Black History Month cabaret presents rising star, fetes Senate leader
PRESS RELEASE
Contact:
Larry Luttinger
315-479-5299
Black History Month cabaret presents rising star, fetes Senate leader
Andrea Stewart-Cousins to receive Pioneer Public Service Award
Syracuse NY – CNY Jazz will celebrate Black History Month at their annual cabaret by bringing not one but two pioneers to the occasion. Rising superstar Endea Owens will perform with “The Cookout”, her six-piece band, and New York State Senate President and Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins will receive the Pioneer Public Service Award, presented by Mike Atkins of H.E.I.Y.P. (Helping Empower Incarcerated Youth Program). Mike Houston and Sam Wynn will entertain in the Cavalier Room before and after the cabaret.
Brackens Financial Solutions Network sponsors the event for the 16th year, with additional support from National Grid, Wegmans, Oneida Nation/Turning Stone Enterprises, WAER, Visions Federal Credit Union, and others. CNY Jazz supporters Bill and Nancy Byrne provide the complimentary buffet for the event. Endea Owens appearance is also supported by a grant from The Audience Building Project of the New York State Council on the Arts.
Only five years out of Juilliard, Endea Owens visits millions of households every weeknight as a member of Stephen Colbert’s Late Show Band. She is already the winner of an Emmy, Grammy, and Peabody Award. Her work has appeared on Jon Batiste’s Grammy-winning album “We Are” and Oscar-nominated film Judas and the Black Messiah. As a philanthropist, Endea founded the Community Cookout, a non-profit that provides meals and music to underserved neighborhoods in New York City. She has composed for the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and the Cincinnati Orchestra and is a “Jazz is Now!” fellow of the National Jazz Museum in Harlem as a presenter, curator, and performer.
Andrea Stewart-Cousins is a groundbreaking pioneer in the public sector. In just her first year as Senate Majority Leader, she led the most productive legislative session in state history. In 2012, she became the first woman and African American woman to lead a New York State legislative conference. In 2019, she shattered the glass ceiling when her peers elected her as President Pro Tempore and Majority Leader of the New York State Senate.
“This event continues to anchor the cultural aspect of Black History for Syracuse, and I’m eternally grateful to all of our supporters”, said Larry Luttinger, CNY Jazz founder. “Our guest artist and award recipient exemplify the courage and determination it takes to achieve ultimate success. I’m humbled to even be in their presence at this exciting musical and social event.”
If You Go
What: CNY Jazz Black History Month Cabaret
Where: Finger Lakes Ballroom, Marriott Syracuse Downtown
When: 4 p.m.
Cost: $35 advance, $40 door at https://www.cnyjazz.org/
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Endea Owens
Andrea Stewart-Cousins
About CNY Jazz
CNY Jazz Central, upstate New York’s largest year-round provider of jazz and American music in public and in schools, annually presents more than 150 events to a total annual audience of 50,000. They include festivals, concerts, and shows including the Northeast Jazz & Wine Fest and Jazz in the City; the CNY Jazz Cabaret Series, a busy arts-in-education service, shows at downtown’s Jazz Central theater, the SummerJazz Workshop, Interscholastic Jazz Festival, the CNY Jazz Orchestra and Youth Orchestra, the Jazz at Timber Banks and Jazz at the Sherwood dining series, Syracuse Stage Opening Night Cabarets, and other events throughout the extended region, including shows of all kinds at their Jazz Central theater in downtown Syracuse. More information at www.cnyjazz.org, www.cnyjazzinthecity.org, and www.nejazzwinefest.org