442s Holiday Spectacular
Back by popular demand, The 442s are joined by some of the brightest stars of the local and national music scene in presenting their not-to-be-missed annual Holiday Spectacular! Performing traditional and original favorites that break down boundaries between jazz, soul, pop, and classical music, this concert will get you in the perfect holiday spirit!
Tickets
General Admission: $30
WashU Faculty/Staff: $25
Youth/students: $15
Tickets on sale 9/8 at 10 AM
(Washington University Box Office - 314-935-6543)
TICKETS
BEWARE OF SCAMS! Tickets purchased through the Washington University Box Office or online via AudienceView (also known as OvationTix) are the only approved tickets for this event. Purchases made through a third-party vendor such as StubHub, Ticketmaster, or MetroTix will NOT be valid for entry to the performance.
About The 442s
Combining three members of the world-class St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and three of the St. Louis region’s finest jazz musicians, The 442s are a genre-defying acoustic sextet named for the modern standard tuning of 442 Hz! Brought together by the innovative and inspired compositions of Adam Maness, who plays piano, guitar, accordion, melodica, and glockenspiel in the group, The 442s features Shawn Weil on violin, Shannon Williams on viola, Bjorn Ranheim on cello, Bob DeBoo on bass and Kaleb Kirby on drums. Formed in 2012, this unique ensemble blends virtuosic musicianship, group singing, and inventive improvisation, all while breaking down barriers between jazz, classical, folk, and pop music.
The 442s were born of a common musical inquisitiveness and a search for new and exciting musical possibilities and collaborations. This search has taken them to venues and concert series throughout the Midwest; including Powell Symphony Hall, Jazz Saint Louis, and The Sheldon Concert Hall. They have appeared as soloists with The Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra and Metropolitan Orchestra of St. Louis.
The 442s have released four albums to date; their 2014 self-titled debut album has been featured on radio stations worldwide. Relay and Home for Christmas, both released in 2016, feature collaborations with celebrated musicians from across the musical spectrum. Their newest album, Aim To Please, was released in early 2023.
The 442s have been profiled on the nationally syndicated television program, Arts America, and their music serves as the soundtrack for the 2016 Emmy Award-winning documentary film, Show Me 66: Main Street Through Missouri, which was produced by the Missouri History Museum. In the summer of 2016, The 442s were named the first-ever Artists-In-Residence at Forest Park in St. Louis and embarked on a unique public commissioning project in collaboration with the people who love and use the park. The culminating multi-media work premiered in 2016.
Adam Maness
Adam Maness is a versatile multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and composer. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Maness has performed around the globe with award-winning artists from a plethora of musical genres. His songs and compositions have been featured on several national and international recordings, television shows, and films. Adam Maness resides in St. Louis with his wife and two children.
Shawn Weil
A native of Chicago, Shawn Weil is a dynamic and sought-after violinist and musician. Upon completing undergraduate and graduate work at Indiana University, he accepted a fellowship with the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, Florida. Weil has performed throughout the U.S. and Europe in chamber music and orchestral settings. Weil has been a member of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra since 2003 and is also a member of the Sun Valley Music Festival in Idaho.
Shannon Williams
Shannon Williams has been a recovering violinist for 23 years and a member of the St. Louis Symphony viola section since 2005. She has performed with orchestras, and as a chamber musician on four continents, and as soloist with the SLSO most recently in 2021. She lives in Tower Grove South with her husband, three children, one dog, and one cat.
Bjorn Ranheim
Cellist Bjorn Ranheim, is a passionate and versatile performer. A member of the St. Louis Symphony since 2005, he is also a member of the Sun Valley Music Festival. Ranheim has performed and toured with many American orchestras and frequently collaborates with world-class musicians from across the musical spectrum as a chamber musician, recording artist, and soloist. He lives in the Shaw neighborhood of St. Louis with his wife and two daughters and their Hungarian Vizsla, Ginger.
Bob DeBoo
Bob DeBoo is one of the most active jazz bassists in the Midwest. He has performed with luminaries such as Houston Person, Terrence Blanchard, Peter Martin, David Sanborn, Geoff Keezer, Matt Wilson, Montez Coleman, Marcus Strickland, Ron Miles, and Johnny O’Neal and is a member of the ‘Adam Maness Trio’. Bob has been a guest musician with the St. Louis, Fort Worth and Charleston Symphonies and was one of the Kranzberg Arts Foundation’s “Residency Artists” in 2018. Committed to sharing the gift of music with young musicians, DeBoo has been a dedicated educator for many years, working with Jazz STL’s JazzU program, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Jazz for Young People, Peter Martin’s Open Studio Network, and has led a free weekly jam session for all ages at the Kranzberg Arts Center.
Kaleb Kirby
Kaleb Kirby is a drummer, audio engineer, and composer residing in St. Louis, MO. Kaleb majored in Jazz Performance and Composition at Berklee College of Music, and attended the Marcel DeSautels Conservatory in Winnipeg, Canada. He holds a Bachelor of Music from the University of Missouri - St. Louis. He maintains an active performance schedule around St. Louis with his own group Kleb Qntet, collaborates with other artists and works as a studio operations manager at Open Studio.
Guest Artists
Christine Brewer
Grammy Award-winning American soprano Christine Brewer's appearances in opera, concert, and recital are marked by her own unique timbre, at once warm and brilliant, combined with a vibrant personality and emotional honesty reminiscent of the great sopranos of the past. Named one of the top 20 sopranos of all time (BBC Music), her range, golden tone, boundless power, and control make her a favorite of the stage and highly sought-after recording artist.
Ms. Brewer sang a concert in Los Angeles honoring and remembering world-renowned cellist Lynn Harrell in 2021. She had performed and recorded with Harrell many times prior to his death in 2020. Their recording session of Somewhere Over the Rainbow with John Williams conducting is a moving arrangement that they recorded in the same studio where Judy Garland recorded that song in 1939. The video of that recording session is available on YouTube.
She has sung around the world in concert halls and opera houses with renowned conductors like Donald Runnicles, Zubin Mehta, David Robertson, Leonard Slatkin, Kurt Masur, and Michael Tilson Thomas. One of her favorite concert hall requests is Richard Strauss' Four Last Songs, which she has performed over 100 times in 40 different countries on five continents. She recorded those songs with the Atlanta Symphony and Donald Runnicles conducting. In 2011, Christine joined Arts and Faith in St. Louis to perform a memorial concert at The Sheldon Concert Hall, remembering the September 11 attacks and honoring those who lost their lives that day. She has continued working with Arts and Faith as they bring musicians from the St. Louis metro area together to make music together each year. The program has grown over the years, and audiences see and hear artists of all faiths performing their music and singing together in harmony.
Ms. Brewer began a program with the Marissa, Illinois 6 graders called Opera-tunities and continued the program for nearly 15 years alongside their teacher Nancy Wagner, conductor David Robertson, and members of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. She is also a visiting professor at Webster University. In April 2015, Christine joined 140 other notable celebrities receiving a bronze star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame. Christine's discography includes over 25 recordings. One of her most recent recordings Divine Redeemer on Naxos, contains selections with concert organist Paul Jacobs.
Anita Jackson
Anita Michelle Jackson is a native of St. Louis, Missouri, who returned home after living in New York City for twelve years. She is a graduate of the American Music and Dramatic Academy in New York and has performed extensively nationally and internationally in theater productions, concerts, and workshops. She has recorded and performed as a background vocalist for several artists in the music industry.
She recorded as a background vocalist for Bette Midler on her acclaimed song From a Distance which won the Grammy Award for Song of the Year in 1991; as a background vocalist for Patti Austin on I Can Move this Mountain; and for Mariah Carey on Anytime You Need a Friend. Anita has toured and performed as a background vocalist for recording artist Chico DeBarge on his Long Time, No See album, which was released in 1997. His national tour featured the artist Joe, and Erykah Badu, with whom Anita was blessed to perform and tour. She is a background vocalist on Cissy Houston's 1996 Grammy award-winning Face to Face album, which won the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Gospel Album of 1996, as well as her He Leadeth Me album, which won the Grammy Award in the same category in 1997.
As a gospel BGV, Anita has performed with Shirley Caesar, the late Albertina Walker, Dorothy Norwood, and Tramaine Hawkins. Anita was a featured vocalist on the 2014 “Reach Week in New York City” live recording for New Hope for the World Ministries, recorded in Harlem, New York, under the auspices of Rev. Terrance L. Kennedy and New Hope Community Church, which also featured national gospel artist Vickie Winans and New York’s own Melonie Daniels. With New Hope for the World Ministries, Anita has been blessed to be a featured missionary vocalist in Kampala, Uganda, and Buenos Aires, Argentina.
In St. Louis, Anita has been a featured player with the St. Louis Black Repertory Theatre. She has performed as a featured player in Gospel at Colonus, Ain't Misbehavin', Crowns, as Caroline in Caroline or Change, and as the Lady in Blues in the Night, for which she was nominated for a St. Louis Kevin Kline Award for Best Actress in a Musical. Anita performed as Bertha in "Hello from Bertha" at the inaugural Tennessee Williams festival in St. Louis under the direction of David Kaplan. She was nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama by the St. Louis Theatre Circle for her performance. She performed the role of Grandma Dorothy in the new film A New Holiday, a Christmas celebration based on the life of a young Thelma Steward, wife of Dave Steward of World Wide Technologies, directed by Brian Owens for Nine PBS. This past summer, Anita made her debut as Medda Larkin in Stages St. Louis' production of Disney's Newsies. Afterward, she was honored to portray Lena Younger/Mamma in Saint Louis University's production of A Raisin in the Sun under the direction of Kathryn Bentley.
She has appeared as a featured vocalist with several jazz, R&B, soul, blues and gospel musical groups in and around St. Louis at venues such as Jazz, St. Louis (formally Jazz at the Bistro) to BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups to the St. Louis Ethical Society to the Heman Park Starlight Concert Series to the Sheldon Concert Hall - as a solo artist, as well as a collaborative artist with many of St. Louis’ finest musicians and groups.
Anita accepted a fellowship as a resident artist with the Kranzberg Arts Foundation (KAF) as a featured jazz performance and recording artist in 2018, releasing a jazz compilation EP with her fellow KAF artists-in-residence from the Dark Room series at the Grandel with her own original composition called “Your Time” written with Phillip Graves, Joshua Crump, and Jeff Taylor.
On March 29, 2024, she released her first solo jazz album, Life is Beautiful, in honor of dear family and friends lost during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Anita gives thanks to the family of Christ and praises God for HIS matchless goodness and mercy.
She dedicates all her performances to her late mom, Barbara Marie Jackson; her late aunts, Marian Ashford and Jackie Broom; and to her beautiful daughter, Christian Reignah-Lee for giving her so much strength.
Peter Martin
Peter Martin is an acclaimed jazz pianist, composer, arranger, educator, and founder of Open Studio.
His touring career has taken him to six continents numerous times, and he has played in the White House by invitation from President Obama several times.
Peter Martin performed on and arranged Dianne Reeves’ Grammy-winning release A Little Moonlight and appeared in George Clooney’s 2005 film Good Night, and Good Luck, as well as being the featured pianist and an arranger on the Grammy-winning soundtrack. Peter has also performed, toured, and recorded with Wynton Marsalis, Chris Botti, Betty Carter, Christian McBride, and Joshua Redman, as well as the Berlin Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic.
Peter attended the Juilliard School of Music and has been on the faculties of Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, Northwestern University, Tulane University, the University of New Orleans, and New Orleans Center for Creative Arts. He has performed workshops and master classes at institutions worldwide, including Oberlin College, Duke University, the Carnegie Hall Professional Training Workshops, Steinway Piano Gallery, the Rotterdam Conservatory, and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music in Glasgow.
In 2015, after launching a successful educational video podcast, 2-Minute Jazz, Martin founded a revolutionary jazz educational web platform, Open Studio, where students from over 140 countries are part of an active community and are continuing to learn from Martin, Dianne Reeves, Fred Hersch, Christian McBride, Greg Hutchinson, Romero Lubambo, and other artists.
Peter co-hosts a chart-topping podcast, You’ll Hear It.
Brian Owens
Brian Owens is a renowned soul artist, producer, and community advocate based in St. Louis, Missouri. He gained international recognition when a heartwarming video of him singing Sam Cooke’s A Change Is Gonna Come with his father went viral, amassing millions of views. This touching father-son duet showcased Owens' deep connection to classic soul music and his passion for using music as a bridge between generations.
As a soul artist, Owens has collaborated with legendary musicians, including Grammy Award-winning artist Michael McDonald. Their work together has cemented Owens' reputation as a soulful, authentic voice in the music industry, blending old-school R&B with contemporary sensibilities.
Beyond music, Owens is deeply involved in creative production and community-focused initiatives. He is the Executive Producer of *Pray For Pac*, a surrealist dramedy series set in St. Louis, and leads BOS Media Group, a production company that has worked with prestigious clients like PBS and Jazz STL. As the founder of Life Creative STL, Owens fosters creative talent and development within the community. Through his various projects, Brian Owens continues to make a profound impact, blending artistry with advocacy and always staying rooted in the power of storytelling and soul.
Denise Thimes
After describing her brilliant voice as a perfect mix of Nancy, Sassy, and Lady Day, it came only naturally that the late legendary jazz trumpeter Clark Terry would, at New York’s historical Flushing Town Hall, select Denise Thimes as that night’s featured vocalist.
This truly unique and inspirational artist is often asked by fellow noteworthy musicians “why haven’t we heard of you”? Not to worry. With a voice as noticeably (as Terry puts it) “ranks with all of the greats,” it won’t be long.
Over the course of a multi-faceted career spanning just a little under 3 decades, Thimes is no stranger to the music world, growing up in a home surrounded by all types of music from her father & radio icon, the late Lou “Fatha” Thimes.
Thimes has performed with such jazz notables as Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, (St. Louis, MO,) the late Clark Terry(The Blue Note-NY), Dr. Billy Taylor, Earl May, Benny Powell, (Flushing Town Hall), and James Moody(Blue Note-NY). She has also graced the stage with the likes of Houston Person, Jimmy&Tootie Heath, Bobby McFerrin, and Bucky Pizzarelli.
In recent years she has appeared and toured Paris with David Sanborn, sung for the Queen of Thailand (Mandarin Oriental Hotel), Queen Elizabeth II (British Embassy-Washington D.C. (during her 2009 visit to the U.S), President George W. Bush (White House 2007), and was hand picked by the Queen of Soul (Aretha Franklin) to perform for her 72nd birthday celebration (2015-Ritz Carlton, NY).
Most say that her acting is just as great as her singing, and founding director Ron Himes of the St. Louis Black Repertory would agree. Thimes has received 8 Woodie Awards( named after Freedom Theatre Founder-Woody King-NY) for her roles as lead and supporting for acting, and musical performances.
Although a native of St Louis, MO, Thimes, has recently become a resident of Chicago IL, where she can be seen at Winter’s jazz club downtown Chicago.
When Denise is not performing, Thimes wears another hat and is equally passionate as Founder & Executive Director of the Mildred Thimes Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research.(named after Thimes' mother). Thimes continues to appeal for more education and awareness for this fatal disease that struck her mother in 1997.
Thimes has truly been one of the cherished voices of modern jazz.
Whether headlining at Dizzy’s Coca Cola Room in New York, or conquering the national jazz festival scene, or sharing the stage with the legendary Tony Bennett, Denise Thimes has an unmistakable tendency to steal the show and astonish crowds of every size and background. As jazz aficionado Phoebe Jacobs stated following another famed New York show, “Denise Thimes is like Ella and Sarah born all over again.” It’s time for you to experience Denise Thimes.