Pure voice and elegant jazz piano are in store as a new San Francisco studio presents its first Salon Concert. Lua Hadar, multilingual world jazz vocalist and the Founder and Creative Director of Studio NPG, takes the petite stage in a duo concert with Dr. Jason Martineau: pianist, composer and music director of Hadar’s high-octane band, TWIST.

Pure voice and elegant jazz piano are in store as a new San Francisco studio presents its first Salon Concert. Lua Hadar, multilingual world jazz vocalist and the Founder and Creative Director of Studio NPG, takes the petite stage in a duo concert with Dr. Jason Martineau: pianist, composer and music director of Hadar’s high-octane band, TWIST. As TWIST plans a live CD/DVD recording concert at a high-profile venue, the June 12 Salon Concert at the intimate Studio NPG will give their audience a chance to help create the set list for that recording during a talk-back at the Salon Concert’s intermission. TWIST’s producer, Candace Forest, comments, “Studio NPG provides a rare opportunity for the audience to bask in pure music, unencumbered by the bustle of a club setting. The grand piano, Jason’s sensitive and inventive playing, Lua’s rich voice, and an eclectic song list – it is really musical heaven.” Limited seating. Tickets $15, pre-sold only at Brown Paper Tickets, event 172823. http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/172823, 1-800-838-3006. Sunday, June 12, at 4pm. Doors at 3:30pm. Studio NPG, 1695 18th Street, Studio 317, San Francisco, CA 94107 (upstairs from Thick House theater.) Easy parking, Muni accessible, wheelchair accessible.

About the artists: 
With a rich voice and a soaring range, Lua Hadar sings jazz influenced by pop, funk, Latin and international cabaret, interpreting lyrics in several languages with a charming, swinging delivery. Instantly accessible and truly exotic, she has been molded by exchange experiences in places as diverse as Bali, Russia, Switzerland, Japan, Thailand, France and Italy, inspiring the sophisticated song choices for her band, TWIST, in their signature “jazz without borders.” Hadar’s Paris debut in July 2009 came on the heels of the successful New York release of her latest CD, Lua Hadar with TWIST, at Broadway’s Iridium Jazz Club (…stunning…sheer beauty… she rocked! – Cabaret Scenes, NYC) and her band’s international debut at the Bangkok International Festival of Dance & Music. The CD went on to garner raves from around the world, (…vivacious brand of jazz…inspired…swinging…cool – Luna Kafé, Sweden; …seductive… polished vocal phrasing… irresistible – Blast Radio 1386, UK) as well as Radio Top 10 Ratings in the USA. Sold-out appearances in 2009 and 2010 at San Francisco’s Rrazz Room, and at New York’s landmark Cornelia Street Café debuted her show, French Connection, to acclaim (…beyond language, beyond words—pure yearning, perhaps… – MS Nieson, All About Jazz). Her most recent cultural exchange, with French bassist Albin Suffys and his Musiconoclast’ Orchestra, testified, even to the French, to Hadar’s natural facility with language, as she delivered a master class on the Great American Songbook, using French as a language of instruction, and performed in concert with 12 jazz musicians in Lille, France. Lua opened Studio NPG in October of 2010, in San Francisco’s Potrero section. www.luahadar.com

Jason Martineau is an award-winning composer, pianist, arranger, instructor and author, active in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1995. He works with many different idioms and styles, from world fusion and jazz, to avant-garde, industrial, rock, pop, and classical. Jason's sensitive piano stylings range from the passionate to the poetic, drawing from his wide array of musical influences, marked by nuance and evocative expressivity. A pianist for 36 years, he has performed since 1989 at numerous venues in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, New York, and as Music Director for TWIST at the 10th International Festival of Dance and Music in Bangkok, Thailand. Martineau is a graduate of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the Manhattan School of Music, and has composed numerous works for orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo piano, and chorus, as well as a full-length musical, multiple film scores, and over 200 songs, both instrumental and vocal. His book on music theory "The Elements of Music," was released October 2008 and is distributed both nationally and internationally. His film scores have been featured in documentaries broadcast on PBS stations around the US since 1998. In 2011 Dr. Martineau joined the faculty at the Academy of Art University, teaching music notation and theory. www.jasonmartineau.com

Hadar & Martineau in Collaboration:
Lua Hadar started working with Jason Martineau in 2005 to create a tribute CD to her departed family, It’s About Time. Immediately influenced by Martineau’s elegant jazz playing, her style began to center on jazz, bringing into it the influences of her own life: world beat, French chanson, Broadway, standards of the Great American Songbook, and her many cultural exchanges, which have broadened her view of the world. As a result of TWIST’s 2008 festival appearance in Bangkok, Thailand, mp3 sales of their latest recording, Lua Hadar with TWIST, are popping up all over Asia, adding to her warm reception by French audiences. So, with a global eye, as TWIST prepares to record a new CD/DVD live in concert, Martineau and Hadar plan a series of appearances in collaboration with producer Candace Forest, designed to try out new material and take in the audience reaction as they shape their concept. 

About Studio NPG:
Studio NPG provides professional development for performers, Salon Concerts, New Works development, special events, and international exchange. Conveniently located near to public transportation in the Potrero section of San Francisco, it is an artist’s loft venue, just upstairs from the Off-Broadway-style black box theater, Thick House. Founder and Creative Director Lua Hadar created New Performance Group in 1990, as an umbrella for her work as a performing and teaching artist and an independent producer. In October 2010, Studio NPG opened with a Singers Master Class taught by Hadar and Martineau, inspiring participants to break through to new levels of singing performance in their culminating concert at Thick House. 2011 has seen a burst of activity with Studio NPG’s P.R. Bootcamp Series for performers (under the guidance of journalist and director Mike Ward), New York-style Piano Bar events (NYC at NPG), piano classes and New Works development. Member teaching artists have joined Studio NPG’s roster, adding On-Camera Acting, Vocal Workout and Voiceover classes to the upcoming calendar. The June 12 duo concert with Hadar and Martineau is the first of Studio NPG’s intimate Salon Concerts. www.newperformancegroup.net