Rotary Centre for the Arts presents

ANDY MILNE AND UNISON

For over 30 years, award-winning pianist and composer Andy Milne has demonstrated remarkable versatility, collaborating with dancers, visual artists, poets, and musicians across genres. With UNISON, Milne returns to his first love, the piano trio, exploring intimacy, texture, and groove. He has developed a strong musical bond with bassist John Hébert since 2010, now rounded out by drummer Clarence Penn. Their debut, The reMission (Sunnyside Records), won the 2021 JUNO Award for Jazz Album of the Year: Group. Their latest album, Time Will Tell, continues this evolution and was nominated for the same award in 2024.

A former student of Oscar Peterson, Milne is a respected force in New York’s creative jazz scene. He’s collaborated with artists like Ravi Coltrane, Bruce Cockburn, and Cassandra Wilson, and was a core member of Steve Coleman’s M-BASE Collective. Milne also composes for classical ensembles and screen, scoring projects such as Black Life: Untold Stories and several films by William Shatner. In 2024, he premiered a piano quintet with the Isidore String Quartet, commissioned by the Banff International String Quartet Competition. Milne is a Yamaha Artist and serves as Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Michigan.

John Hébert, originally from New Orleans, has been a highly sought-after New York bassist since the mid-1990s. A former student of Rufus Reid, Hébert has collaborated extensively with pianists Fred Hersch and Andrew Hill, appearing on celebrated recordings from each pianist. He has also performed with Lee Konitz, Paul Bley, John Abercrombie, Kenny Wheeler, Paul Motian, Uri Caine, Bill Stewart, Mary Halvorson, Tomasz Stanko, David Liebman, and Toots Thielemans, among many others.

Drummer Kush Abadey has cultivated an eclectic and fast-moving career, known for his versatility across jazz, rock, and electronica. At age 16, he joined the band of Grammy Award-winning trumpeter Wallace Roney, and has since performed with leading artists including Ravi Coltrane, Chris Potter, Melissa Aldana, Cecile McLorin Salvant, Nicholas Payton, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Wynton Marsalis, Buster Williams, and more.

“The emotionally complex album that came out of that session owes much to the single-minded focus of the three players as they moved fluently through Milne’s dynamic compositions.” Downbeat Magazine

Pricing

Regular: $50.00 ($41.65 + $2.10 CIF + $6.25 Service Fee)
30 under 30: $36.31 ($29.75 + $2.10 CIF + $4.46 Service Fee)

All above prices include GST.

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Mary Irwin Theatre at the Rotary Centre for the Arts event tickets include a $2.10 Capital Improvement Fee (CIF). A service fee is added for box office costs, card processing, and taxes. Andy Milne and UNISON tickets and their applicable fees are non-refundable.