Nicole Mitchell and Black Earth Ensemble

On Friday February 21st, at 8:00 pm, The Charlottesville Jazz Society, Unity of Charlottesville, The Uva Music Department and WTJU present flutist Nicole Mitchell with her Black Earth Ensemble in a free concert in honor of Black History Month, at Unity of Charlottesville church on Hydraulic Road.

Nicole Mitchell is an award-winning creative flutist, conceptualist and composer. Utilizing her art to build alternative worlds that "bridge the familiar with the unknown," Mitchell emerged from Chicago's innovative music scene in the late 90s. She was the first woman to serve as president of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. She has been the recipient of the Guggenheim fellowship, the United States Artist Award and the American Academy of Arts and Letters award. Mitchell is a professor in Composition and Computer Technology at the University of Virginia.

For this concert, Nicole Mitchell's Black Earth Ensemble will premiere Portraits of Sonic Freedom, which celebrates creative music and its contributions to jazz, the Black intellectual tradition, and the expansion of human consciousness.

Black Earth Ensemble (BEE) is a musical celebration of the African American cultural legacy. Founded in 1998 by creative flutist, composer and UVA professor, Nicole Mitchell, BEE has performed at festivals and art venues throughout Europe, Canada and the U.S. Black Earth Ensemble, named in honor of Mama Earth and Mama Afrika, embraces the ancient past and paints visions of a positive future with the purpose of inspiring the human spirit with thought-provoking beauty. BEE's music is the weaving of swing, blues, avant-garde jazz, bebop, African rhythms, Eastern modes and Western classical sounds. With Black Earth Ensemble, Mitchell has recorded over ten critically acclaimed projects including Xenogenesis Suite: A Tribute to Octavia Butler, Mandorla Awakening II, Liberation Narratives (with Haki R. Madhubuti) and Bamako Chicago Sound System.

Entry to this one-of-a-kind concert is available at no cost to the public, but please register for free at CJS.Ticketbud.com so we have an idea how many people to expect. Unity of Charlottesville is located at 2825 Hydraulic Road. For more information visit cvillejazz.org, or call 434-249-6191.