The University of Nebraska–Lincoln Glenn Korff School of Music’s Jazz Singers and Jazz Orchestra will perform at 7:30 p.m. March 9 in Kimball Recital Hall.
The concert is free and open to the public. It will also be live webcast.
The Jazz Singers, under the direction of David von Kampen, lecturer, is a small choir open to all members of the university community by audition. Students are instructed in jazz style, ensemble singing, lyric delivery, solos and improvisation.
The Jazz Orchestra, under the direction of Greg Simon, assistant professor of composition, is the university’s showcase jazz organization and one of the most visible performing groups. This versatile ensemble performs all styles of music.
“Jazz Singers has been exploring a wide variety of source material this semester,” von Kampen said. “At this concert, we’ll be singing arrangements of music by Lambert Hendricks and Ross, the Beatles, Beach Boys and Claude Debussy.”
The group currently has six music majors and eight non-majors, many of whom are graduating this spring. They recently performed at the Jazz Education Network Conference in Dallas, in January.
“Anyone who loves to sing and wants to explore diverse, challenging repertoire, should come check out this concert and think about auditioning in August,” von Kampen said.
The Jazz Orchestra’s program will celebrate the big band — everything it is today and was in the past — in a “Creations and Comic Books” program.
“Alongside music by the great Benny Carter — a legend of the big band tradition — we’re playing music by some of my favorite new composers,” Simon said. “From Stephen Harvey’s supervillain-inspired ‘Mechanical Men’ to the ethereal way Anna Webber uses the human voice in ‘Climbing on Mirrors,’ these four pieces are brilliant in their color and spirit, painting some amazing images in the music.”
