Jade Simmons

“Pianist Jade Simmons has added yet another credit to her already impressive résumé — international arts ambassador. A first runner-up at the Miss America competition in 2000 with a masters degree from Rice University, Simmons long ago proved that she is beautiful and smart. A recording artist for E1 (formerly Koch Classics) and one of only a handful of female African-American concert pianists, she is unquestionably very talented. And as the founder of the Impulse Artists Series, she is a generous mentor and guide to young, emerging musicians from around the world. In 2009, Simmons hosted the first-ever Webcast for the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition; this June she went off to Russia for two weeks to host the Webcast for the XIV International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. She represented the United States before an international audience of an estimated million-plus viewers (and looked gorgeous while she did it). Simmons has become more than an advocate for Houston’s arts scene; she’s our arts ambassador to the world…. - Houston Press

"I've fallen asleep at the keyboard," Jade Simmons says. No, this hasn't happened recently at a performance of her program entitled, "Scriabin and Kandinsky: Hearing Color, Seeing Sound." Rather, these naps took place during her formative years, when, after several hours of practice, Simmons' bodily limitations would overcome her desire to keep playing, and she would succumb to a well-deserved slumber… - Stuart Magazine

Jade Simmons's life is as multi-faceted as the rubies in the crown she almost won at the Miss America Pageant in 2000. "The hardest thing in the world was being the runner-up," says the 30-year-old pianist. "It would be great to have that crown on my mantel. But the experiences I've had instead? I could never put those on a mantel."

What Simmons, who was named Miss Illinois during her junior year at Northwestern, humbly calls "experiences" reads like an overachiever's dream: cofounding Northwestern's acclaimed student-run percussion and dance ensemble Boomshaka, earning a master's degree from Rice University's prestigious Shepherd School of Music, launching and running a concert series geared toward jump-starting the careers of other young pianists, speaking to students regularly about suicide prevention (a cause she embraced during her beauty queen days), being named one of Ebony's "30 young leaders under 30" in 2007, giving birth to her first baby, and-first, if not foremost-playing the piano. For Simmons, the latter is more than a pageant talent in the same way she's more than a pretty face: Artforum writer Susie Ibarra called her 2005 concert of works by the Cuban composer Tania León with Ursula Oppens one of the year's best musical events.

Simmons took up the piano at eight, along with the clarinet, the viola, and the drums. The piano stuck: "It had the most to say and gave me the most to work on," she explains. But she continues to march to the beat of an inner drummer and plans her recitals accordingly: "Rhythm is the neglected aspect of classical music, but people love to hear complex rhythms," she says. "It's a dream of mine to be an advocate for new music that can reach people this way, through rhythm." For her February concert at Ravinia, that means a program beginning with works by John Corigliano-a former composer in residence with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra who values strong pulses and percussive tones-alongside repertoire giants such as Chopin, Barber, and Rachmaninoff. (Simmons will return to town March 30th and 31st for two dates with the Chicago Sinfonietta, for which she'll tackle once again the rhythmic complexities of a concerto by Tania León, who will also conduct.)

Oh, and one more accomplishment to add to that résumé: Simmons designs her own concert gowns. "I never found anything I liked on the rack, and pianists hate straps, which fall down, or sleeveless dresses, which can slip," she says. So she took inspiration from a Corigliano concerto and rendered the music in shades of red and orange matte jersey, in keeping with the composer's instruction to "play with fire." Listeners are likely to agree that she's hot stuff. - Chiacgo Mag

When concert pianist Jade Simmons first learned that her computer wouldn't latch onto Jet Lounge's sound system Friday night, thereby ruining her chance to introduce to the audience her experimentation in partnering classical songs with hip-hop beats, she shrugged it off, immediately launching into an emotional rendition of Rachmaninoff's Prelude in C-sharp Minor.

Her figure was hunched over the piano like a concentrating surgeon, and her fingers sliced into the keys like soft cheese. By the time the song was over, she was rocking back and forth, eyes closed, lost in the sounds of the "old dead Russian guy."

"Sound guy, where are you?" she asked into the microphone, still rocking and hoping that, by this time, he had fixed the glitch.

When Sound Guy still hadn't appeared minutes later, she grew restless, entering into her own groovy arrangement of the classic in the interim.

"Come on, Sound Guy," she pleaded.

As he finally snaked his way toward the stage, informing Simmons that no, the CDs she provided for her performance wouldn't play, the pianist did what she does best -- besides playing the piano, of course -- she improvised.

"We're having a few technical difficulties," she announced, "but I'm going to roll with it, 'cause that's just how I rock," to which the eager audience erupted in a fit of cheers and claps.

It's no surprise that Simmons was able to bounce back so quickly; she is a master of improvisation, pinning jazz riffs and hip-hop beats onto classical songs, such as a Mozart sonata -- "one of the first pieces I played as a little girl," she said.

Nowhere was this more apparent than at Jet Lounge. Simmons didn't allow a few technical upsets to ruin her piano-meets-electronic performance; she played on.

Riverlin July 9.JPG
Riverlin
Interestingly, Jade's opening acts had no such sound problems. We arrived just in time for one-man band Riverlin's six-song set of lazy-afternoon ditties, like "The Beer Song," in which he sang, "Do you want to go out for a beer with me?"

Rett Lea's slightly off-key charms followed. The highlight was a song aptly named "The Pie Song," which he said was inspired by one day's sudden desire for pie. The song started innocently enough, however, with Lea's repeated chants of "Come and taste my pie" along with other suggestive phrases, the song soon became a (not-so) melodic double entendre.

After Rachmaninoff, Simmons played the first movement of Mozart's Sonata in F Major -- both classical and contemporary versions. Her initial plan out the window, she then opted to play a Sean Paul/Michael Myers "Sean Michaels" mash-up that sounded in some places like dancehall and in others, like Friday the 13th theme music.

The song was appropriate; though Simmons put on a happy face, playing to the audience with funny commentary between songs, those standing close to the stage could just make out a letdown in her eyes.

Simmons, 34, was born and raised in Charleston, S.C., educated at Northwestern, first runner-up at the 2000 Miss America pageant, artist-in-residence at the University of Chicago and more before settling in Houston, earning an MA from Rice University and becoming the recipient of multiple awards by yours truly.

In an earlier interview with the artist, she spoke of how excited she was to introduce the pairing of hip-hop beats with alternate arrangements of classical music for her Houston audience.

"I've grown as an artist, and I have an audience that is willing to try new things with me," Simmons said. - Houston Press

Solo classical and chamber music recitals may be on life support in many parts of the concert world, but not at Ravinia. The festival is presenting more such concerts than ever this summer – 43 – including master classes and other events involving participants in Ravinia's artists development wing, the Steans Music Institute.

That's an impressive lineup by any standard and it includes a hefty slate of bargain-priced, early-evening recitals by young classical musicians whose careers can only benefit from the exposure they receive here.

No fewer than 14 such concerts are scheduled between now and the end of the summer season, all in Ravinia's acoustically inviting Bennett Gordon Hall, which seats 450 in air-conditioned comfort. Tickets are priced at $10, a steal compared with what the festival charges for some Chicago Symphony Orchestra and pop events.

"We are presenting these fantastic young artists at a reasonable price so the audience will take a chance on a name they can't pronounce or they just don't know," explains Welz Kauffman, Ravinia's president and CEO. He launched the series in 2011 and is pleased to see it catching on with a growing public, he says.

It's not unreasonable, he suggests, to liken Ravinia's young-artists concerts to what London's venerable Wigmore Hall and New York's newer Zankel Hall do to promote up-and-coming classical performers and ensembles.

"These concerts also celebrate our third theater, Bennett Gordon, which for years hasn't gotten this kind of play," Kauffman adds. "Is there any better size (to achieve) that intimacy between artist and audience we are all looking for? And the hall is completely soundproof, so we can showcase our young artists at the same time Mary Chapin Carpenter, Boz Scaggs and other pop attractions are playing the pavilion."

Seven of the 14 musicians giving recitals in Bennett Gordon in the coming days and weeks will be appearing at Ravinia for the first time. Debut pianists are Jade Simmons, Thursday; Daniil Trifonov, Sunday; Reginald Robinson, Aug. 25; Inon Barnatan, Aug. 26; and Behzod Abduraimov, Aug. 31. Cellist Wolfgang Schmidt will make his festival debut on Aug. 22, and cellist Johannes Moser on Sept. 4. All seats for the concert by Robinson, the Chicago jazz and ragtime pianist, are sold out.

The versatile Simmons holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from Rice University and Northwestern, where she co-founded a percussion and dance ensemble. A former Miss Illinois at the 2000 Miss America pageant, she's undertaken such adventurous projects as an exploration of percussive piano playing. Her Ravinia program will focus on Rachmaninov and Paganini, including her own "electronic improvisations" on a Rachmaninov theme.

The 21-year-old, Russian-born Trifonov already is a veteran of several major international piano competitions; last year he won the gold medal in the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. His Ravinia recital is a formidable one, including Book I of Debussy's "Images" and Chopin's Etudes, Opus 25.

The Israeli-born Barnatan is no stranger to Chicago, having served as a Steans Institute fellow and as an ensemble member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center when that group appeared at the Harris Theater in May. The bulk of his Bennett Gordon recital will be drawn from his recent Avie recording, "Darknesse Visible," a fascinating survey of works associated with darkness and light, including Ravel's "Gaspard de la nuit" and "La Valse," and contemporary pieces by Thomas Ades and Ronald Stevenson. - Chicago Tribune

For solo recitals, most of us spend our money to hear artists who are famous, or at least have some rave reviews to assure us of a worthwhile evening. While the President's Piano series at the UW has always included a few relatively unknown young pianists in its season, this year it is asking its subscribers to gamble on a full slate of promising newcomers, with only one "big name" artist (Krystian Zimerman, April 21). The gamble, however, is not a big one; those who are familiar with the PP series know that it simply doesn't engage uninteresting artists.

To say Jade Simmons, in her Seattle debut, was interesting would be to damn with faint praise. Indeed, she excelled on every level. And she is a many-leveled artist: pianist, teacher, musical innovator extraordinaire, advocate for America's youth, founder of the popular percussion and dance ensemble Boomshaka, first runner-up at the 2000 Miss American Pageant, and dress designer. (She designed the two stunning dresses she wore this evening.)

Her all-American, 20th- and 21st-century program began with Gershwin's 'Three Preludes,' (1926). These familiar pieces left no doubt about the musicality of the performer. Jazzy, technically secure, and communicative throughout, they brought the audience into the warm personality of Ms. Simmons.

Before each of the remaining works, the pianist spoke at some length and with obvious intelligence and humor about its appeal. She said her fiery dress was especially appropriate to John Corigliano's 'Etude Fantasy' (1976), with its passionate rhythms and intensity. Each of the five "studies" in the work focused on specifics of performance: "For the Left Hand Alone," "Legato," "Fifths to Thirds," "Ornaments," and "Melody." Overall, it was a substantial and engaging trip, and one with which I would like to become more familiar.

Richard Wagner once said, "Children, try something new!" Ms. Simmons clearly agreed, as her next two works amply demonstrated. First, Russell Pinkston (b. 1949) included recorded sounds in his "TaleSpin" for Piano and Tape. Quoting from the program notes, "Many of the electronic sounds were processed recordings of a series of strange noises made by composer Stephen Montague, caught fooling around inside an acoustic piano during a recording session in 1995." This turned out to be a lot of fun and made the most of the pianist's love of rhythm.

I found Daniel Bernard Roumain's 'Hip-Hop Studies and Etudes' for Solo Piano (selections) less successful but nonetheless interesting, especially because Ms. Simmons had, with the composer's permission, added her own bass-line rhythm track (pre-recorded). She explained beforehand that the score had three lines of music running parallel to each other, of which the performer was asked to choose any two! To add to the fun, she also used a "loop foot pedal" with which to record and then play back, as she continued the play live over what she had just recorded. More interesting than satisfying to my ears.

Samuel Barber's 'Piano Sonata, Op. 26' (1949), concluding the printed program, fed us the main meal of the evening. It employed Schönberg's 12-tone system of composition without ever becoming detached or uncommunicative. Again, our pianist gave us commentary before her performance. She told us that the work was originally in only three movements; but the intended first performer, Vladimir Horowitz, insisted that Barber add a fourth. He said to end with the extremely depressing third movement would have had the audience going home to commit suicide! The added movement is a technical tour de force, a fast five-part fugue. Ms. Simmons here lay to rest any doubts we may have had about her technical mastery!

The single encore was an extremely lovely Rachmaninov's "Etudes tableaux in A minor, Op. 39, #2. It was a welcome change after American hotdogs and roast beef! - Seattle Gay News

"Obviously, I'm not going to be playing Mozart right now."

With that comment — and a flash of her irresistible dimples — pianist Jade Simmons prepared the audience at Meany Hall on Thursday night for the third and most daring piece so far on her program, Russell Pinkston's "TaleSpin for Piano and Tape." Simmons played while accompanied by almost 15 minutes of processed and arranged electronic noise: ripples, whistles and wailing, punctuated by various percussive chirps, crashes and snares.

Let me interrupt with a confession. When it comes to classical music, I'm a hopeless Romantic. I like to be able to hum along. I'm a sucker for tonal music with a tune.

In spite of myself, I loved it.

Or did I love her? Performers as charming and radiant as Simmons inspire love almost incidentally. She is an utterly beguiling stage presence, moving from stupendous keyboard virtuosity to personable program commentary in one agile step. She read 10-year-old Samuel Barber's letter to his mother to introduce his sonata and launched the second piece on her program, John Corigliano's fiendishly difficult "Étude Fantasy," by noting that her self-designed dress — a single-shouldered column of flame-colored flares — was inspired by it. (By the way, both were stunners.)

However, there were many empty seats, and a noticeable absence of 20- and 30-somethings. A pity, since Simmons has an uncanny ability to connect classical music with the sounds of today.

That was evidenced by her showstopper, Daniel Bernard Roumain's "Hip Hop Studies and Études for Solo Piano." Simmons kicked off her heels to push the special loop pedal this piece required, a device that repeated sampled sections that she had just played moments before. The effect was like listening to avatars of Simmons play in succession and simultaneously. Mesmerizing, lovely stuff.

Should Simmons play more traditional repertoire — such as the Gershwin Preludes she opened with or the lovely Rachmaninoff étude she curtain-called with — she would probably have a fanatical fan base. But this woman obviously does not choose to do things the easy way. Her final piece was Barber's knuckle-buster of a Piano Sonata. She didn't even break a sweat as she played that brutal obstacle course. It was the first time I actually liked that piece. I leapt out of my seat to give her a standing ovation. - Seattle Times

Check out ESSENCE's first annual Style & Substance Awards in the October issue, available on newsstands now. See who our editors chose, and let us know who you think deserves a place on the coveted list.

1. AUDRA MCDONALD, 42: TONY AWARD–WINNING ACTRESS

2. ROBIN ROBERTS, 51: MORNING-TV MAVEN

3. SYBRINA FULTON, 46: ANTI–GUN VIOLENCE ACTIVIST

4. VIOLA DAVIS, 47: OSCAR-NOMINATED ACTRESS

5. MICHELLE OBAMA, 48: THE FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES

6. P&G: CORPORATE INITIATIVE

7. TYRA BANKS, 38: MEDIA MOGUL

8. TAMRON HALL, 42, MELISSA HARRIS-PERRY, 39, & GAYLE KING, 57: CONVERSATION STARTERS

9. DR. VALERIE MONTGOMERY RICE, 51: HEALTH ADVOCATE

10. TAMERA MOWRY-HOUSELY, 34, & TIA MOWRY-HARDRICT, 34: ACTRESSES AND REALITY TV STARS

11. JUNE AMBROSE, 41: FASHION TRENDSETTER

12. PORTIA SIMPSON MILLER, 66: POLITICAL LEADER

13. GABRIELLE "GABBY" DOUGLAS, 16: OLYMPIC GOLD MEDAL WINNER, GYMNASTICS

14. JANELLE MONÁE, 26: POP DIVA

15. JUDY SMITH, 48, KERRY WASHINGTON, 35, & SHONDA RHIMES, 42: DRAMATIC TV ICONS

16. GABI GREGG, 26: STYLE BLOGGER

17. LET'S STAY TOGETHER: TV SERIES

18. QUVENZHANÉ WALLIS, 8: INDEPENDENT FILM STAR

19. IVAN BART, 48, & KYLE HAGLER, 38: MODEL MAVERICKS

20. KAMALA D. HARRIS, 48: POLITICAL ACTIVIST

21. ISSA RAE, 27: WEB SERIES CREATOR

22. DIANE LATIKER, 55: COMMUNITY LEADER

23. JADE SIMMONS, 34: CLASSICAL MUSICIAN

24. TONI CAREY, 28, & ASHLEY HICKS, 29: FITNESS GURUS

25. MISTY COPELAND, 30: BALLET SOLOIST - Essence Magazine

When I last interviewed classical pianist Jade Simmons, back when she was an artist-in-residence at the University of Chicago three years ago, I said that she was one of “the few of the new generation of classical music artists who was making the huge impact and receiving the kind of acclaim.”

Today, that statement is even truer than it was back then. Simmons has continued to expand and develop herself as an artist, and is breaking through boundaries that most classical musicians, or musicians of any kind, don’t even think of or dare doing.

Among her more recent accomplishments, she was an ArtTech artist-in-residence at Georgia Tech, where she has had the unique experience of improvising with the Shimon, the school’s marimba-playing robot.

Jade has become an art contributor for Huffington Post; released her e-book Emerge Already!, which she calls “the ultimate guide to career building for Emerging artists”; created her multi-media website jademedia.org; and is even currently competing in a chance to open for the rapper Drake on his upcoming tour.

She will be launching her own record label shortly, called SuperWoman Records, and expects to drop two singles in June and July, followed by a four-five track EP in September.

In the meantime, Simmons will perform at Ravinia on August 16 as part of her U.S. concert tour this summer and soon in the United Kingdom. Her successful CD Revolutionary Rhythm, released last fall, will be followed by her new CD #Pagainini Project, featuring works by Rachmaninov, Franz Liszt and contemporary composers Fazil Say and Robert Muczynski, that is due to be released in early 2013 by eOne Music.

A Charleston, South Carolina, native, Jade completed her undergraduate work in piano performance at Northwestern University. While in our neck of the woods, she also became Miss Chicago, Miss Illinois, and ultimately first runner-up at the 2000 Miss America Pageant. She also holds a master’s degree from Rice University.

In the summers of 2009 and 2011, the world got to know Jade as the webcast host for the 13th Van Cliburn Piano Competition in Ft. Worth, Texas, and the 14th Tchaikovsky International Competition in St. Petersburg and Moscow.

For both competitions, she introduced all the performances and conducted live interviews with renowned figures including Van Cliburn, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Menahem Pressler, the Takács Quartet, and conductor James Conlon. She’ll return in 2013 as the webcast host for the 14th Van Cliburn Piano competition.

Jade has appeared as concerto soloist with several orchestras, including the Dallas Symphony, the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas at Town Hall, the Chicago Sinfonietta, and the University of Chicago Symphony.

In an effort to expand the reach of classical music, she has also performed in New York’s many alternative venues, including Symphony Space, the Harlem Gatehouse, Le Poisson Rouge, Joe’s Pub, and Brooklyn’s BamCafé.

Jade has also served as an advocate for America’s youth, addressing groups across the country on sensitive issues such as youth suicide prevention and mental health awareness.

In 2009, she became the inaugural Spotlight Artist for Music for Autism, a New York-based organization for which she performs and has assisted in their expansion to Houston, Texas. Jade has been recognized two years in a row by Symphony Magazine for her work on and away from the stage, and was recently proclaimed Houston’s Best Arts Ambassador by the Houston Press.

N’DIGO: Does all the concert performing, writing, speaking, and charity work ever get to be too much?

Jade Simmons: You’re working so hard, you’re grinding so hard to make things happen, that you kind of forget that people are watching you. You try to make sure that you’re being heard and in the process of that work you become surprised, like: “Oh my God! Someone is actually paying attention to what I’m doing!” This is one of those instances.

What was it like performing at the White House last December?

I was playing at what they call The White House Holiday Open House. They have all these different artists come in for each day for the month of December. But it was one of those things where it literally didn’t hit me until an hour before when I was tripping into the gown that I was going to perform in that “I’m headed to the White House.”

So I get there and I’m playing on the piano and I didn’t even realize until afterwards when I saw the photos, that it had these gold inlays and these gold eagles that were the legs of the piano and over my shoulder there was a picture of Bill Clinton.

You try to be in the moment, but you still can get lost in it. I remember performing and feeling extremely comfortable and thinking, I’m not having one political thought whatsoever. I was just in awe of the moment.

Performing in such an awe inspiring and historic place such as that must have other special memories as well.

After I performed, I - N'Digo Magazine

By Alyson Ward
Alessandro Deljavan popped up on the screen with a mess of a wig plopped on his 26-year-old head. “Tell me, do you like it?” the Italian pianist asked, mugging for the webcam. Jade Simmons leaned back in her chair and laughed.
“I love it,” she said. “Kind of like ‘Bob Marley Comes to the Cliburn.’ ”
Their Skype chat will soon be shared with piano fans around the world. The Van Cliburn International Piano Competition — often referred to as the Olympics of the music world — opens Friday in Fort Worth. And Simmons, who lives in Humble, will be the face of the competition on the Cliburn’s webcast. From an orchestralevel box in Bass Performance Hall, she’ll guide an international audience through the competition’s 17 days and three elimination rounds, offering a mix of classical music analysis and some fun personal touches — including interviews with Deljavan and the rest of the 30 competitors, who hail from 13 countries.
“We’re up close,” Simmons said, “and not only do I get to see the competitors, but I get to sense what’s going on in the audience.” Simmons, though, is there for the audience outside the building. Her goal with the webcast is to satisfy classical music connoisseurs without talking over the heads of other viewers — to strike a balance between “heady, academic talk about music” and the chatty, casual tone of a TV talk show.
Simmons and a social media team will post constant Cliburn updates to Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and more. Between sessions in Bass Hall, she will take viewers into Fort Worth, dropping in on local shops, restaurants and museums. And she’ll do a regular segment called “Stage Style,” which will share the details about the competitors’ fashion choices on stage — and about her own webcast wardrobe.
It’s the second time the quadrennial competition has been streamed online. The Cliburn first hired Simmons in 2009 to provide insight and color commentary for its longdistance audience. She had the right combination of music and media savvy: a concert pianist who’d been first runner-up at the 2000 Miss America pageant. A music degree from Northwestern University; a master’s degree from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music. A great smile and plenty of charisma.
Simmons, 35, has performed all over the country, including at the White House. She released her second recording last fall: “Playing With Fire” is a genre-jumping piano performance influenced by bossa nova, hip-hop, “all the music that I would listen to but never think to perform.” On the final track, Simmons raps.
Outside of her performing career, Simmons promotes the arts in education, advises musicians who are struggling to launch their careers and writes a column for the Huffington Post. She and her husband, Jahrell Simmons, have a 5-yearold son named Jaden, and they’re expecting a baby girl in August.
Four years ago, the webcast was a new experiment, and Simmons accepted the role of host “not knowing what the heck I was getting into.” But talking about piano music came naturally, she said, and she ad-libbed easily about the intricacies of a performer’s Schumann, the challenges of playing Liszt.
The first Cliburn webcast got about 423,000 visits from 158,000 viewers, who tuned in from 157 countries and watched for an average of 48 minutes at a time. Those numbers are expected to increase this year, said Maggie Estes, the Van Cliburn Foundation’s director of marketing and public relations.
It was an automatic choice to bring Simmons back, Estes said. “As a classical pianist, she knows exactly what (the competitors) are going through, and she provides exceptional commentary because of that.”
In fact, Simmons auditioned for the Cliburn in 2005. She wasn’t selected, but the experience has given her a kinship with the young pianists on stage.
Van Cliburn shared that kinship, she said. Simmons interviewed Cliburn, who died in February, for the 2009 webcast.
“One of the things I remember the most about him is he had such great compassion for the competitors,” Sim-mons said. Cliburn, of course, knew how it felt to be a young pianist, playing for a jury at competition. In 1958, he was the 23-year-old winner of the first International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, an accomplishment that propelled him to a lifetime of international fame as a performer.
Cliburn didn’t attend all of the competition that was named for him; he’d come and go, especially in the competition’s early rounds.
“It was literally — this is what he said to me — it was painful for him to watch them suffer,” Simmons said. “Now, he called it suffering. The audience says they’re performing. But I can tell you, as a performer, that there is an element of suffering.”
Webcast viewers will see more than suffering. When competitors were selected in March, the webcast team traveled to cities all over the world to interview them, Estes said, and a short video will profile each competitor before he or she performs. There al - ContentActive Web: Houston Chronicle

'Playing With Fire' is a phrase that is used to warn someone. The warning is you are now entering a danger zone, the unknown.
That's nothing new for Jade Simmons, AKA Superwoman!

Her first step into the unknown was her previous CD, Revolutionary Rhythm a successful attempt to take Classical and bring in a new audience, it worked for me!

Jade Simmons

"Cyber Digs of Multifaceted Pianist Jade Simmons" is the quote on her site, about 'Playing With Fire' but I see it as a bit more!
This is a woman, who was born to bring her music to the public... I see her as ever morphing, and this is just another niche on the handle of her gun.

The Album:
'Boss's Nova'...love it! This tune infers a bit of Bossa Nova, smooth, and then Jade throws in some 'funk'... and of course that combo always gets sexy!

'Sean Michael'...you need to pay attention on this one! Some Synth, some turntable scratchin, a Latin rhythm in the mix, and the athleticism of Jade on the keys, it's scary what they create here.

'Fire'...is a great title for this tune. It's like looking at a Fire, it takes your mind and relaxes it. You just kinda trust what you are hearing to entertain you, like watching a 'Fire'.

'Dolphy To The Death' is the 'heaviest' piece on the EP. It shows you just how talented Jade is as a pianist, she excels. This is the tune that reveals what's inside Jade, the voice that tells her DO MORE, reach out explore...the unknown, "play with fire!"

'Fire (Rap Version)'....really cool! - StreetCred Music

There are those who never seem finished, the ones exploring every inch of every possible path before them, always looking for more to understand and accomplish.

There are the ones unafraid of the dark, the unknown, because their own drive and need to expand themselves is too bright to be shaded.

Those are the firecrackers, like Jade Simmons.

Born and raised in Charleston by a civil rights activist father and teacher mother, Simmons learned at an early age that she must fight to overcome others’ doubts, rejections and judgments.

She spent her youth learning to play the clarinet, drums, viola and the piano. She was a drum major in her high school marching band, played volleyball, basketball and ran track.

Simmons excelled in local piano competitions, where she says she often surprised judges and audiences by being the only black contestant.

After winning a quarter of a million dollars in scholarships, Simmons was accepted to the music program at Northwestern University where she majored in piano performance while also performing in the school’s marching band.

By her sophomore year, Simmons started a successful dance and performance group a la Blue Man Group or Stomp called Boomshaka!

There was also the time she won Miss Illinois and competed in the Miss America pageant, first runner-up, by the way, before going on to receive her master’s from Rice University.

Simmons certainly hasn’t stopped pushing her limits.

Her list of awards and accolades is long. She has performed as concerto soloist with the Dallas Symphony, the Chicago Sinfonietta at Chicago’s Symphony Hall, the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas at Town Hall, the University of Chicago Symphony and the Illinois symphony orchestras.

As a Yamaha Artist, Simmons has toured internationally, performing some of the most challenging classical pieces in some of the most sought after venues.

She capped off her 2011 schedule with a performance at the White House.

In addition to her piano talent, Simmons is a writer for the Huffington Post, lecturer, youth activist and founder of Emerge Already!, an organization that helps shine a light on aspiring artists.

Simmons will perform a special homecoming concert 6:30-8:30 p.m. Friday at the Hippodrome, 360 Concord St. The series, titled “Rachmaninoff to Rap: An Unforgettable Music and Storytelling Experience,” includes classical works from the Romantic era, jazz-inspired contemporary works and original music alongside Simmons’ gift for public storytelling and humor. Tickets range from $25-$40 and are available at hippodromewidescreen.com or at the box office. Call 724-9132. - Post and Courier

Close your eyes for a minute and imagine a successful classical pianist. What do they look like? If you're like most people, you just conjured up an older white guy with a shock of white hair. And you wouldn't necessarily be wrong. That's pretty much what a typical classical pianist looks like.

But Jade Simmons isn't a typical classical pianist. The Charleston native has a tendency to mix up her classical stylings with splashes of rap, jazz, and bossa nova, and her unique approach has earned her recent gigs everywhere from Russia to the White House, as well as a place alongside Gabby Douglas and Michelle Obama on Essence magazine's October Style and Substance list.

"It's been an interesting awakening, because as a little girl when I started playing classical, I didn't make a differentiation between that music and hip-hop and R&B," she says. "I just listened to stuff that moved me ... so it was interesting when other people would point out to me that I was different because I was a black female playing classical."

And unfortunately it has been pointed out to her time and time again, like when she was 13 or 14 and she'd just won a Beethoven competition in Myrtle Beach. An older man approached and told her that she was a credit to her race, and that he wished that "all blacks" were more like her. "I appreciated what he was trying to say, but it meant that there was such a negative stereotype that simply playing Beethoven made me somehow better than the rest of my people," Simmons, now 34, says. "It's an interesting world to be in where you are one of a very few, and yes, it's something that I'm proud of. I like that I'm making a name for myself, but, of course, I want people to hear the music."

Though she says she hasn't dealt with overt racism, she's always working to fight against perceptions of what it means to be a classical musician. "It's been wonderful for me to feel like during the process of a concert that I might be dispelling a few stereotypes as well as introducing people — black, white, all colors — to music that they might not have thought they could've loved so much."

Now living in Houston with her husband, Simmons has been working to create original music that blends classical and more experimental, modern styles. "One of the weirdest things about a classical education is you spend hours practicing music by composers who are no longer with us, and you're trying to play that music as perfectly as possible," she says. "I have just recently in the last three years really started to challenge myself by writing my own music and improvising in a live setting ... It's been exciting and incredibly scary, but kind of starting down this road you feel like you can never go back to simply replicating other people's music. Now I have an urge to create, and so it's been exciting to share that with the audience."

Simmons created her own label, Superwoman Records, to accommodate her unique music. "If I'm completely being honest, I never intended to found my own record company," she laughs. The impetus happened when her first label kept pushing back the release date of her second album. "I said to them, 'If you guys don't put new music out, I'm going to find a way to put my own music out,' and I think they thought I was bluffing," she says. She founded the record label in July, returned to the studio, and came up with all-new music for her album Playing with Fire. Although she's the only artist on Superwoman Records at the moment, Simmons eventually hopes to use the label to support other female artists engaged in adventurous music.

Simmons hasn't played an official show in Charleston in more than a decade, so she's excited about her homecoming. "I really believe in not just putting on concerts but offering a complete experience," she says. "I'm excited to tell stories about my upbringing that Charlestonians will relate to, because most of the stories that I tell on the road have to do with my background, the way that I was raised in the South and in Charleston especially. I think that people even who don't know me will relate to a lot of what I have to say, and hopefully will enjoy the music as well."
- Charleston City Paper

Jade Simmons is one busy woman.

The Houston-based classical pianist's newest EP, Playing With Fire drops in September. On Tuesday, the track "Boss's Nova" from the EP was released as a free download. On Friday night, Simmons will perform with her "partner-in-crime," Playing With Fire's co-producer Roburt Reynolds, at The Jet Lounge.

Simmons and Reynolds also collaborated on the upcoming eOne records release Paganini Project, due out in February 2013, which includes performances of music by Rachmaninoff, Liszt, Robert Muczynski and Fazil Say.

"The day I made that decision, I cannot tell you, it was like my perspective, my vision, the way that I felt as an artist, everything changed. I felt freer, you know?"

Playing With Fire features Simmons on piano and keyboards, including a vintage Wurlitzer, backed by bossa nova, jazz, Jamaican dancehall and old and new school hip-hop beats. Simmons also makes her debut rapping on the bonus track "Fire," and promises to spit a verse or two Friday night.

Playing With Fire will be the first release on Simmons' Superwoman Records label, which will focus on singles, EPs and mix tapes, all formats more or less ignored by the classical recording industry. The label is dedicated to releasing "adventurous music by adventurous women," and offers a way around the traditional long-term album release paradigm most record labels still cling to.

I caught up with Simmons a couple days before she traveled to New York City to perform at the launch event for Magic Johnson's new cable network ASPiRE TV which airs on Comcast (Simmons appears in promos for the network).

Chris Becker: My first question is, why start a record label? You're busy!

Jade Simmons: You know what it was? And I'll be really honest with you. I expected my Paganini Project with eOne to come out this year. We went into the studio back in October 2011 in New Orleans to record the electronics part and then December, I was in New York recording all the classical stuff. And so as far as I knew the CD was going to come out first in June, and then it got pushed back to September, and then the last thing I heard is that it wasn't going to come out until February 2013

I'm pretty much a self-managed artist, so a lot of the work that I have to do for myself has to happen way in advance if I'm going to see any fruit come from it. So I'd already started setting up media, and was looking at touring for the fall. I was begging the label, "You can't leave me hanging!"

So it was this moment of either I could sulk and complain, and just sit still until February. Or, I could make some more music, and find a way to put it out. I've always seen myself, 10, 15, 20 years down the road possibly managing other artists, and I thought, why not have a label? The day I made that decision, I cannot tell you, it was like my perspective, my vision, the way that I felt as an artist, everything changed. I felt freer, you know?

So there's kind of a statement there. The whole idea behind "Superwoman" — that's been my nickname for as long as I can remember, and I thought I'd just run with it!

CB: You're in good company. There are a lot of independent labels in all genres of music that are going strong.

JS: That's right. You know, that's what's been wonderful about eOne records, which used to be Koch Records. They've been so awesome to me when it comes to allowing me to explore some things musically. Creative, freedom wise, I really can't complain. But in this day and age, because artists have so many options, there's no reason to be hemmed in.

CB: What would you tell a classical musician who wants to record and release their own music? What kind of set of expectations should they have? Back in the day, an artist could expect to make some money selling some records. In my view, any artist who records has to have a different set of expectations other than, "I'm gonna sell a million records and make a lot of money!"

JS: Well, I think you're right on track there. Lady Gaga, Beyoncé, even those guys aren't making tons of money on records. A lot of them, Jay-Z included, are buying up their own records that first week just to kind of prop up sales! So if the biggest name artists aren't really making any profit from it, then you have to look at why they're still making albums. And the reason is it’s the music and the product that keeps you relevant.

What I was trying to explain to (eOne) is, "I understand this is a business decision for you. But if you really expect me to go from 2009 (when Simmons' Revolutionary Rhythm was released on Koch) until February 2013 with nothing released, I cease to exist for anybody who supports me in any way." I'm all about blogging, I'm all about making videos, b - Culture Map

Whatever you do, don't flip up Jade Simmons's skirt. She'll punch you. "My first playground fight happened when a little boy flipped up my skirt and I told him, 'If you do that again, I'm gonna punch you.' He did it again, and I had to punch him," Simmons laughingly tells us. "I said I would and so I had to do what I said."

When her record label delayed the release of her upcoming CD of classical music, Simmons's playground survival skills kicked in again. "I went to them with all sorts of options. I said, 'If we can't do a full-length album in September, can we do an EP? Can we do a single?' Finally, I went to them and told them, 'If you don't put something out in September, I'm going to put something out myself.' It wasn't like a threat, I was just trying to be honest with them. I guess they thought I was bluffing."

She wasn't. She also wasn't prepared to release any new material. She had been working on the planned CD, The Paganini Project, for the last year and had nothing else recorded. With a self-imposed September deadline looming, Simmons put together her own EP project, Playing with Fire and got it ready for a late-September release. "This was like [that little boy and my skirt] again. I had said I would do it and then I had to."

The Paganini Project included classical music and an original experimental piece featuring frequent Simmons collaborator Roburt Reynolds. For Playing with Fire, Simmons went back to Reynolds, but this time she had a completely new style in mind - rap. "I realized, nobody listens to just one type of music anymore. I wanted to do something fun, so I thought, 'I can experiment with stuff, do just four or five tracks and see what the world does with that music.' What I ended up with is an EP that's a mix of my musical influences and a reflection of this i-Pod world we live in."

Playing with Fire is a five-track EP, with Simmons's piano and vocals laid over electronic beats by Reynolds. One song, "Fire," is done in both a virtuoso version (somewhat experimental, but clearly based on classical technique) and a rap version. "I wanted the two tracks to be strikingly different. I wanted them to be two different kinds of fire. There's that inner fire that those of us who are very driven have, where it's quiet and brooding and beautiful. It's usually representative of some kind of passion, that's the piano version. The rap version is that scary fire. It has that same opening bass beat sound that's more ominous and foreboding."For longtime fans, Simmons's foray into rap may not be all that startling. The pianist has long been mixing classical, jazz, electronic, pop, and experimental music in her live performances. As she's added stylistic influences over the years, her audience has enthusiastically accepted them. "The audience that I started with has followed me everywhere I've gone. Every change I've made, they've come with me so I feel really blessed to have that kind of support. I'm hoping to have them come along with me on this.

"I've been constantly shapeshifting in my career. People aren't coming to my concerts just because I'm playing Mozart, but because they want to see how I'm doing it differently from the last time. What I am trying to believe as I move forward is that if I can focus on creating a unique and powerful experience, then people are going to come."

Even with a supportive and loyal following, Simmons admits the change in styles has been a stumbling block in terms of marketing. "The classification has been hard for me. I don't think the term experimental classical will be scary for new classical music lovers, the guys that are into 21st century avant garde classical music. At the same time, classical bloggers don't know what to do with it. And I can't just send it to hip-hop bloggers and say, 'Hey, here I am!' They don't know me. So I think it's going to have to float around and find its own little place."

To find out more about Jade Simmons and her music, and listen to samples of Playing with Fire, visit her website. - Houston Press