Jazz in the Gardens 2022

Enjoy an outdoor evening concert featuring the smooth sounds of bossa nova inspired by the exhibition Grace of Monaco: Princess in Dior. 

Bossa nova emerged in Brazil in the late 1950s and spread its fusion of samba and jazz across the globe in the 1960s. Delight in the infectious swing and breezy melodies of classic bossa nova tunes amidst the greenery of Hillwood’s Lunar Lawn. 

PROGRAM TIMELINE

5:30-6:30 p.m. | Explore Hillwood

• Enjoy the mansion, gardens, greenhouse, and exhibition, Grace of Monaco: Princess in Dior on view in the Adirondack building 
• Visit the museum shop and Merriweather To Go 

6:30-7:30 p.m. | Concert on the Lunar Lawn

7:30-8 p.m. | Purchase CDs by some of tonight's performers at the museum shop

8 p.m. | Hillwood closes

HELPFUL HINTS

• Restrooms are located in the Visitor Center (where you checked in) and in the CW Post Center, accessed through the tent by Merriweather Café
• Insect repellent is available at a table near the lion sculpture at the Lunar Lawn

ABOUT THE PERFORMERS

Donna Limerick—executive producer

Donna Limerick is an award-winning documentary producer, with over 25 years' experience producing programs for National Public Radio. As President and Executive Producer of North Star Communications, a radio syndication company, she has partnered on projects with Ken Burns and Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Her television and radio productions include Quincy Jones, Nancy Wilson, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Wynton Marsalis, and other jazz masters. 

She was the Concert Producer for “Evolution of the Blues,” written by vocalist Jon Hendricks. It debuted at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1996 and then on to a worldwide tour featuring Jon Hendricks, Joe Williams, Diane Reeves, Abbey Lincoln, Kevin Mahogany, and trumpeter Roy Hargrove. She is currently a Lecturer/Consultant with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture for an exhibit about her mother Mae Reeves (1912-2016) Hat Designer and entrepreneur. Her clients included Ella Fitzgerald, Lena Horne, and Marion Anderson.

Marshall Keys—bandleader and saxophone

Marshall Keys plays the saxophone with a sense of grace and emotion that is wholly without cliché. He is a versatile musician with an expansive range, known for having a solid, soulful tone and for improvisations that begin simply before developing into elaborate, smartly constructed melodies. Keys received a National Endowment for the Arts grant and was commissioned by the Smithsonian to perform the music of Wayne Shorter. He was guest performer and lecturer at the Romare Bearden Exhibit at the National Gallery of Art. He has toured Africa and Central and South America for the State Department as a Jazz Ambassador and has played jazz festivals in the US, Germany, Ireland, Holland, Mexico, Panama, and Indonesia. Keys’s recent endeavors include playing in the Washington National Cathedral Band and collaborating with saxophonist Paul Carr in the Carr/Keys project. He has worked with many of the world’s finest musicians but finds the vibrant jazz community in Washington, D.C. to be a continuing source of inspiration and motivation. This summer marks the second year that Marshall Keys has collaborated on Jazz in the Gardens at Hillwood.
Photo by Eva Hambach.

Lena Seikaly—vocals 

Jazz vocalist Lena Seikaly is a Washington, DC area-native, and named “one of Washington’s preeminent jazz singers" and "brightest voices in jazz” (The Washington Post). She was one of eleven semi-finalists for the prestigious 2015 Thelonious Monk Institute International Jazz Vocals Competition in L.A. She is an alum of the Betty Carter Jazz Ahead program in DC, the Jazz Aspen Snowmass program directed by Christian McBride, and the Strathmore Artist-in-Residence program in Maryland. As both a bandleader and featured artist, Lena has headlined at Jazz at Lincoln Center Shanghai (China), the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Strathmore Music Center, Blues Alley, West Virginia Public Radio’s Mountain Stage, various Smithsonian venues and DC’s famed Westminster Church, as well as the Elkhart Jazz Festival (Elkhart, IN), Mel Bay Jazz Festival (St. Louis, MO), Monty Alexander Jazz Festival (Easton, MD), Chestertown Jazz Festival (Chestertown, MD), DC Jazz Festival (Washington, DC), and Center City Jazz Festival (Philadelphia, PA). She has performed alongside Byron Stripling, Christian McBride, Sean Jones, Cyrus Chestnut, Norman Simmons, Walter Blanding, Michael Feinstein, Duduka da Fonseca, and various big bands across the US.

Juan Megna—drums

Juan Megna is an Argentinian percussionist, bandleader, and educator. He started his professional career in São Paulo, Brazil, where he lived for twelve years and recorded with prestigious musicians such as Rubinho Antunes, Vinicius Dorin, Jarbas Barbosa, Felipe Silveira, Bruno Mangueira, Yantó, and Martina Marana among many others.   

In 2015, Juan started a master’s degree at the College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati. In this city, he played with Phil deGreg, Rusty Burge, and Steve Alee, among others. In 2017, Juan moved to the Washington, DC, metropolitan area. Since then, he has played with well-known jazz artists such as Wade Beach, Wayne Wilentz, and Tedd Baker, among many others. He also formed The Juan Megna Group, with a repertoire based on original tunes, blended with jazz, Argentinian and Afro-Brazilian rhythms.

As an educator, Juan Megna has lectured at Catholic University’s Rome School of Music, Drama, and Art and leads George Mason University’s Latin-American Ensemble. Juan’s performances include "The Brazilian 16th-note phrasing through Cabula rhythm, Samba, and Bossa Nova", focusing on developing Afro-Brazilian popular genres in Brazil at the Jazz Education Network conference, New Orleans 2020.

José Luiz Martins—piano

José Luiz Martins is a Brazilian pianist and composer from São Paulo, Brazil. He has been recording and performing as a sideman and as a band leader for over a decade. He studied classical piano at Escola Municipal de Música de São Paulo under the guidance of the teachers Renato Figueiredo and Marisa Lacorte and studied classical composition with Ricardo Rizek. He was awarded full scholarships in Basel, Switzerland, at Jazzcampus, and an elite merit-based scholarship at Queen’s College in New York. 

José Luiz Martins has performed at major music festivals in Brazil, such as Jazz na Fábrica (SESC Pompéia), Santos Jazz Festival, Mimo Festival (Olinda), Festival Painel Instrumental, Festival SESC Jazz and Blues, as well as many venues and festivals throughout Europe including the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Brussels, France, Latvia, Spain, Czech Republic and Switzerland. He has also played in recitals in tribute to the great Brazilian composers such as Gilberto Mendes, Osvaldo Lacerda, Alberto Nepumuceno and Camargo Guarnieri (having performed the premiere of the Preludio e Fuga of Camargo Guarnieri at Sala do Conservatório - SP). 

Since moving to the United States in 2019, he has played at festivals such as the Mid-Atlantic Jazz Festival and the Northampton Jazz Festival as well as venues all over the east coast, including DC’s Blues Alley and Baltimore’s Keystone Korner. His two albums as a band leader garnered important prizes and received amazing reviews. He is currently working to release a new album with his trio. He has also recorded and produced several albums as a sideman. 

Roberto Santos—percussion, berimbau 

Roberto Santos was born on Mother’s Day in 1956 in São Paulo, Brazil. His mother was a nurse at a public health Center and his father was a traveling performer, musician, and art enthusiast. Roberto arrived in New York City in 1978 to perform in a fashion show at the prestigious Regines night club. After the performance he was faced with a decision to go back home or to stay and try his luck in the city that never sleeps—pretty much like São Paulo, just with a different language. It didn’t take him long to hook up with musicians and build a nice resume.

As a sideman, Roberto has performed widely in New York, performing at sites such as Carnegie Hall, Beacon Theater, Lincoln Center, Sounds of Brazil (a legendary music venue in SoHo), Studio 54, the Limelight, and the Blue Note Club. In the DC area, he has performed at the Kennedy Center, Strathmore Theater, Howard Theater, Lincoln Theater, Wolf Trap, Westminster Church, and performed for Fiesta DC, the Funk Parade, Harvest Festival, Columbia Heights Day, Georgia Avenue Day, as a member of Vavá Samba School. Roberto has recorded with Theivery Corporation, Wayne Wilentz Four, and Granny and the Boys. You can catch Roberto with Granny and the Boys at Showtime bar and lounge on Rhode Island Avenue monthly.

Michael Bowie—bass

Michael Bowie is an internationally recognized musician, performing on both the electric and contrabass. With roots in the Washington DC jazz and gospel community, Michael’s musical interests and performance have expanded to include a wide variety of musical forms from jazz to symphony to rock.

He received the National Endowment of the Arts Award in Jazz Studies and trained with Betty Carter and Keter Betts. Michael signed with Verve Records as an original member of The Harper Brothers, and has performed, recorded, and toured widely, including his work with Betty Carter on the Grammy Award-winning "Look What I Got." 

As musical director he has worked Patti Labelle, James Ingram, Jeff Majors, Abbey Lincoln, Angie Stone, Isaac Hayes, and many others. He has shared the studio and stage artists including Sarah Vaughn, Joe Williams, Manhattan Transfer, Della Reece, Michel Camilo and Ricky Skaggs. He has appeared on countless television shows such as BET on Jazz, Austin City Limits, Charlie Rose, Radio One, and has performed at many major venues and festivals including Carnegie Hall and the Newport Jazz Festival.

Michael also develops children's music enrichment. He is a former teacher in Washington D.C.'s Public School system where he served Fillmore Arts Center, Deal Middle School, and Oyster Adams Bilingual Campus. He has spoken or taught at Shenandoah Conservatory, Michigan University, University of Missouri, and Bowie State. In addition, he has worked with the Wolf Trap Institute for Early Childhood Learning program in Virginia and the Thelonious Monk Institute in Washington, DC. In addition to serving as the Musical Director for the Blues Alley Youth Orchestra, he recently assumed the Bass Tech position at the Duke Ellington School For The Arts in Washington, DC. 

All photos courtesy of the performers.