Bela Fleck and the Flecktones to Perform March 4 in UB Center for the Arts

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The UB Center for the Arts will present the Grammy Award-winning musical group, Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, on March 4 at 8 p.m. in the Mainstage Theatre, located in the Center for the Arts on the UB North (Amherst) Campus.

Widely recognized as a banjo virtuoso and one of the most innovative recording artists in music, Béla Fleck has been a Grammy nominee 17 times in a remarkable 10 different categories, and has won five times.

The Flecktones debuted in 1990 with a "blue-bop" mix of jazz and bluegrass and soon became a commercially successful, critically acclaimed and award-winning phenomenon. Last year, Béla Fleck and The Flecktones took home the Grammy for Best Contemporary Jazz Album for Outbound, their most recent studio recording, and in October Fleck released his first album of classical compositions, Perpetual Motion, for the Sony Classical label.

The group performs more than 200 concerts each year, and played to 500,000 fans last year alone. On Feb. 26 they will release their first-ever, DVD featuring live concert footage showcasing their genre-bending mix of bluegrass, jazz and pop influences. The DVD will be released simultaneously with a companion live CD on Columbia Records, and is culled from two sold-out shows in Fairfield, Connecticut.

Tickets for Béla Fleck and the Flecktones are $23.50 for the general public, and $20.50 for UB students. Tickets are available from noon to 6 p.m. Tuesday-Friday at the Center for the Arts Box Office and all Ticketmaster locations, including Kaufmann's and Movies Plus. To charge tickets, call 852-5000; in Canada, call (416) 870-8000. For group sales, call 645-6771. For more information call 645-ARTS.