Jazz trio will perform March 4 as part of the Chamber Music and Jazz at Ripon series

The Mary Louise Knutson Trio will perform Friday, March 4, at Ripon College as part of the Chamber Music and Jazz at Ripon series. The concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Demmer Recital Hall, C.J. Rodman Center for the Arts.

The trio will present a concert of jazz works. Knutson also will lead an open masterclass with the Ripon College Jazz Ensemble under the direction of Professor Paul Dietrich at 4:15 p.m. that afternoon. Because of generous donations from Ripon’s Friends of the Arts, events in the Chamber Music and Jazz at Ripon Series are free and open to the public. At this time, Ripon College requires that masks be worn for all indoor gatherings.

Knutson, a jazz pianist-composer, has been called “one of the most exciting artists to happen to jazz piano in quite some time.” Her warm, inviting tone, broad range of emotional expression, and distinctive compositions have brought her much recognition on the national music scene.

The music of the Mary Louise Knutson Trio has been described by JazzTimes as “state-of-the-art piano trio finery” and by the Star Tribune of Minneapolis/St. Paul as “timeless, classic piano trio music, right up there with Bill Evans and Bill Charlap.”

Knutson regularly performs in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area with her trio at clubs, festivals, concert halls and private events; also with vocalists Connie Evingson, Patty Peterson of Jazz Women AllStars, and instrumental groups including the JazzMN Orchestra and the Minnesota Orchestra.

From 2010-2018, she toured with trumpeter Doc Severinsen, former bandleader for “The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson,” and also has performed with such jazz greats as Dizzy Gillespie, Bobby McFerrin, Dianne Reeves, Kevin Mahogany, Ernie Watts, Randy Brecker, Mike Stern, Nicholas Payton and Slide Hampton.

Knutson’s latest CD, “In the Bubble,” made JazzWeek’s Top 10 and stayed in the Top 50 for 19 consecutive weeks. In 2006, she was a Minnesota Music Awards nominee for both Jazz Artist of the Year and Pianist of the Year, and in 2005, she was a finalist in the Kennedy Center’s “Women in Jazz” International Pianist Competition.

More information is available at her website.