Mark O'Connor

The Vail Series kicks off its 31st season with a virtuoso jam featuring Mark O’Connor and the O’Connor Quartet, and Dailey & Vincent bluegrass band at 7 p.m., on Wednesday, Sept. 29, at Denison University’s Swasey Chapel (200 Chapel Drive). The Vail Series may offer a limited number of tickets for sale to the general public at $15 if space allows. Details will be posted after Wednesday, Sept. 22, at vailseries.org, or call 740-587-6557.

The event is specially planned to highlight Denison University’s new academic program in bluegrass, which is offered this semester for the first time by the Department of Music. Denison is among a very few colleges in the nation to offer an academic emphasis in bluegrass.

In addition to the Vail concert, the artists will offer two master classes that are free and open to the public:

•    Open master class with Mark O’Connor and student Bluegrass Ensembles, 7 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 28, in Herrick Hall (500 West Loop)
•    Open Lecture/Demonstration with Dailey & Vincent, 3:30 p.m., Wednesday, Sept. 29, in Burke Rehearsal Hall (240 West Broadway)

“Bluegrass music is the vocabulary I use in the quartet, and it instructs the musical language of the string quartet art form,” says violinist Mark O’Connor, who has studied folk and jazz as well as classical music. He has melded and shaped these influences into a new American Classical music and a vision of an entirely American school of string playing. As the Los Angeles Times recently noted, he has “crossed over so many boundaries that his style is purely personal.”

O’Connor and his quartet will feature works from his CD, “Appalachian Waltz,” which was a collaboration with Yo-Yo Ma and Edgar Meyer, as well as other works grounded in the bluegrass tradition. “Appalachian Waltz” earned O’Connor worldwide recognition, and the tremendously successful follow-up release, “Appalachian Journey,” received a Grammy Award in 2001. In addition to other outstanding musical achievements, his full-length orchestral score, “Fiddle Concerto,” has become the most-performed modern violin concerto composed in the last 40 years.

“Mark has performed on the Vail Series twice before,” says Lorraine Wales, director of the Vail Series, “but his relationship with Denison goes back to the early 1980s and days of informal jam sessions with students. His accomplishments since then are myriad and remarkable. We’re thrilled to have him back at Denison again.”

Dailey & Vincent

The second part of the evening will feature the bluegrass band Dailey & Vincent, headlined by Jamie Dailey and Darrin Vincent. Dailey & Vincent reached number one in June 2008 on Billboard's Top Bluegrass Albums, charting in the top 10 for 40 weeks. They’ve also won numerous industry awards, including Entertainer of the Year, Vocal Group of the Year and Gospel Recorder Performance of the Year at the 2009 SPBGMA Bluegrass Awards.

“Individually, Jamie Dailey and Darrin Vincent have played and recorded with luminaries like Ricky Skaggs, Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris and Earl Scruggs,” Wales says. “Now playing and recording together, Dailey & Vincent have absolutely taken the traditional bluegrass world by storm.”

Endowed by a generous gift from the late Mary and Foster McGaw in honor of Jeanne Vail, class of 1946, the Vail Series brings to Denison the world’s premier performers, as well as new musical talents, enriching the artistic experience of the entire Denison community.  During the series’ 31 years at Denison, such extraordinary talents as Joshua Bell, Renee Fleming, Itzhak Perlman, Wynton Marsalis, Leontyne Price, Dizzy Gillespie, Emanuel Ax, Bela Fleck, Bobby McFerrin, and Yo-Yo Ma have graced the stage of Swasey Chapel.