Lansing's Wharton Center to Welcome Carolyn Leonhart in SSJF Benefit Concert, 4/3

Wharton Center's Jackson Lounge will be transformed into a jazz club with vocalist Carolyn Leonhart at a special fundraiser for the Summer Solstice Jazz Festival (SSJF) on Wednesday, April 3 at 6:30 p.m. and 8:45 p.m.

Jazz vocalist Carolyn Leonhart is one of New York's most active singers today. A regular performer at the Jazz Standard and Smoke Jazz Club, she has been described as having an "intimate and soulful voice and broad tonal palette...a singer who works intuitively, with a voice that projects both strength and vulnerability." Not only a jazz singer, Leonhart's voice and talent also caught the attention of Steely Dan, with whom she performs, tours and has recorded on numerous Grammy Award-winning albums since 2001. She currently teaches at the Berklee College of Music in Boston and is married to jazz saxophonist Wayne Escoffrey.

On Wednesday, April 3 Leonhart will share her extraordinary voice at a SSJF fundraiser at Wharton Center. For the first time, Wharton will transform its Jackson Lounge into an authentic jazz cabaret for two back-to-back shows.

The proceeds from this special fundraiser will go to the 2013 SSJF, which will bring two outdoor evenings of FREE non-stop jazz to downtown East Lansing on June 21-22. The talent-packed SSJF lineup includes Cyrille Aimee, Fred Sanders, Tim Warfield, Rodney Whitaker and a high-caliber ensemble of other local, regional and national jazz performers.

Tickets for this special, one-night-only performance are $40 per person. A limited number of VIP tickets are available at $150 each, which includes an opportunity to meet Leonhart, receive a copy of her CD Tides of Yesterday and sit in stage-side seats. Tickets go on sale Tuesday, March 19 and are available online at whartoncenter.com, at the Auto Owner's Insurance Box Office or by calling 1-800-WHARTON. A cash bar will be available.

The Summer Solstice Jazz Festival is presented by the City of East Lansing, Wharton Center for Performing Arts and the MSU College of Music. It is a free-to-the-community jazz festival taking place June 21-22, 2013 in downtown East Lansing. Visit www.eljazzfest.com.