Joy of Arts: Keynote Victor Wooten

We are proud to present Victor Wooten as this year's Joy of Arts Professional Development Keynote Speaker. Victor will be sharing thoughts from his book 'The Music Lesson: A Spiritual Search for Growth Through Music' on how the gifts we get from music and arts mirror those from life - all our learners have to do is connect with "...the song inside".

Time: 9:00 - 10:00 am

Victor Wooten is now a five-time GRAMMY winner, hit the worldwide scene in 1990 as a founding member of the super-group Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. Continuing to blaze a musical trail with the band, Victor has also become widely known for his own GRAMMY nominated solo recordings and tours.

Among other things, he is a loving husband and father of four, a skilled naturalist and teacher, a published author, a magician and acrobat, and has won every major award given to a bass guitarist including being voted Bassist of the Year in Bass Player Magazine's readers poll three times (the only person to win it more than once). In 2011, Rolling Stone Magazine voted Victor one of the Top Ten Bassists of All Time. Victor has been heralded as "the Michael Jordan of the bass" and "one of the most fearless musicians on the planet." He began to build recognition with The Wooten Brothers in the early 1980s before he and his brother, Roy, joined Bela Fleck and Howard Levy to form the eclectic ensemble Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. With a dozen recordings under their belt, the band has created a completely new sound and has become known for its genre-defying music. Currently, over twenty years later, the band is still going strong.

A few years after he began touring with the Flecktones, Victor released his first solo project, A Show of Hands. Recorded with only a 4-string bass, no multi tracking, and a lot of groove and soul, this revolutionary CD was voted one of the most important bass records of all time. Subsequent recordings feature musicians Bootsy Collins, Mike Stern, Keb Mo, Carl Denson, JD Blair, Derico Watson,
Saundra Williams, Anthony Wellington, Steve Bailey, Will Lee, Dennis
Chambers, The Lee Boys, The Wooten Brothers, and others.

Victor's novel, The Music Lesson, quickly became a "must-read" for musicians world-wide. Now translated into multiple languages, The Music Lesson is currently used as required reading and part of curriculums in study groups, schools, and universities including the prestigious Berklee College of Music and Stanford.

Victor spearheaded the formation of the super-group SMV with two of his childhood heroes, Stanley Clarke and Marcus Miller. He continues to record and tour with the Flecktones, various other artists, and as a solo artist. He also leads six to eight camps each year at Wooten Woods, a retreat center that welcomes all instrumentation and vocalists, helping thousands of people of all ages and from all corners of the world enhance their musical and personal lives.

To learn more: victorwooten.com
*Music as a Language: Victor Wooten at TEDxGabriolaIsland

Victor will be joining us virtually in Burnett's Main Gym.