The Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts

25th Anniversary GSA Alumni Showcase

Harry Pickens, Zach Brock and other GSA Alumni

The Governor’s School for the Arts is a three week arts summer program provided free each year to high school students in Kentucky. Join Harry and GSA Alum Zach Brock as they rock the house and celebrate the best young Kentucky artists of the last 25 years. You never know who else might pop up on the stage! Be there and be a part of making the dreams of future generations come true. All proceeds go to fund The Kentucky Center Governor’s School for the Arts. 

Free arts activities in the lobby start at 4:00 PM.  For details check out our blog.

Harry Pickens is an internationally recognized jazz pianist who has performed in 17 countries on four continents with hundreds of legends in the jazz world, including Dizzy Gillespie, Milt Jackson, Freddie Hubbard, James Moody, and more. He is the 2009 Recipient of the Kentucky Governor’s Award For The Arts In Education, the state's highest honor in the creative and performing arts, a four-time-winner of the LEO Reader’s Choice Award for Best Jazz Musician, and Artist-In-Residence for the Kentucky Governor’s School For The Arts. A Kentucky Educational Television documentary about Harry, In The Garden Of Music, recently received a regional Emmy Award. A 2010 recipient of Leadership Louisville’s ‘Connector’ designation signifying trusted community leadership, he currently serves as Special Assistant To The Provost For New Initiatives at the University of Louisville. As a professional musician, speaker, teacher, and consultant, Harry Pickens uses the power of sound, story, and song to help individuals and organizations get 'in tune' with their greatest possibilities. His inspiring and unique performances, ‘keynote concerts’ and workshops have touched the lives of over 250,000 people over the past 25 years.

One of the most virtuosic and emotive voices of contemporary jazz violin, Zach Brock has followed a path which embraces not only jazz, but also classical, world, and popular music. From critical acclaim as a bandleader to international exposure in collaborations with Stanley Clarke, Snarky Puppy, and Phil Markowitz, Zach continues to gain admiration from both jazz purists and music enthusiasts alike. Zach's repertoire includes re-workings of songs by John Coltrane, Jimi Hendrix, and Zbigniew Seifert, in addition to an evolving catalogue of his own compositions. His forthcoming debut on Criss Cross with Aaron Goldberg, Matt Penman, and Eric Harland offers a telling glimpse of why Zach is being heralded as 'the pre-eminent improvising violinist of his generation.' (Neil Tesser, Chicago Examiner.com)

Appearance will be made by Ben Sollee.