In celebration of its one-year anniversary, WNYC's weekday talk and music show, hosted by John Schaefer, will leave the studio and take to the stage for an evening of music and conversation, Tuesday, April 8, from 7-9pm. The adventurous Lower East Side club Tonic will provide a backdrop for the event, in which three diverse artists will be featured in a program spanning classical, jazz and world music.

• One of today's preeminent young violinists, Gil Shaham, who stands out for his dazzling technique and the huge, generous tone he brings to the Romantic repertoire. He will be accompanied by Akira Eguchi.
• Detroit-based pianist Geri Allen, who has collaborated with Ornette Coleman and the late Betty Carter, and is also known as a remarkable composer, improviser, and bandleader of her own right.
  
• New York guitarist Marc Ribot, renowned for his eccentric collaborations with the Lounge Lizards, John Zorn, Elvis Costello, and Tom Waits, as well as a number of celebrated solo excursions.
  

In the heart of the Lower East Side, Tonic is one of the city's more intrepid musical outlets, offering a freewheeling mix of jazz, rock, electronica, and experimental genres. A former kosher winery, the club books both local and national acts, with a consistently selective approach to both. The main performance space is an intimate upstairs stage; downstairs features gigantic 2,500 gallon wine casks converted into cozy booths.

Event Details:

• Tuesday, April 8, 7-9pm.
  
• Tonic, 107 Norfolk Street (between Delancy and Rivington).
  
• Tickets: $15; available through the Tonic Web site or by phone at 212-358-7501.
  
• Tonic is handicapped accessible (call the club for details).
• A condensed version of this program will air on Wednesday, April 9th at 2pm on WNYC 93.9 FM; a one-year anniversary special featuring highlights from the past year will air on Tuesday, April 8th at 2pm.

Artist Details:

Violinist Gil Shaham is internationally recognized by audiences and many noted critics as one of today's most virtuosic and engaging classical artists. Shaham has recorded concertos by Mendelssohn, Bruch, Paganini, Saint-Saëns, Tchaikovsky and Sibelius with Giuseppe Sinopoli leading the Philharmonia Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic; Wieniawski's Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 and Sarasate's "Zigeunerweisen" with Lawrence Foster and the London Symphony; and solo discs devoted to music by Schumann, Richard Strauss, Elgar, Ravel, Franck, Kreisler, Paganini, Saint-Saëns and Sarasate (for Deutsche Grammophon). Highlights of Shaham's 2002-03 season include a trio tour of North America with pianist Yefim Bronfman and cellist Truls Mørk, and a series of recitals in Europe with guitarist Goran Söllscher. He will also give solo recitals in the Far East and the United States and make numerous orchestral appearances throughout the world. Born in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, in 1971, Shaham grew up Israel where at the age of 7 he began violin studies with Samuel Bernstein of the Rubin Academy of Music and was immediately granted annual scholarships by the America-Israel Cultural Foundation. In 1982, after taking first prize in Israel's Claremont Competition, he became a scholarship student at Juilliard, where he has worked with Dorothy DeLay and Hyo Kang. He has also studied at Columbia University. Shaham was awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant in 1990. He plays the 1699 "Countess Polignac" Stradivarius and lives in New York City with his wife, the violinist Adele Anthony, and son, Elijah. More about Gil Shaham

Pianist Geri Allen grew up in Detroit, steeped in the city's strong bebop and black pop traditions (one early gig saw her playing with Mary Wilson and the Supremes), though Eric Dolphy, Herbie Nichols and Thelonious Monk were also major influences. She studied music at Washington's Howard University and at the University of Pittsburgh (with Nathan Davis) and later with Roscoe Mitchell. Moving to New York in the early 80s she played with numerous contemporary jazz musicians, including James Newton and Lester Bowie, and recorded her debut The Printmakers in 1984 with a trio that featured Andrew Cyrille. She also became involved with the M-BASE and Black Rock Coalition organizations. Later in the 80s she was a regular member of Oliver Lake's groups (Plug It, Gallery, Impala, Otherside) and toured and recorded with several leaders, including Dewey Redman, Frank Lowe, Greg Osby, and Charlie Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra. With Haden and Paul Motian she formed an acoustic trio that has become celebrated for its intimate versions of modern mainstream jazz; and she also guested on Motian's own Monk In Motian and Betty Carter's Droppin' Things. An acutely sensitive player with a lovely touch, in the early 90s Allen signed to Blue Note Records where she recorded several strong albums. Her most acclaimed recent work, however, was The Gathering, her 1998 debut for the Verve label. On this album Allen was backed by Buster Williams (bass) and Lenny White (drums), with additional contributions from Vernon Reid on acoustic guitar.

Marc Ribot was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1954. As a teen, he played guitar in various garage bands while studying with his mentor, the Haitian classical guitarist and composer Frantz Casseus. In 1978, Ribot crossed the river to New York City, where he served as sideman for such musicians as jazz organist Jack McDuff and legendary soul shouter Wilson Pickett. Ribot began his five year stint as a member of the Lounge Lizards John Lurie's innovative and influential Downtown jazz ensemble in 1984. His six-string stylings, which blended elements of classicist Blues guitar with an ironic No Wave/Knitting Factory aesthetic, caught the ear of a number of artists who were also interested in amalgamating and disrupting disparate musical traditions. Ribot went on to perform with such musicians as Elvis Costello; Marianne Faithfull; Tom Waits; Arto Lindsay, Don Byron, Elliott Sharp, Anthony Coleman, T-Bone Burnett, the Jazz Passengers, and John Zorn. Ribot also composed and recorded his own brand of Downtown soul music with his bands, Rootless Cosmopolitans and Shrek, as well under his own name. In recent years, Ribot's always-eclectic workload has included sessions with Cibo Matto, the late Allen Ginsberg, and Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio's Surrender To The Air project, among others. Ribot also continues to do a great deal of work with Zorn, having played on his Filmworks collections, and as a member of his Bar Kochba ensemble. Meanwhile, Ribot's score for Yoshiko Chuma's "Altogether Different" dance piece made its debut in January with Chuma's performance at New York City's Joyce Theatre. More about Marc Ribot