TED OLSEN: VIOLETTE ~Album Release Show~ with Eric Mayson

Wednesday, June 11, 2025 / Doors: 7:00 PM / Show: 7:30 PM

All Ages

Seated

This is a seated show with general admission, first-come-first-served seating. The Cedar is happy to reserve seats for patrons who require special seating accommodations. To request access accommodations, please go to our Access page.

For Cedar-presented shows, online ticket sales typically end one hour before the door time, and then, based on availability, tickets will be available at the door.

ABOUT THIS SHOW

The Cedar celebrates composer Ted Olsen and the Violette Ensemble's "Violette" - the new album of chamber works released on Shifting Paradigm Records.

About the composer, Ted Olsen

In 2020 Ted Olsen was named a McKnight Fellow by the American Composers Forum. This album culminates a prolific period of work galvanized by the fellowship.
From over 60 original works penned, Olsen has recorded three albums of original music. His 2017 début garnered critical praise from the Minneapolis Star Tribune: “The sprawling yet cohesive songcraft on Ted Olsen's new album, "Joyfire," attests to why he won an American Composers Forum award five years ago and followed it up as a finalist for the ASCAP Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composers Awards in 2015.”

Recent years have seen him traversing the country with notable performances at: Twin Cities Jazz Festival, Dakota Jazz Club, First Avenue, Eau Claire Jazz Festival in Wisconsin and beyond.

He has been fortunate to share the stage with many stellar musicians, including Michael Cain, Dayna Stephens, Javier Santiago, Tim Sparks, Aby Wolf, Eric Mayson, and Steve Kenny.

Olsen studied music at the University of Northern Colorado.

"The playing is responsive, the orchestrations vivid.
Though the emphasis is on Olsen’s writing, there’s room for the players to improvise or
otherwise shine. Raymond’s flugelhorn feature and solo on the impressionistic “To Acquiesce” is full of sunburst runs, expressive long notes, and microtonal cries. Olsen himself improvises under, over, and through the ensemble writing at the top of “Present Tense.”  - Dylan Hicks

To learn more about TED OLSEN:

• Visit his website here

About the Ensemble

The Violette Ensemble is a chamber group formed by Ted Olsen in 2021 to perform ambitious new works that combine modern jazz, contemporary classical, and songwriting influences on an equal footing. They perform instrumental pieces and songs that create space for improvisation, storytelling, beauty, dissonance, and vivid expressiveness.This is music that appeals to the listener’s emotive sensibilities as well as their curiosity.
The ensemble includes international touring artists, acclaimed jazz soloists, Grammy-nominated musicians, and members of the Minnesota Orchestra.

The album features:
Aby Wolf, Eric Mayson- vocals
Alicia McQuerry- flute
John Raymond- trumpet/flugelhorn
Paul Schimming- bass clarinet
Sarah Grimes, Ernest Bisong, Sarah Switzer, Ashley Ng- violin
Lydia Grimes, Grace Takeda- viola
Sonia Mantell- cello
Ted Olsen- double bass
Miryana Moteva, Joe Strachan, Will Kjeer- piano
Ben Ehrlich- drums
Robert S. Ragoonanan- conductor

Eric Mayson

Composer, collaborator, and multi-instrumentalist Eric Mayson has an insatiable curiosity that pulls him in many directions. He works with theatres and dance companies, bands and orchestras, and loves playing Dungeons and/or Dragons and reading history. In 2019 he began training for a new career in aviation and now works as a flight instructor in Mankato. Music, however, will always be his home.

To learn more about Eric Mayson

• Visit his Bandcamp page here

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