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Don’t miss this must-see concert!

GRAMMY-WINNING JAZZ VOCALIST CASSANDRA WILSON TO CELEBRATE BILLIE HOLIDAY AT HOLLAND CENTER

Omaha Performing Arts presents jazz vocalist Cassandra Wilson performing Coming Forth By Day: A Celebration of Billie Holiday at the Holland Performing Arts Center on Saturday, March 7, at 8 p.m.

Tickets start at $20, and are available at TicketOmaha.com, 402.345.0606 or at the Ticket Omaha Office inside the Holland Center, 1200 Douglas St. Wilson is part of the 2014/15 Jazz Series.

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She is a jazz musician, vocalist, songwriter and producer from Jackson, Miss. Critic Gary Giddins describes her as “a singer blessed with an unmistakable timbre and attack who has expanded the playing field” by incorporating blues, country and folk music into her work. Her performance in Omaha celebrates legendary jazz vocalist Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan on April 7, 1915) on the 100th anniversary of the singer’s birth. The album, Coming Forth By Day: A Celebration of Billie Holiday, is slated to be released in April. While in Omaha, Wilson will teach a jazz vocal workshop at the Holland Center.

Wilson began playing piano at 6, guitar by the age of 12 and was working as a vocalist by the mid-’70s, singing a wide variety of material. After moving to New York City in the early ‘80s, she met saxophonist Steve Coleman and became one of the founding members of the M-Base Collective. She signed with Blue Note Records in 1992 and released a landmark album titled Blue Light ‘Til Dawn, which would pave the way for a new generation of jazz singers seeking an approach and repertoire that challenges the supremacy of the American Standard songbook.

Wilson has continued interpreting in fresh and creative ways vintage blues, country and folk music up until the present day. Her awards include: Two Grammys®, the Django D’Or, The Edison Music Award, a marker on the Mississippi Blues Trail and the 2012 Echo Award for Jazz. She also performed one of the leading roles in Wynton Marsalis’ Blood on the Fields, the first jazz work to receive a Pulitzer Prize.

Her Omaha performance is sponsored by Robert H. Storz Foundation and Children’s Hospital. Hospitality sponsor is Hotel Deco XV.