Unplugged

Unplugged in the MAC Gallery
Matt Richard & Daniel Ian Smith

Friday, March 1
First Seating: 7:00pm
Second Seating: 8:15pm

Tickets for one seating (approx. 45 minute per set)
$12 MAC members | $15 nonmembers
Limited tickets! 25 people per seating – advanced reservations strongly recommended

Want early access to tickets? Join as a member here!

Join us upstairs in the MAC’s Patsy Francis Gallery for an evening of unplugged music featuring Matt Richard and Daniel Ian Smith!

There will be two separate performances during the night, and each set will last about 45 minutes. Find a spot at a cabaret table to listen to a mix of jazz standards and original compositions by both artists. Guests will enjoy a refreshing setting at this “unplugged” performance featuring mainly acoustic sound, without the volume and density often experienced during larger concerts in the MAC Theater. Guests may bring their own beverages and snacks to enjoy in this intimate setting.

Matt Richard studied classical piano with Ken Manzer and jazz piano with Dr. Billy Taylor. Workshops and performance master classes included jazz legends Max Roach, Marian McPartland, and Michael Brecker. A native of and current resident of Fairhaven and a graduate of Westfield State College with a degree in piano performance, Matt taught choral music at both Fairhaven High School and at Tabor Academy in Marion from 1988-1997. Matt was a vocal coach and accompanist for the nationally recognized Jazz In July Workshops at UMASS, Amherst from 1985-2006 and he also directed the UMASS/Dartmouth jazz vocal ensemble in 2010/2011.

Matt has performed throughout the New England area for the past forty years as a soloist, an accompanist, and with many different ensembles including jazz vocal legend Sheila Jordan, Dick Johnson and The Artie Shaw Orchestra, Bombay Jim Porcella and The Swingin’ Sapphires, Fred Tillis, Emil Haddad, Lou Columbo, Gray Sargent, Nnena Freelon, Marshall Wood, Bruce Gertz, Dave Zinno, Greg Hopkins, Jim Robitaille, Lisa Thorson, Semenya McCord, and Marcelle Gauvin. Matt played solo piano at The Roadhouse Cafe in Hyannis, Massachusetts from 1997-2008 as well as joining with Lou Colombo and Dick Johnson on the famous Monday Night Jazz Series beginning in 2002.

Matt’s self-produced recording projects  began in 199 with “Hawthorne Street Connection” featuring Jim Robitaille, Chris Poudrier, Mark Holovnia, Dave Zinno, and Marshall Wood.   Additional recording projects include: a piano/guitar duo CD, “The Art of the Duo”, with Robitaille, a supporting role on Robitaille’s CD, “To Music”, which features saxophonist Dave Liebman, a solo jazz piano recording, “Talking To Myself”, “OFF SEASON” with Gary Johnson and Zinno, “In The Sky”, a collection of original duets with the late saxophonist Rick Britto, “The Music of Rick Britto” (a tribute) with Dino Govoni, Marcelle Gauvin, Danny Schwartz, Robitaille, Poiudrier, and Zinno, “The Jazz Club” with Greg Conroy and Jerry Wilfong, classical projects “Winter Peace”, “Christmas Love”, and “The Lone Wild Bird”, and recently,  “All The Colors” with Bryan Steele,, Phil Sanborn, Mike Rocha, Poudrier and Zinno in 2023.

Daniel Ian Smith is a saxophonist, flutist, educator and composer with over 30 years of experience. He is a Professor at the acclaimed Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA where he has taught for almost 30 years. Smith is in demand as a clinician, guest soloist, and lecturer with appearances throughout the United States, Japan, Germany, Canada, Mexico, Israel and England. In 1992, he founded Big and Phat Jazz Productions to serve as the production company for his Jazz in the Sanctuary Concert Series, an independent record label Big and Phat Jazz Productions, and his ensembles and touring projects. The recordings and performances by his ensemble The New World Jazz Composers Octet (NWJCO) have received rave reviews in DownBeat, JazzTimes, Cadence, ArtsFuse and All About Jazz magazines. His groups The New World Jazz Composers Octet, and The Latin Side of Billy Strayhorn have been featured at festivals and concert halls locally and internationally.

Smith has recorded and been featured on over 30 albums. Performances/Recordings with Michael Abene, Sergio Brandao, Jack Walrath, Maria Schneider, Arturo Sandoval, Boston Philharmonic, Rhode Island Philharmonic, Ronen Shmueli, Akikazu Nakamura, Jyoji Sawada, Claudio Roditi, Dave Samuels, Mark Walker, Pablo Ablanedo, The Temptations, Johnny Mathis, Patti Lupone, Michelle Rosewoman, Bill Mobley, Clark Tracey, Steve Berry, The Jazz Composers Alliance Orchestra, Marty Ehrlich, Ron Carter, Herb Pomeroy, Aardvark Jazz Orchestra and many others. Most recently he has been featured on widely acclaimed recordings with: Fernando Brandao, The Pablo Ablanedo Octet, The Jazz Composers Alliance Orchestra, Brian McCarthy and the Better Angels of Our Nature and Ron Reid and Sunsteel. Look for new recordings in 2020 by his New World Jazz Composers Octet, The Latin Side of Billy Strayhorn, and as a featured sideman with The Fernando Huergo Big Band, Pablo Ablanedo, Brian McCarthy and others.