Snyder, Williams to perform jazz today at Gobin

Tuesday, June 4, 2019
Pianist Steve Snyder will be accompanied by guitarist Sandy Williams as they perform jazz standards Wednesday during the weekly installment of the Greencastle Music Festival.
Courtesy Jiawei Fang

The Greencastle Summer Music Festival continues its series of free Wednesday concerts in Gobin Memorial United Methodist Church this week at 7:30 p.m. with “An Evening of Jazz,” featuring pianist/organist Steve Snyder and guitarist Sandy Williams, both active professional performers who also teach at the DePauw School of Music.

They will showcase various jazz standards and pop pieces from the ’60s and ’70s.

“The evening will have a feel similar to the Bill Evans and Jim Hall duets from the albums ‘Undercurrent’ and ‘Intermodulation,’” Snyder explained.

The festival is supported by donations from individuals, businesses, including the Inn at DePauw (host for out-of-town performers) and Bridges Craft Pizza and Wine Bar (providing intermission refreshments), an endowment at the Putnam County Community Foundation and a grant from the Putnam County Convention and Visitors Bureau.

“It’s great to see our audiences growing -- there were well over 100 people at each of our first two concerts,” festival founding artistic director Eric Edberg said. “Our fundraising is way ahead of where we were at this point last year, as is volunteer participation. The treats from Bridges are a great addition to the celebratory aspect of out evenings. Given all this involvement, we might want to expand our motto to ‘Friends presenting friends making music for friends.’

“It’s great that our first concerts are featuring professional musicians from Putnam County,” Edberg continued. “Sandy Williams grew up right here in Greencastle, and Steve Snyder not only teaches at DePauw, but also lives here in Greencastle with his wife and family, is part of the music ministry at Gobin and is very active in the community. Next week we’ll present pianist/composer/improviser Cathie Malach, a new Greencastle resident, along with a number of other local musicians.”

Steve Snyder is a pianist and organist who maintains an active playing schedule locally, nationally and internationally. He has performed in France, Portugal, Brazil, Sweden, Taiwan, throughout the U.S. and Canada.

Performance credits include having played with artists such as Randy Brecker, Jerry Bergonzi, Victor Goines, Landau Eugene Murphy Jr., Dick Sisto, Eric Alexander, Brad Goode, Robben Ford, Chris Maresh and many others.

The Austin Chronicle has called Snyder’s work “superb.” Seemagazine.com has said, “Incredible solos ... particularly from the not-so-surprisingly sensational Steven Snyder.”

Guitarist Sandy Williams has been a fixture on the Indiana music scene for several decades. Live performance credits span with Idina Menzel, John Waters, Liza Mennelli, Marvin Hamlisch, alt-country rocker Steve Earle, Michael Feinstein’s live PBS special, the Steve Allee Big Band, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra. He has performed in the pit orchestra for touring Broadway shows, including “The Lion King,” “Chicago” and “Legally Blonde.”

As a studio musician, his credits include the Rounder Records box-set (with Carrie Newcomer), jazz arranger John Clayton, John Mellencamp’s movie soundtrack “Falling From Grace” (with Larry Crane), Hal Leonard’s Essential Elements series, hundreds of jingles and gospel singers Sandi Patti and Bill Gaither.

Williams is the author of “Live Sound For Guitar” (pub. Cengage Learning) and a technical editor for many of the Guitar for Dummies series.

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