Mary Halvorson’s Canis Major
Mary Halvorson, guitar
Dave Adewumi, trumpet
Henry Fraser, bass
Tomas Fujiwara, drums
Sunday, March 29th, 2026
701 Center for Contemporary Art
music: 7:00pm / doors: 6:30pm
701 Whaley Street, Columbia, South Carolina
Mary Halvorson is an unusual musician. It’s not just that she takes an original approach to the music she makes with her guitar. It’s that she’s able to combine innovation and musicality in a way that gets, and keeps, the attention of a wide range of listeners—from avant-garde devotees to the most casual of jazz fans, from guitar enthusiasts to new music aficionados—as well as a wide range of music critics, from whom she routinely receives effusive praise.
National Public Radio calls Halvorson “the most future-seeking guitarist working right now” and named her latest album, About Ghosts, one of the best albums of 2025. The New York Times describes her as “an unflinching original who has revealed new possibilities within the music.” She has been named in Downbeat’s “guitarist of the year” honors for multiple years and in 2019 was awarded a MacArthur Foundation “Genius Grant”. The critics who focus on the contemporary and experimental scene love her, too. Here’s just one of them, writing at The Free Jazz Collective: “Mary Halvorson is perhaps the most organic guitarist of my generation. Her music grows so logically and intricately yet twists and turns unexpectedly, spinning inward into knots before branching out into a glorious arbor that provides shelter to an impressive ecosystem of some of the finest musicians working today.”
Halvorson will be bringing her group, Canis Major, to Columbia’s 701 Center for Contemporary Art the evening of Sunday, March 29th, 2026. The quartet features Halvorson alongside Dave Adewumi (trumpet), Henry Fraser (bass), and Tomas Fujiwara (drums).
Tickets are available through 701CCA.
SPONSORS
artist websites:
Mary Halvorson / Dave Adewumi / Henry Fraser / Tomas Fujiwara
Possible World Productions 