main biographies performances capers on classical 89 www.valcapmusic.com other links

Valerie Capers:

Valerie Capers was born in New York City and received her early schooling at the New York Institute for the Education of the Blind. She went on to obtain both her Bachelor's and Master's degrees from the Juilliard School of Music.

Three of Dr. Capers' most noted extended compositions are Sing About Love, the critically acclaimed Christmas cantata produced by George Wein at Carnegie Hall; Sojourner, an operatorio based on the life of Sojourner Truth, performed and staged by the Opera Ebony Company of New York; and Song of the Season, a song cycle for voice, piano and cello that was premiered in Washington, D.C., at the invitation of the Smithsonian Institute, and recently performed at Weill Recital Hall in New York City.

Dr. Capers has appeared with her trio and ensemble at colleges, universities, jazz festivals, clubs and concert halls throughout the country, including a series at Weill Recital Hall and the 2001 Rendez-vous de l'Erdre in Nantes, France. Her trio's performances at the International Grande Parade du Jazz Festival in The Hague received rave reviews. The group has also participated in the Monterey Jazz Festival, the Mellon Jazz Festival, and New York's Kool, JVC and Downtown jazz festivals. As a jazz artist, she is most often heard in New York City at the Knickerbocker in Greenwich Village. As a classical soloist, she has also performed Mozart's Concerto for Piano & Orchestra, No. 23 at the Pepperdine University Center for the Atts in Malibu, California.

Throughout her career, Dr. Capers has appeared on numerous radio and television programs, including Marian McPartlands' Piano Jazz and Branford Marsalis' JazzSet. And Adventures of Wagner in Jazz, a special program created by Provo, Utah's KBYU-FM -- all on National Public Radio. She has also performed with a roster of outstanding artists, such as Dizzy Gillespie, Wynton Marsalis, Ray Brown, Mongo Santamaria, Tito Puente, Slide Hampton, Max Roach, James Moody and Paquito D'Rivera, among others.

Dr. Capers has recorded five albums: Portrait of Soul (Atlantic, 1967), Affirmation (KMA Arts, 1982), Come On Home (Columbia/Sony, 1995), Wagner Takes the A Train (Elysium, 1999), and her most recent, Limited Edition (VALCAP Records, 2001). Her book of intermediate-level piano pieces, Portraits in Jazz, was published by Oxford University Press in 2000.

John Robinson:

Bass player, John Robinson, is an alumnus of the High School of Music and Art in New York City and is a graduate of Bronx Community College of the City University of New York, where he served on the music faculty. In addition to his busy performance schedule as a jazz, Latin, and classical bassist, Mr. Robinson plays cello and recorder and is a composer, copyist, and arranger. He has recorded with the artists Angel Canales, Dakota Staton, Abby Lincoln, Valerie Capers, and others. He has appeared on radio and television and in live concerts all over the world with Jose Alberto, Celia Cruz, Dizzy Gillespie, Tito Puente, Ray Baretto, Wynton Marsalis, and Max Roach, to mention a few. The multi-talented John Robinson is a permanent member of the Valerie Capers Trio and Ensemble.

Q'd Up

Q'd Up have an album released by Tantra Records. Click here to view.