Elise Witt & Mick Kinney
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One of the musical groups performing at this year’s Georgia Wine Country Festival is Atlanta based Elise Witt & Mick Kinney. This group is scheduled to perform on Saturday June 3rd.
Imagine a cabaret starring Fats Waller and Edith Piaf. When Mick Kinney's wry humor and exquisite piano playing meet Elise Witt's nightingale voice and world music repertoire, just such an unlikely but perfect musical event is created. With songs from the sublimely romantic to the superbly ridiculous, Elise and Mick complement each other's compositions, singing soulful harmonies and engaging the audience with their hilarious antics. The duo's repertoire includes originals like "You Got Me" and "Bittersweet" (duets penned by Kinney and accompanied by his jazz piano), "Spiral" (Elise's swing theory) and her love song to science "Natural Phenomena" (with Elise's guitar and Mick's fiddle spanning Georgia old time, Greek sirtaki, and French gypsy). Add to this a bevy of songs in a variety of languages, and a few selections where the audience becomes the glorious back up chorus, and you have a portrait of an unforgettable evening with Mick & Elise.
ELISE WITT
http://www.elisewitt.com
The producer of the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage says "Elise is a performer to remember with international savvy & personal charm." And the Georgia Council for the Arts says," Elise is a state treasure, and we are so proud to support her and her work."
Elise Witt was born in Switzerland, raised in North Carolina, and since 1977 has made her home in Atlanta. She speaks five languages fluently and sings in at least a dozen more. She has sung everywhere from New York's Carnegie Hall and Nashville's Bluebird Café to the Jinotepe Harvest Festival in Nicaragua, the Popular Music Festival in Siena Italy, and the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change. Elise was chosen to represent the state of Georgia for the Kennedy Center's 25th Anniversary, and she recently returned from a cultural exchange in South Africa.
Elise's music has been broadcast on radio and television around the world. Elise is also a composer/lyricist of note. Her song "Open the Window," inspired by a Georgia Sea Islands Spiritual, has just been published in the new Unitarian Hymnal, and has been translated into many languages. Her newest recording, LOVE BEING HERE was praised as "fabulously diverse, heartfelt, and beautiful."
Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors Festival described Elise's performance as "a really delightful concert from the honey voiced Atlanta songwriter who sings the world." In addition to performing and recording, Elise has created a reputation as a masterful singing teacher, both for adults and children, encouraging even the most shy singers to revel in their voices and join with others to create joyful choruses. Her "Singing For Fun" classes in Atlanta have become legendary and her workshops and community residencies around the country and abroad draw and inspire both professional singers and self-professed "non-singers." She is Coordinator of "Sing & Swing" week for the Swannanoa Gathering at Warren Wilson College. http://www.swangathering.org and has taught workshops and classes around the U.S. - Common Ground in Westminster MD, Virginia Tech University in Blackburg VA, The School for International Training in Brattleboro VT, Big Apple Circus Clown Care, Common Woman Chorus in Durham NC- and internationally - University of Biel Switzerland, Casa per la Pace in San Gimignano Italy, Centro de Cultur Popular in Matagalpa Nicaragua, and aboard the Universe Explorer educational ship sailing through the Panama Canal.
MICK KINNEY
http://www.efolkMusic.org
Mick Kinney calls his songs "videos for the ear." As one of his fellow musicians recently declared, "MICK KINNEY can play anything on any instrument!" In concert as well as on his new recording, NOTHING LEFT TO CHANCE, composer/lyricist Mick Kinney plays fiddle, piano, banjo, guitar, accordion, lap steel, and anything else he can get his hands on. Mick's original material is crafted for a variety of musical styles including Old Time Fiddle, Barrel House Piano, and Cajun Accordion, Swing, Bossa Nova, Ragtime, and Calypso, as well as strumming a modern ballad. Nationally, Mick has played on NPR's Mountain Stage and the Knoxville World's Fair, at the Liberty Theatre Rendez-vous des Acadiens in Louisiana, and McCabe's in Los Angeles, at New York's Fez and Kennesaw's Flea Market. Mick is also a much sought after accompanist and has played with John Hartford, Victoria Williams, Vic Chesnut, Balfa Toujours, Eddie Lejeune, and many more. NOTHING LEFT TO CHANCE was awarded the Critics' Choice Award by "Creative Loafing," and Best Unknown Artist by "Stomp and Stammer." It has been called "a Jukebox" because of its variety of musical styles and stories.
The 5th annual Georgia Wine Country Festival is June 3 & 4 at Three Sisters Vineyards & Winery in Dahlonega. For more information about the event, visit www.ThreeSistersVineyards.com
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