The Shedd Institute welcomes jazz clarinetist extraordinaire back to Jaqua Concert Hall, along with New Orleans piano stylist David Torkanowsky. Christopher has been based in New Orleans for 25 years tirelessly championing and exploring that city's unique clarinet style. With under-stated virtuosity, immaculate taste, and enthusiasm, he has created his own brand of “contemporary, early jazz” that strives to extend the legacies of early Creole clarinetists such as Sidney Bechet, Barney Bigard and Omer Simeon. To this end, critics such as Nat Hentoff (Jazz Times) have praised his efforts remarking, "in his own deeply personal appreciation of these forebears, he is indeed demonstrating that this New Orleans tradition is still very much alive."
New Orleans premier piano stylists, David Torkanowsky is in constant demand for his life-long dedication to the indigenous music traditions of that city and his fluency and fluidity in those idioms, Torkanowsky is nothing less than a living legend in his hometown.