Here we go....

heading into a brand new year. 2017...Yikes...how did that happen....again?! Well, like it or not, we might as well celebrate, eh? So, Mark, Emma, and I will be doing just that, in musical style at Jay's Bistro on Saturday night. We'll make room for ya, so come on down! Details below, along with the rest of the musical haps....

Thanks for a wonderful 2016,
Colleen

www.colleencrosson.com
www.facebook.com/colleencrossonmusic
www.reverbnation.com/colleencrosson

Holiday Greetings!

It's been well over a month since I sent out a music newsletter. We did a fair amount of traveling in November and I've done mostly private gigs or cameo appearances since then, so haven't had much to report. I hope you are all steeped in holiday comfort and joy and not feeling too stressed about impending commitments during this sometimes hectic season! Maybe a musical respite is in order, and I have some opportunities coming right up....

This very Saturday (tomorrow!), December 17th, I'll be performing at Jay's Bistro with Mark Sloniker on piano and Jo Asker on upright bass. The trio plays from 8-11 pm, with Mark playing solo piano starting at 6 pm.

Sunday night, December 18th, it's the usual hang at Ace Gillett's with Mark and Emma Sloniker.

We've also got our intimate "Season of Peace" House Concert on December 24th, Christmas (and Hanukkah) Eve from 7-8 pm, and then a New Year's Eve Celebration at Jay's on December 31st.

All the details for these events (and more) can be found below and we hope to see you at one or more of these events. It's been another exciting year that's now coming to a close, and I am so grateful for each and every one of you. Celebrate the season well, my friends!

Love and thanks,
Colleen

www.colleencrosson.com
www.facebook.com/colleencrossonmusic
www.reverbnation.com/colleencrosson

Myles is back in town

so we've decided to do an impromptu gig with the whole family while he is here! We've been wanting to find a way to help our brothers and sisters in Haiti after the destruction left by Hurricane Matthew, especially in the southern part of the country. We heard about a wonderful organization called Partners in Health http://www.pih.org - one of the oldest, strongest, and most trusted aid organizations in Haiti. We will be donating all of the proceeeds from this concert to PIH and their efforts there. The concert will be on Monday, November 7th, from 7-8:30 pm. There will be no intermission or potluck for this one - just an hour and a half of heart felt music for a great cause. We hope you can make it and donate generously. Email colleencrosson@gmail.com or call 970-484-9600 for more info/directions.

Enjoy this upcoming Season of Gratitude. We are forever grateful for our family, friends, and fans who make this life of music-making worthwhile.

Love and thanks,
Colleen

www.colleencrosson.com
www.facebook.com/colleencrossonmusic
www.reverbnation.com/colleencrosson

Fun stuff comin' up!....

The seats are filling up for the much anticipated House Concert Reunion of "Our Mothers' Daughters" (AND their daughters!) on October 1st! Please let us know if you want to reserve a spot by emailing me at colleencrosson@gmail.com. Thanks! Here are some highlights of what to expect: Deb Whitman (our original bass vocalist) will be here from upstate NY and Erin Sullivan (another stellar group member from way early on!) will travel from MN to be here with us ("us" being Krisann Corcoran, Joanne Taylor, and me). Emma Sloniker (MY Mother's Daughter's daughter!) and Lily Govrick (Erin's Mother's Daughter's daughter!) will also join in as we continue to link the generations together in a cappella harmony style! We'll be adding instrumentation on some songs as well, and will perform a variety of covers and originals for your listening pleasure. We'll be "carrying on", for sure! Here's a sample of what your ears will be treated to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1XkGydpwcc We hope you can join us for this rare and fun event. All other details are below in the Schedule section.

This Saturday night, Septenber 24th, I'll be singing jazz, etc. with Mark Sloniker/piano and Kenny Jones/bass at Jay's Bistro starting at 8 pm.

This coming Tuesday, September 27th, Mark and I will again be providing music for the Alliance for Suicide Prevention's annual Lifesaver's Breakfast, from 7:30-9:00am at Timberline Church in Fort Collins. For more information go to http://allianceforsuicideprevention.org

Also a heads up that the Myles Sloniker Trio featuring NYC jazz instrumentalists Tuomo Uusitalo/piano, Itay Morchi/drums, and Myles Sloniker/bass will be performing a house concert on Monday, Oct. 10th at 7 pm. See schedule below for more details.

Happy autumn to everyone and enjoy the colors! As always, thanks for your support of live, local music.

Best,
Colleen

www.colleencrosson.com
www.facebook.com/colleencrossonmusic
www.reverbnation.com/colleencrosson

What a fabulous summer it's been....

and the fun and music continues as I head to Oregon tomorrow to celebrate my sister Holly's birthday by going to the Sisters Folks Festival in Sisters, OR! I hope to meet up with several music-making cohorts while there and listen to LOTS of good, good music. When I return, I've got a couple of notable gigs to tell you about - the first is at the French Nest Open Air Market on Saturday, September 17th and the next is the much anticipated house concert reunion of several members of Our Mothers' Daughters (AND their daughters!) on October 1st. Deb Whitman (our original bass vocalist) will be here from upstate NY and Erin Sullivan (another stellar group member from way early on!) will travel from MN to be here with us ("us" being Krisann Corcoran, Joanne Taylor, and me). Emma Sloniker (MY Mother's Daughter's daughter!) and Lily Govrick (Erin's Mother's Daughter's daughter!) will also join us as we continue to link the generations together in a cappella harmony style! Details are below, along with my full music schedule.

Enjoy these last waning days of summer as we head into the next glorious season of autumn!

As always, thanks for your support of live, local music.

Best,
Colleen

www.colleencrosson.com
www.facebook.com/colleencrossonmusic
www.reverbnation.com/colleencrosson

Summer continues to be joyous and full of adventure!

I hope it is for you, too! My newest passion is kayaking, and I'm getting out on the water every chance I get! In between, I've had the pleasure of coaching and teaching many enthusiastic vocal and guitar students, both young and.... "more mature" (I was about to say old, but that's not right!), and performing here and there about town. One of my other passions of late is officiating AND singing for weddings, and I am in the midst of developing a new webpage for this new and fulfilling chapter in my life and business. I just met with a wonderful couple last week who have been in a loving relationship for 20 years,and are excited to exercise their right (finally!) to marry. I am honored to help them create the perfect ceremony for this most auspicious day!

Please help me spread the word about "Songbird Celebrations", where I facilitate and officiate not only weddings, but other meaningful and significant life transitions, whatever they may be - baby blessings, memorial services and celebrations of life, new home blessings..... Ritual is an important part of life for many of us and I would love to help navigate these special times with you, your family, and friends!

My music schedule can be found below. I will be entertaining the folks at MacKenzie Place in their pub this very Friday afternoon (open to the public) and have added a couple of gigs at Grant Farms Home and Garden Store in Cheyenne, and Jay's Bistro as well.

Many of you have heard of our "Paths of Heart" Community Gatherings that Mark and I have been hosting these past 2 1/2 years. I'm including these on the schedule, too, as we always welcome new folks to join us!

More fun news - "Our Mothers' Daughters" is planning a reunion concert for October 1st! Deb Whitman (our original bass vocalist) will be here from upstate NY, and Erin Sullivan (another stellar group member from way early on!) will travel from MN to be here with us ("us" being Krisann Corcoran, Joanne Taylor, and me). Emma Sloniker (MY Mother's Daughter's daughter!) will also join us as we continue to link the generations together in a cappella harmony style! Details below....

Thanks for your support of live music and FUN! Best,
Colleen

www.colleencrosson.com
www.facebook.com/colleencrossonmusic
www.reverbnation.com/colleencrosson

This summer just keeps getting better and better!

After a fantastic trip with the family to Spain and Italy, filled with friends, beaches on the Mediterranean, music, a Sicilian wedding, castles, glorious food and wine, museums, the Tuscan and Umbrian countryside....we are back home again. A week later, and Myles is also back in Colarado with us, with a stellar drummer from Slovenia! We are having a great week of music at Jay's Bistro and will cap off their visit with a house concert on Monday, July 11th at 7:30 pm.

Here's Myles to tell you all about it:

Friends, loved ones, and Fort Collins Music fans! I’m extremely pleased to continue this ongoing series of bringing my musical comrades from NYC to Colorado this July with Žan Tetičkovič (pronounced Teh-Titch-Koh-Vitch), a drummer and composer from Ptuj, Slovenia. As with Matt Chalk, who many of you met and heard in March, Zan and I met at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music and quickly became great friends and close musical collaborators. Recently, as some of you may know, I traveled to Slovenia (and later continued on to several other countries) to premier Zan’s latest work, an 80-minute suite for 11 musicians entitled “The Port of Life”, which seeks to represent through music, the experiences of an immigrant coming to America. It’s a powerful and impressive work that fuses elements of jazz, balkan music, as well as classical and contemporary music. You can hear some of Zan’s music and more at our house concert, which we’ll be hosting at the Crosson/Sloniker Music Hall on Monday, July 11th at 7:30 PM. We’ll be playing two short sets featuring Mark Sloniker, Colleen Crosson, and Emma Sloniker, as well as some special guests TBA, with an intermission with potluck snacks and beverages . Suggested admission is $20. We hope to see you there!

So there you have it! We hope you can join us for this very special night of inspirational music.

You can read more about Žan and his recent projects (some with which Myles is involved) at https://jean-john.com.

I will also have the pleasure of singing a guest set with the Sloniker/Tetičkovič trio on Saturday night, July 9th at Jay's Bistro! My full schedule with all the details is below. I also wanted to remind you that all my recordings are now on youtube.com, so please check 'em out!

Thanks for your support of live music!
Colleen

www.colleencrosson.com
www.facebook.com/colleencrossonmusic
www.reverbnation.com/colleencrosson

I'm excited to give you more details

on my upcoming concert on Saturday, June 4th at 7:30 pm. "A Night of Inspiration: Music and Prose with Colleen Crosson and Teresa Funke" will be a totally unique concert, where author Teresa Funke and I will join our voices to breathe life into our favorite songs and writings . It'll take place at Wolverine Farm Letterpress and Publick House, 316 Willow Street, Fort Collins (just east of Bas Bleu Theatre).

Teresa will do short readings from her inspirational blog, Bursts of Brilliance for a Creative Life, and I will pair each of those writings with a song to "go deeper" into the theme. If you came to our last house concert in January, please come again! We've got all new material for this "repeat performance" which promises to be another night of inspiration, hope, motivation, love, laughter, and, with your help, a little magic!

Please share this invite with any friends you think might be interested. We'd love to pack the room with heartfelt energy! More details are below, in the Schedule section.

I continue to sing most Sunday nights at Ace Gillett's in downtown Fort Collins with Mark Sloniker on piano and Emma Sloniker on vocals. Andrew Vogt joins in every couple of weeks also! Ace is the place (but not the hardware store, in this case) for great jazz, ambiance, eclectic food and drink, and FUN. Come on down (literally - it's beneath the Armstrong Hotel) and join us, won't you?

Saturday, May 28th, I'll have my monthly (or so) appearance at Jay's Bistro with Mark Sloniker on piano.

My full schedule with all the details is below. I also wanted to remind you that all my recordings are now on youtube.com, so please check 'em out.

Thanks for your support of live music!
Colleen

www.colleencrosson.com
www.facebook.com/colleencrossonmusic
www.reverbnation.com/colleencrosson

It's been awhile....

since I sent out a music newsletter! I really haven't had that much going on, except for sitting in at Ace's on Sunday nights and a few cameo appearances at Jay's. But just like the spring bulbs, gigs are starting to pop up after their winter rest, and I'm happy to tell you what's blooming!

This Saturday night, April 9th, I'll sing a full night at Jay's Bistro (8-11 pm) with Mark Sloniker/piano and Jo Asker/bass. Sunday I'm back at Ace's as usual, singing with Emma Sloniker while Mark Sloniker tickles the ivories.

Next week I've got 2 gigs - "The Taste" at the Fort Collins Hilton on Thursday, April 14th, and "Provide" - a dinner,concert, and art auction fundraiser for FoCo Cafe at Everyday Joe's on Friday, April 15th. I'm excited to be doing some tunes with local performing songwriter Barbara Clark that night, as well as a short solo set.

Various summer concert dates are in the works, including another collaboration with author and blogger, Teresa Funke! All the details are below. I also wanted to let you know that all my recordings are now on youtube.com so please check 'em out.

Thanks for your support of live music!
Colleen

www.colleencrosson.com
www.facebook.com/colleencrossonmusic
www.reverbnation.com/colleencrosson

This just in!

I know this is a bit last minute, but you know those musician types.... :-). Our son Myles is coming into town, fresh off his European tour, and bringing an extraordinary saxophonist with him to boot! They will do a series of gigs, concerts, clinics, and private lessons while here the week of March 8-15th, and the first event will be a house concert at our place the day they arrive! Here's what Myles has to say:

"Hello all! I’m very excited to be back in The Fort and making music next week. In particular, I’m thrilled to be bringing one of my closest friends, the phenomenally gifted young saxophonist and composer Matt Chalk to Fort Collins, and featuring him at a house concert at my parents’ house on Tuesday, March 8th at 7:30 PM. We’d love to have you join us! Matt and I have been playing and collaborating, both in each others’ projects, and throughout the NYC scene since shortly after I moved to New York in late 2013. As a saxophonist, he has an utterly unique voice and exhibits that rare combination of complete individuality and technical mastery that doesn’t come around too often. I highly recommend that you hear him while he’s in town! You can read more about him and his music below (as well as watch videos of a recent performance of ours).

Our concert will be composed of two sets, the first featuring Matt and I in a "chord-less” trio with my good friend Shilo Stroman at the drums. On the second set, we will be joined by Mark Sloniker at the piano to round out the quartet. Special guests (you can probably guess who) will also join us throughout the evening. This concert will primarily feature recent compositions by Matt and me as well as less familiar compositions from Thelonious Monk and Ornette Coleman. Admittance is a suggested donation of $20. We hope to see you there!
-Myles

Matt Chalk, alto saxophonist, is a native of Kansas City, Missouri. He has been lauded by audiences and peers alike for his highly individual personality as both a performer and composer. Matt has performed at Madison Square Garden, The Grammy Awards, Smalls Jazz Club, Smoke Jazz Club, The Blue Note Jazz Club and others. He has played with the Dave Matthews Band, toured with Winard Harper, and performed with Jeremy Pelt and Stacy Dillard. He is an active member of the young NYC scene where he plays with young luminaries like Alexander Claffy, Kyle Poole, Eden Ladin, Myles Sloniker, Tuomo Uusatilo and others. Matt currently lives in Long Island City, Queens, where he teaches, composes, and paints."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9rJT9sni-Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyYRixYu1UI

So, a couple of those guests he mentioned (in case you couldn't guess) will be Emma Sloniker and me! It'll be a really special night and we expect a full house, so let us know soon if you want to come. You can reply to this post or call 970-484-9600.

I also want to mention I'll be at Jay's this Thursday night, sitting in on some tunes, and Sunday night at Ace Gillett's. Details below.

Thanks for your support of live music!
Colleen

www.colleencrosson.com
www.facebook.com/colleencrossonmusic
www.reverbnation.com/colleencrosson

In the latest episode of

"As the Music Biz Turns", I have just learned that Olivia Awbrey has had to cancel her Colorado tour, so there will be no February house concert after all. Sorry to all those who had been expressing an interest in this one! Not sure that we'll reschedule, but I DO plan to have a concert of some kind in March. More will be revealed...

While I'm here, I'll let you know that I'm swinging by Jay's tonight around 8 or so to sing some tunes with Mark Sloniker on piano and Drew Miller on bass. There are sure to be other sit-ins as well, so come on by if you're looking for a spontaneous night of music.

We will not be at Ace Gillett's this Sunday for our usual frivolity, as they are closed for the Super Bowl. Go Broncos! We will resume the following Sunday (Valentine's Day) when Andrew Vogt will also be joining the band, so bring someone you love and wine and dine to your heart's content!

Thanks for your support of live music!
Colleen

www.colleencrosson.com
www.facebook.com/colleencrossonmusic
www.reverbnation.com/colleencrosson

What a night we had....

at our house concert last Saturday! Thank you to all who attended this extraordinary evening of collaboration and creativity. Teresa Funke and I will surely be looking for other opportunities to present our sharing of spoken word and song - it was transformative for both of us as well as our audience (so we were told!). My next house concert is with Portland's femme folk-rocker and performing songwriter Olivia Awbrey on February 13th. More on that below, but first, this weekend's gigs - I'll be at Jay's Bistro this Saturday night and Ace Gillett's on Sunday night (both with my sweetie, pictured above!) . All the details are below. Lastly, I am sad to say that my house concert with Lara Jai is being postponed once more due to unforeseen circumstances. We hope to get it back on the books as soon as possible!

Thanks for your support of live music!
Colleen

www.colleencrosson.com
www.facebook.com/colleencrossonmusic
www.reverbnation.com/colleencrosson

Thought I'd give one last shout out

or our first house concert of 2016 - one with a truly unique twist! This Saturday, January 23rd, 7:30 pm, my talented friend and author, Teresa Funke and I will be joining creative forces to present an inspirational evening of story and song, words and music. Teresa will be reading selections from her insightful blog, "Bursts of Brilliance for a Creative Life" and I'll be pairing songs with each reading that compliment the theme. We are pleased to share that Emma Sloniker will also be joining us to add her wonderful vocals to the mix!

Our books and CDs will be available for sale and we'll share refreshments at intermission. All the details are below. Please note, RSVPs are required, as space is limited (and it IS starting to fill up!) You can email me or call: colleencrosson@gmail.com or 970-484-9600.

Hope you can join us for what is sure to be a delightful evening!
Colleen

www.colleencrosson.com
www.facebook.com/colleencrossonmusic
www.reverbnation.com/colleencrosson

Happy New Year!

I hope you're having a great start to it, and that it continues to be bright and filled with blessings! I'm excited about my 2016 House Concert Series ~ it's shaping up to be a once a month kind of thing! The first one has a truly unique twist ~ my talented friend and author, Teresa Funke and I will be joining creative forces to present an inspirational evening of story and song, words and music. Teresa will be reading selections from her insightful blog, "Bursts of Brilliance for a Creative Life" and I'll be pairing songs with each reading that compliment the theme. Our books and CDs will be available for sale and we'll share refreshments at intermission. All the details are below. Please note, RSVPs are required, as space is limited. You can email me or call: colleencrosson@gmail.com or 970-484-9600.

Jay's and Ace's appearances are also on the horizon for those that enjoy the club/restaurant scene. Check my website or the schedule below.

Thanks for all your support and encouragement!
Colleen

www.colleencrosson.com
www.facebook.com/colleencrossonmusic
www.reverbnation.com/colleencrosson