to sing and dance to all kinds of music and is playing the piano as well. She'll be starting on recorder soon.
• Six year old Julia and her four year old brother Greg are both studying piano, singing lots of songs and using egg shakers, rhythm sticks & drums to learn about rhythm & time in music. Greg likes to make up songs about sharks, his favorite animals.
• Six year old Adrianna is studying piano and also loves to sing and dance. She's very creative and makes up her own songs to dance to. Her four year old bother Jason usually joins his sister for the last 10 minutes of the class and plays a drum while she's dancing. Many of these private lessons become family events as music brings the whole family together.

Marilynn began teaching music to 3 classes at the ITI Children's Center in Mamaroneck, NY: Pre-K, Toddlers and Babies. Marilynn will be teaching two 30 minutes classes each month using a keyboard, rhythm instruments, movement & dancing and singing lots of songs! The baby class is very interesting as these are small babies who can't yet walk or crawl -- but they do move their bodies and shake the musical shakers very energetically to music done in the class...It's so good that they can start their musical education at such a young age!

Marilynn has two new students who come weekly to her home studio to study voice and music ---

Nine year old Osamede has a wonderful voice and loves singing Broadway songs and sings in her Church choir with her parents...

Fourteen year old Jovon has a lovely voice and a lot of musical talent...she is prepping for her auditions to get into one of NYC's special schools for the arts including La Guardia HS...

Marilynn has been teaching Music Together for MT Center Director Jean Young for a year now...This Fall Marilynn has five classes in Larchmont, Mamaroneck, Rye, New Rochelle and Mt Vernon. The Mt Vernon class is in an independent living facility called Meadowview and the senior residents participate in this inter-generational class with the children and their families. We have a lot of fun in all of the classes...For more information on Music Along the Sound, go to the links page and click on the link for Jean Young.

Marilynn has been teaching voice and piano at the Riverdale "Y" for the past year now and her students include:

Chana R., a 7 year old piano student;
Bridget Q., a 7 year vocalist with an eye on Broadway;
Emily N., a 14 year old vocalist who hopes to go to La Guardia HS to study music;
Kyra L., a 5 year old singer who loves music, singing & dancing...

Jazz, Braodway & Beyond gave a performance at The Wartburg (Meadowview Independent Living Center) in Mt Vernon on September 18, 2009 --- featured were Marilynn on piano and Geisha Otero, Jean Young and Tom Krawczyk, vocals. The program features songs from favorite composers Duke Ellington, Cold Porter & George Gershwin and ended with a group sing a-long with the whole audience. Everyone had a great time!

Sean came to NY for a visit and we drove down to Newport RI for the 55th Newport Jazz Festival produced by George Wein -- it was a gorgeous sunny day and there were 3 stages of continuous, non-stop wonderful jazz!
The first band we heard on the main stage was the fabulous Esperanza Spalding playing bass, singing and directing her own band which she wrote all the charts for -- what an incredible voice she has and is also a great bass player.
Then Joshua Redman played with a double trio (2 basses, 2 drummers and Joshua) --- The double trio sound was nice and it was really interesting to hear the way the 2 basses & 2 drummers accompanied each other & fed off each other during solos and on the tune itself. Then Brandford Marsalis came out and after the 1st boring song we decided to check out the side stages -- thank god as we found Hiromi, the fabulous Japanese pianist about to start her set with her band, SonicBloom -- She brought down the house with her incredible chops, amazing fusion music and incredible ability to go back & forth between the grand piano & 2 synths without missing a tiny beat -- and then playing right hand solos with her LEFT hand on the grand while playing chords with her RIGHT hand on the synth! She was really amazing and had a great band backing her up -- Hiromi and Esperanza were the highlights of the entire festival for me -- What a great day of incredible jazz!

On Aug 7, we had our first jazz vocal showcase at Meadowview @ The Wartburg in Mt Vernon, NY. The participating vocalists were Geisha Otero of Manhattan; Nancy Parish, also of Manhattan; Jean Young of Larchmont and Rhea Linda of Riverdale. Each vocalists sang 3 or 4 songs as solos accompanied by Marilynn Seits on piano and Sean McAusland on bass. Then the hour and a half set ended with a group jam on "Summertime" and a sing a-long with the audience. Everyone had a good time and we've been invited back for another showcase on Sept. 18. Call Marilynn if you're interested in singing in a showcase...

Summer time is a great time for hearing music --- most towns and cities all over the country have summer concert programs in the parks, in town squares and other outdoor venues. Check your local newspaper for listings...
I will be continuing to teach private lessons, give jazz workshops and perform at several places in the NYC area. Watch my calendar for details...

Marilynn played piano at Decade's Bar and restaurant in downtown Asheville, NC with bassist Sean McAusland and guitarist/leader Dan Keller. Four sets of jazz, views of the fireworks & getting paid for it: what more could you ask for? It was a lot of fun to be playing great jazz in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains...

All Music Guide Editorial review: Threads of Violet Light

Marilynn Seits was quite possibly the most underrated new age composer out there at the time of this release. Her work was some of the finest and most original that the genre had seen in a while, but for some reason her work was often neglected. Marilynn Seits' Threads of Violet Light is just as good as her work that came before it, but it's most reminiscent of Meditations Along the Silk Road, which was not only an excellent recording, it was possibly one of the best recordings that the new age genre yielded. From the perspective of the writer, there's really only one complaint, and it goes across the board, particularly with new age -- and that's that sometimes less is more; the use of a sound group known as General MIDI often plays a large role in new age music, and particularly in Marilynn Seits work. Over the years General MIDI has begun to sound more and more real, but when it's placed in the beauty of her melodies and the beautiful timbre of the piano, which may be General MIDI as well, the novelty of the synthetic sounds somehow cheapens the overall compositional integrity. It's easy to get around, especially to the lay listener, but that's one thing that has made this reviewer's ears perk up. With Threads of Violet Light, Marilynn Seits has created an excellently contemplative recording, one that sounds good and that can endure. Great work!

~ Matt Borghi, All Music Guide

Karmic Tribute: All Music Guide:
Editorial review

Sadly, it is easy for musicians to become pigeonholed. If an artist becomes known for one style of music, some marketing people will do everything they can to discourage him/her from trying anything else. But thankfully, Marilynn Seits doesn't feel the need to shackle herself to one genre 100% of the time. The pianist has done some interesting things in the new age field, but that doesn't prevent her from successfully embracing straight-ahead acoustic jazz on Karmic Tribute. The CD's title might give some people the impression that this is an album of modal or avant-garde jazz with strong Middle Eastern or Indian leanings -- something you would expect from Pharoah Sanders or Yusef Lateef. But in fact, Karmic Tribute is a collection of very inside piano jazz along the lines of Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett, and Marian McPartland. Playing unaccompanied solo piano, Seits pays tribute to a variety of fellow pianists, who range from Evans on "Time Remembered," Jarrett on "Coral," and Chick Corea on "Tones for Joan's Bones," to Charles Mingus on "Orange Was the Color of Her Dress," Carla Bley on "Ups and Downs," and Billy Strayhorn on "Lush Life." Not everything on Karmic Tribute was written by a pianist; "Falling Grace" and "Arise Her Eyes," for example, are by bassist Steve Swallow -- someone Bley has worked with extensively. But the compositions of pianists are the main focus of this CD, illustrating Seits' ability to step outside of new age and provide introspective, pensive jazz.
~ Alex Henderson, All Music Guide

Marilynn is teaching an intergenerational Music Together class at Meadowview at The Wartburg in Mt Vernon, NY every Saturday morning. The class of 5 families with small children meets at the Independent Living Center at Meadowview and the senior residents also participate in the class --- there is a lot of interaction between the 3 generations during these classes and everyone has a great time!

Marilynn will be playing the piano for the Pre-School Learning Center Graduation in Eastchester, NY in June. There are 2 groups of 4 years olds moving up to Kindergarten and 2 groups of Kindergarten children going on to first grade.

We have a new addition to the Vibrations Jazz Ensemble: little Declan McAusland was born on Feb 28, 2009...proud Dad, Andy McAusland is the guitarist/vocalist in the band and Declan will probably be holding a guitar as soon as he is able! He's already singing in his crib! And proud Grandmother Marilynn will be introducing him to the music of Keith Jarrett and Chick Corea as soon as possible! We need to shape these musical tastes early!