New Orleans Piano Virtuoso to Play Community Concert in Old Lyme

OLD LYME, CT – The First Congregational Church of Old Lyme (FCCOL) announced today that Tom McDermott, the New Orleans piano virtuoso, will perform a concert for area residents Saturday, March 25, at 5 p.m. in the Sheffield Auditorium at FCCOL.

Suggested donation is $10 at the door, according to a release. Doors for the concert will open at 4:30 p.m., while seating will be on a first-come, first-served basis.

McDermott’s music has been heard frequently on NPR, the Showtime series “The Knick,” and the HBO series “Treme” (10 of his songs were included throughout the show). He has recorded more than a dozen albums during his accomplished career, including 75 original tunes.

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McDermott was a member of the Dukes of Dixieland for several years, as well as a founding member of the New Orleans Nightcrawlers. His concert will consist of both original works and timeless classics, and reflect his musical expertise in ragtime, jazz, funk, blues and choro (a Brazilian musical form with similarities to ragtime and jazz).

The “New York Times” once said of him in a review, “Whatever direction he moves in, Mr. McDermott is a very skillful pianist.”

“Tom’s work reminds us of the power of music to lift the human spirit," FCCOL Senior Minister Steve Jungkeit said in a release. "In times of great social injustices such as the one we currently live in, we need the musicians – and the novelists, and the poets and the filmmakers – to remind us of our need for beauty and art ... not only to speak to our social struggles but also to help us transcend them. Tom is an amazing artist who can help us do just that. This is a concert not to be missed.”

At FCCOL, music is a vital element of our communal life – sacred, secular, classical, jazz, barrelhouse blues – it all belongs. We believe the divine is discovered, as often as not, through art, poetry and music – and that everyone’s spiritual lives can be enriched through these epiphanies.

For more information: FCCOL, www.fccol.org; Tom McDermott, www.mcdermottmusic.com.

Image via Shutterstock.