The Cedar Presents MARY HALVORSON: CANIS MAJOR with Nelson Devereaux Sunday, April 5, 2026 / Doors: 7:00 PM / Show: 7:30 PM All Ages Seated $40 Advance, $45 Day of Show Buy Tickets *For Cedar Presented shows, a $4 facility fee is included in the ticket price (Ticket fee info here). This is a seated show with general admission, first-come-first-served seating. The Cedar is happy to reserve seats for patrons who require special seating accommodations. To request seating or other access accommodations, please go to our Access page. For Cedar presented shows, online ticket sales typically end one hour before the door time, and then, based on availability, tickets will be available at the door. Tickets purchased at the door will include a $1 Eventbrite fee. LISTEN ABOUT THIS SHOW Incomparable guitarist and composer Mary Halvorson brings Canis Major to the Cedar stage for the first time. Dave Adewumi (trumpet), Henry Fraser (bass), Tomas Fujiwara (drums) round out the quartet. MARY HALVORSON Photo by Elena Olivo There’s a theory of record production that says the best results come shortly after musicians have encountered a piece for the first time. That’s when it’s possible to get the intuitive reaction, before players develop a frame of reference. First thought, best thought. An opposite theory holds that the magic happens later, after the ensemble has absorbed the material. That’s when the musicians can lean into its nuances, leveraging familiarity into swagger. Mary Halvorson’s dramatic, daringly intricate new album About Ghosts suggests that these approaches can be complementary. The eight-song work is the guitarist and composer’s fourth full-length with her sextet Amaryllis—plus saxophonists Immanuel Wilkins and Brian Settles. Halvorson wrote some of the music for the core group in 2023, and then, following what she describes as a snap impulse, experimented with a piece for four horns instead of two. Just to try it. “This record is actually a good example of both approaches mixed together,” Halvorson explains. “The songs I had written for the sextet (‘Eventidal,’ ‘Absinthian,’ ‘Amaranthine,’ ‘Polyhedral,’ and ‘Endmost’) had already been performed a lot on the road; we were quite comfortable with the music by the time the session rolled around. And because the music was in a good place, it felt easy to add Immanuel to ‘Absinthian’ and Brian to ‘Endmost.’ “However,” she continues, “the three songs I wrote explicitly for octet (‘Full of Neon,’ ‘Carved From,’ and ‘About Ghosts’) were brand new; we rehearsed only once, one or two days before the recording session. Of course there’s always the risk it won’t quite gel, but if it does, and I feel it did, there is certainly a freshness, magic, energy that can go along with playing something for the first, second, third time and needing to just dive right in and go for it.” Note the verb choice: Needing, not wanting, to dive in and go for it. Suggesting a certain urgency within the creat...
