The 29th annual Jazz in June concert series continues June 30 with an online performance by vocal-bass duet Jackie Allen and Hans Sturm.
The concert is 7 to 8 p.m. CST on the Jazz in June Facebook page.
Allen has toured extensively in the United States, as well as Europe, Africa, South America and Asia. She has performed at international music festivals in Detroit, Chicago, The Hague, Stuttgart, Edinburgh, Bologna, Beijing, Hong Kong, Thessaloniki and Sao Paulo. She received a Mayor’s Arts Award in 2018 and was featured on “A Prairie Home Companion,” where she gave Garrison Keillor a voice lesson.
Allen’s most recent release is a live concert DVD and CD titled “A Romantic Evening with Jackie Allen” (2019). It was recorded and filmed in the historic Rococo Theater in Lincoln and features tenor sax legend Bob Sheppard. A 30-minute version of the program has been broadcast nationally on PBS. Allen has served on the board of governors and jazz nominating committee for the Recording Academy and has recorded with numerous Grammy-winning artists and producers. She created and instructs the adult primer course “Torch Singer 101” and teaches vocal improvisation and songwriting at Doane University in Crete.
Allen’s husband, Sturm, has toured six continents, making a wide range of music. He has performed Piazzolla tangos with trumpet and marimba in João Pessoa, Brazil; Beethoven symphonies with a chamber orchestra in Salzburg, Austria; avant garde works with koto and percussion in Kyoto, Japan; and jazz quintets in Auckland, New Zealand. He has contributed performances and compositions to more than 50 jazz and chamber music recordings.
Recent releases include “Rose Fingered Dawn” (2017), featuring a set of original works he wrote for his wife, and “A Day in Paris” (2016), featuring original works in collaboration with jazz composer Tom Larson. He is the producer of award-winning teaching DVDs and has served on the juries of numerous international competitions. Sturm is the Hixson-Lied Professor of Double Bass and Jazz Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, executive director of the Meadowlark Music Festival and president-elect of the International Society of Bassists.
This year’s Jazz in June series, presented by the Cooper Foundation, features Nebraska artists who have fewer opportunities to perform during the coronavirus pandemic. Online concerts are 7 to 8 p.m. CST each Tuesday through July 7 on the Jazz in June Facebook page.
The series wraps up with a performance by Mesonjixx, a trio led by soul-jazz artist Mary Lawson of Omaha.
Jazz in June is a collaboration between the University of Nebraska, Lied Center for Performing Arts, Downtown Lincoln Association and Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts. Learn more.
