A Celebration of Women in Jazz

Join us at Cherrydale United Methodist Church (CUMC) in Arlington for a phenomenal jazz concert celebrating legends like Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan on Sunday February 23 at 3:00 PM in the sanctuary.

Jazz vocalist Lena Seikaly is a Washington DC area-native and named “one of Washington’s preeminent jazz singers" and "brightest voices in jazz” (The Washington Post). She was one of eleven semi-finalists for the prestigious 2015 Thelonious Monk Institute International Jazz Vocals Competition in L.A. is an alum of the Betty Carter Jazz Ahead program in DC the Jazz Aspen Snowmass program directed by Christian McBride and the Strathmore Artist-in-Residence program in Maryland. As both a bandleader and featured artist Lena has headlined at Jazz at Lincoln Center Shanghai (China) the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Strathmore Music Center Blues Alley West Virginia Public Radio’s Mountain Stage various Smithsonian venues and DC’s famed Westminster Church as well as the Elkhart Jazz Festival (Elkhart IN) Mel Bay Jazz Festival (St. Louis MO) Monty Alexander Jazz Festival (Easton MD) Chestertown Jazz Festival (Chestertown MD) DC Jazz Festival (Washington DC) and Center City Jazz Festival (Philadelphia PA). She has performed alongside Byron Stripling Christian McBride Sean Jones Cyrus Chestnut Norman Simmons Walter Blanding Michael Feinstein Duduka da Fonseca and various big bands across the US.

Joining Lena in this performance will be Tony Nalker who performs widely in Washington DC and is currently serving as jazz pianist with the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra Pops. From 1989-2016 Tony was the pianist in the Army Blues the premiere jazz ensemble of the U.S. Army and served as the group’s enlisted leader. Nalker played for the highest levels of the U.S. government and military and performed on USO tours to Iraq and Afghanistan as well as State Department sponsored musical diplomacy tours to Russia Kenya and Ethiopia. Nalker has also composed works for various settings including a commission by The National Gallery of Art for a children’s multimedia work about Henri Matisse a Jazz Mass commissioned by St. Paul’s Nantucket which premiered in August 2022 and a musical adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. Tony is the pianist for Hal Leonard Publishing’s Jazz Play-Along series which has produced nearly 200 CD’s/books.

Invite your friends! Admission is free; donations are encouraged. CUMC also will be accepting nonperishable food items for the Arlington Food Assistance Center (AFAC).

Host or Publisher Cherrydale United Methodist Church