Three-Time Grammy Award Winner Bruce Hornsby Joins the 2011-2012 Guest Artist Season at the Adelphi University Performing Arts Center

William Prenevost, Executive Director of the Adelphi University Performing Arts Center announced today the addition of recording artist, singer/songwriter and pianist Bruce Hornsby to its 2011-12 Guest Artist Season. The solo performance will be on Friday, February 10, 2012, at 8:00 p.m. in the AU PAC Concert Hall. Tickets are available now by subscription to the AU PAC 2011-12 Guest Artist Season. (Single tickets go on sale August 30.)

“We are delighted to have Bruce Hornsby featured in our Spotlight Series. He is an award-winning artist (three Grammy Awards with 13 nominations) who exemplifies the essence of this new series as a composer and a performer. He is a multigenre improvisational artist, known for the spontaneity and creativity of his live performances, Hornsby’s breadth includes classical, jazz, bluegrass, folk, Motown, rock, and blues. This will be one of his revered solo shows, only in this concert he will perform on our superb, handmade Fazioli concert grand piano from Italy. Indeed, it will be a very special event.”

Commenting on his intensive solo performances, Hornsby has said that they have helped him “recommit to the study of piano” and “take [his] playing to a whole new level,” explorations and improvisations that would not be possible in a band setting.

Bruce Hornsby’s work continues to display the same creative iconoclasm that’s been a constant in the artist’s two-and-a-half decade recording career. His commercial stock soared early on, when “The Way It Is”—the title track of Bruce Hornsby and the Range’s 1986 debut album—became the most-played song on American radio in 1987, winning ASCAP’s Song of the Year award. “The Way It Is” and such subsequent hits as “Mandolin Rain” and “Every Little Kiss,” established Hornsby as popular pop act, while high-profile work with the likes of Don Henley, and Huey Lewis made him an in-demand collaborator.

“I guess I’m a bit of a musical proselytizer,” says Hornsby. “I’m always hoping to turn the audience on to more adventurous music and music that’s below the mainstream radar. I know that that may seem too pretentious to the rock and pop world. But for me it’s all just beautiful music, and people seem willing to come along with me on the journey.”

Despite his early successes, Hornsby chose to pursue a more personal, idiosyncratic musical path, focusing on projects that sparked his creative interest and musical progress. His eclectic musical interests have been reflected in a wide array of recording projects. Over the years, Hornsby has successfully ventured into jazz, classical, bluegrass and even electronica, as reflected by such acclaimed recent releases as the bluegrass project Ricky Skaggs and Bruce Hornsby and the jazz trio album Camp Meeting, with Jack deJohnette and Christian McBride. The prestigious list of Hornsby collaborators now includes such diverse figures as Ornette Coleman, Bob Dylan, Bela Fleck, Charlie Haden, Bonnie Raitt, Elton John, Branford Marsalis, Pat Metheny, Robbie Robertson, Leon Russell, Chaka Khan, Wayne Shorter, Squeeze, Tupac Shakur and Sting.

The AU PAC Concert Hall is Long Island’s finest venue of its kind, a beautiful and acoustically superior 500-seat performance space on the Garden City campus of Adelphi University.

Select your own season subscriptions are now available in 3-4 or 5+ event packages with savings of 10% or 30% respectively. To order call 516.877.4000 or visit pac.adelphi.edu.