(Photo submitted) Multi-instrumentalist Todd Green will open the Spencer Area Concert Association's 2008--09 season.

Multi-instrumentalist Todd Green will open the Spencer Area Concert Association's 2008--09 season with a 2:30 p.m., matinee performance on Sunday, Sept. 21, in the Grand Ballroom at the Clay County Regional Events Center. Note that the date, time, and place have been changed from those originally announced last spring due to a scheduling conflict.

Members of the Spencer, Sheldon, Windom and Algona concert associations may attend the concert by presenting their season tickets at the door. Individual tickets are priced at $10 for adults and $5 for students, and are available at the Events Center box office or through Ticketmaster.

Todd's Concert Association performance is just part of a week-long residency that will include performances for schoolchildren in the Spencer, Clay Central Everly, Sioux Central and Ruthven-Ayrshire school districts. His residency was funded in part with a grant from the Iowa Arts Council, a division of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Todd's local sponsor is State Bank of Everly, Peterson, and Spencer.

Todd has astounded audiences across the country with his diversity on a multitude of string, flute and percussion instruments from around the world. His performance will be enhanced by digital samplers, which allow him to record and overdub instruments one by one, making him a one-man-orchestra of unique and exotic instruments. As fascinating to watch as to listen to, Todd intersperses his playing with entertaining explanations of the music and the instruments.

Todd has been writing and performing his own music professionally since the age of 15. He studied composition, arrangement and performance at Berklee College of Music and privately with guitar greats George Benson, Pat Metheny, Christopher Parkening and Mick Goodrick. He has also studied ethnic instruments, including the Indian Bansuri Flute with masters Sachdev and Steve Gorn, and many other instruments with players from around the world who now reside in New York City and San Francisco.

Most of Todd's 30 years as a professional musician were spent on the East Coast, especially New York City, where he performed with the top echelon of studio musicians and toured extensively with bands throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. In 1988, Todd decided to trade in the man-made mountains of New York City for the real ones in Montana to pursue his own music full time.

Todd stopped playing the electric guitar to concentrate on acoustic music and has since performed as a solo artist for concert associations and colleges throughout the United States and Canada. His column on improvisation and composition has been published in Fingerstyle Guitar Magazine, where he also received kudos for his first recording, Awakening. Currently a resident of the Lake Tahoe area, Todd recently released his companion recordings, Sequel to an Unfinished Story, Vol.1, "Celebration," and Vol. 2, "Meditation," each with 24 tracks of original music, performed on well over 40 instruments from around the world. His latest creation is his first book Sparks from Life's Flint--Meditations for the Future Soul, Today.

* For more information on the concert, visit www.SpencerConcerts.com or phone 262-4307. You may also visit the Instrument Gallery at www.toddgreen.com to learn more about Todd Green's many instruments.

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* Free transportation to Sunday afternoon's Todd Green concert is available for Spencer season ticket holders who need it thanks to the Regional Transit Authority (Rides) and Spencer Municipal Utilities.

* To arrange for transportation, phone 262-4307 by 12 p.m., Friday, Sept. 19.