Chamber orchestra Palaver Strings Titilayo Ayangade photo

WATERVILLE — Chamber orchestra Palaver Strings will present “Songbook” at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 5, at The Gordon Center, Colby College, 400 Mayflower Hill Drive.

“Songbook” is a collaborative program featuring acclaimed jazz vocalist Vuyo (Vuyolwethu) Sotashe and Grammy-nominated jazz pianist Chris Patishall.

It celebrates the rich musical diversity of Sotashe’s home country of South Africa, and explores connections between American jazz, South African folk traditions and European classical music. Music will include traditional folk songs in Zulu, Sepedi, and Xhosa, classical works by Bongani Ndodana-Breen, Michale Moreane, and Bheki Mseleku, and originals by Vuyo Sotashe, in fresh arrangements for vocals, piano, and strings, according to a news release from Haley Maiden with Palaver Strings.

Palaver Strings is a Grammy-nominated, musician-led string ensemble and nonprofit organization based in Portland.

Pattishall is a pianist and composer known for his stylistic breadth, sense of detail, and surrealist inclinations. His debut album “Zodiac” was called “a startling achievement” by the New York Times. He is a featured performer on a number of film scores, including “Everything Everywhere All At Once” and “Knives Out,” and he co-composed the score to “Going To Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project,” which won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival.

Sotashe is an award-winning New York-based jazz vocalist and composer, originally from the Eastern Cape of South Africa. Since moving to the United States as a Fulbright Scholar, Sotashe has performed with jazz legends including Wynton Marsalis, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Jimmy Heath, Al Jarreau and Winard Harper. He has appeared at Montreux Jazz Festival, Monterey Jazz Festival, and Newport Jazz Fest, and was the first male vocalist to place in the finals of the Thelonious Monk Institute competition.

The concert is free. For more information and to reserve seats, visit arts.colby.edu.

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