Music. Theatre. Dance.
This dynamic Shenandoah Conservatory faculty trio blends the spirit of jazz improvisation with the rhythmic energy and creativity of popular styles.
Reston Town Center Association and Reston Community Center present Sunday Art in the Park with Shenandoah Conservatory. Performances take place Sunday evenings during the summer from 7PM to 8PM and are free and open to the public. Pack a picnic and join us in the park for an evening of music!
Shenandoah Conservatory is hosting the esteemed Essentially Ellington Regional High School Jazz Band Festival in partnership with Jazz at Lincoln Center (JALC) on Saturday, Jan. 19, in Ohrstrom-Bryant Theatre on the main campus of Shenandoah University.
The daylong festival features two opportunities for the public to attend free performances:
“A Special Tribute Performance: John Kirby and His Onyx Club Boys,” in tribute to the late bassist Kirby, a Winchester native, features Tom Williams on trumpet; Charlie Young on alto saxophone; Anna Lee Van Buren Chair in Clarinet, Coordinator of Winds and Percussion and Professor of Clarinet Garrick Zoeter, M.M., Harrison Endowed Chair in Piano; Director of Jazz Studies; Associate Professor of Jazz Piano Robert Larson ’08, D.M.A., Jacob Pembelton ’19 (Bachelor of Music in Jazz Studies) on double bass; and Daniel “DK” Kelly ’18 (Bachelor of Music in Jazz Studies) on drums.
During the festival, more than 250 students from 10 high school jazz bands from Virginia, Delaware, Maryland and West Virginia will compete for best band, best section and best soloists awards. One band will perform alongside The U.S. Army Blues. Musicians from the Army Blues band along with Jazz at Lincoln Center clinicians Sherman Irby and Chris Dorsey will be providing clinics during the festival, and band directors as well as members of the Winchester community will participate in a roundtable discussion with the clinicians.
This is a rare treat for students and directors to meet and work with educators and musicians sent to our area from Jazz at Lincoln Center. Few institutions are selected to host this event so we are very fortunate to be chosen. The performance slots filled up quickly once the word got out and we look forward to an exciting day filled with performances, clinics and a dedicated performance featuring the music of Winchester’s own John Kirby.”
– Adjunct Associate Professor of Classical and Jazz Trombone Matt Niess, D.M.A.
Through its annual Essentially Ellington program, JALC co-produces noncompetitive education- based festivals designed to offer high school jazz bands of all levels the opportunity to perform the music of Duke Ellington and other seminal big band composers and arrangers. Participating bands receive professional feedback from JALC clinicians and other prestigious jazz professionals.
This year’s event at Shenandoah welcomes five renowned jazz legends as festival clinicians and judges: Jim Carroll, Christopher Dorsey, Sherman Irby, Tom Williams and Charlie Young.
“A Special Tribute Performance: John Kirby and His Onyx Club Boys” at 4:45 p.m. and The U.S. Army Blues concert at 7:15 p.m. are both free and open to the public. No tickets required and seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis.
A Special Tribute Performance: John Kirby and His Onyx Club Boys is presented as part of the Essentially Ellington Regional High School Band Festival in partnership with Jazz at Lincoln Center (JALC) at Shenandoah Conservatory. This musical tribute to Winchester native bassist John Kirby features Tom Williams on trumpet; Charlie Young on alto saxophone; Garrick Zoeter on clarinet; Robert Larson on piano; Jacob Pembelton ’19 (Bachelor of Music in Jazz Studies) on double bass; and Daniel “DK” Kelly ’18 (Bachelor of Music in Jazz Studies) on drums.
No tickets are required for this event. General admission seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis.
Visit www.su.edu/conservatory/invites/essentially-ellington/ for more information about the festival.
The U.S. Army Blues performs as part of the Essentially Ellington Regional High School Band Festival in partnership with Jazz at Lincoln Center at Shenandoah Conservatory. During the festival, more than 250 students from 10 high school jazz bands from Virginia, Delaware, Maryland and West Virginia compete for best band, best section and best soloists awards. The winning band will perform alongside The U.S. Army Blues.
No tickets are required for this event. General admission seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis.
Visit su.edu/conservatory/invites/essentially-ellington/ for more information.
https://youtu.be/ecCYoy4lFE8
The U.S. Army Blues, part of the United States Army Band “Pershing’s Own,” is the premier jazz ensemble of the United States Army. After informal beginnings in 1970, this 18-piece ensemble became an official element of the Army Band in 1972. Comprised of exceptional jazz musicians from across the nation, the Army Blues strive to fulfill their mission through public concerts, educational outreach, and the preservation of the tradition of America’s unique art form: jazz.
The Army Blues have performed at prestigious venues such as the Monterey Jazz Festival, the Montreux Jazz Festival, the famous Birdland jazz club in New York City, and the legendary jazz club Blues Alley club in Washington, DC. The band has shared the stage with jazz greats such as Dave Brubeck, Doc Severinsen, Stanley Turrentine, Slide Hampton, Dr. Billy Taylor, Kevin Mahogany, and Terell Stafford. The Army Blues give frequent performances at national conferences such as the Jazz Education Network annual conference, the International Trumpet Guild conference, the International Trombone Conference, and the Music Educators National Conference. The musicians of the Army Blues perform regularly at the White House, the Vice President’s Residence, the State Department, and for high-level military protocol and ceremonial events in the Washington Metropolitan Area.
The group plays a vital role in Army recruiting as part of the Twilight Tattoo performances seen by thousands of tourists each summer in Washington, DC, and surrounding areas. Members of the Army Blues have played for Habitat for Humanity volunteers in New Orleans during the cleanup efforts following Hurricane Katrina. In conjunction with the USO and the office of the Sergeant Major of the Army, individual members of the band have volunteered to travel to Iraq, Kuwait, and Afghanistan during the holiday season to perform concerts for the troops stationed there.
Serving as musical ambassadors, the Army Blues have conducted numerous clinics at schools and colleges throughout the United States. Members of the Army Blues engage in community educational outreach, working with young musicians in local schools. In collaboration with the Library of Congress, the Army Blues play seldom-performed yet historically significant music from the Library’s jazz archives.
To celebrate their thirty-fifth anniversary, the Army Blues recorded a double CD album entitled Blues at Thirty-Five in 2007. This album won two Washington Area Music Awards (“Wammies”) in the categories of Best Big Band Group and Best Big Band Recording. Since that time, the ensemble has recorded Live at Blues Alley an educational initiative release called Blues Plus You and most recently, a collaborative effort with the Library of Congress titled Jazz from the Stacks.
Visit www.usarmyband.com/blues/the-us-army-blues.html to learn more.
The Shenandoah Conservatory Jazz Ensemble kicks off their 28th annual Jazzathon and celebrates the legacy of Winchester’s own John Kirby. Presented in partnership with the NAACP of Winchester and Old Town Winchester, the John Kirby Day Celebration honors the contributions of Winchester-born jazz musician John Kirby.
Cole Porter (arr. Pete Meyers): Love For Sale
Regan Brough: Black Sugar
Charles Lloyd (arr. Craig Fraedrich): Sweet Georgia Bright
Kenny Rittenhouse: Fatback and Collard Greens
Michael Abene: Fox Hunt
Craig Fraedrich: Natty
Toshiko Akiyoshi: I Ain’t Gonna Ask No More
Bart Howard (arr. Quincy Jones, ad. Craig Fraedrich): Fly Me To the Moon
Frank Loesser (arr. Quincy Jones, ad. Craig Fraedrich): Luck Be a Lady Tonight
Oscar Hammerstein, Richard Rogers (arr. Matt Niess): My Favorite Things
Thad Jones: Greetings and Salutations
Craig Fraedrich: Time to Leave
All facilities are wheelchair accessible. Infrared hearing system headsets are available in Ohrstrom-Bryant Theatre only. Accommodations for disabilities may be arranged by contacting the Box Office at least three days prior to the performance.
Photos by C. King Photography
The Shenandoah Conservatory Jazz Ensemble presents a concert celebrating the music of Mardi Gras with New Orleans trumpet star and Shenandoah alumnus Ashlin Parker ’05 (B.M. in Jazz Studies).
Joe Avery (arr. Craig Fraedrich): Second Line (Joe Avery’s Blues)
Lil’ Hardin Armstrong (arr. Alan Baylock): Struttin’ With Some Barbeque
Graham Breedlove: Festival Time in the Ville
Spencer Williams (arr. Craig Fraedrich): Basin Street Blues
Professor Longhair (Roy Byrd) (arr. Craig Fraedrich): Go to the Mardi Gras (Mardi Gras in New Orleans)
James “Sugar Boy” Crawford (arr. Craig Fraedrich): Iko Iko
Traditional (arr. Craig Fraedrich): Lil’ Liza Jane
The Meters (arr. Craig Fraedrich ): Hey Pocky Way
Paul Barbarin (arr. Craig Fraedrich): Bourbon Street Parade
Lil’ Hardin Armstrong (arr. Craig Fraedrich): King of the Zulus
Louis Alter, Eddie Delange (arr. Craig Fraedrich): Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans
The Meters: (arr. Craig Fraedrich): Cissy Strut
Earl King, Wardell Quezergue (arr. Craig Fraedrich): Big Chief
Bob Thiele, George Weiss (arr. Craig Fraedrich): What a Wonderful World
Traditional (arr. Craig Fraedrich): When the Saints Go Marching In
A versatile jazz trumpeter based in New Orleans, Ashlin Parker ’05 is sought after for big band, small ensemble and solo performances. In the past two years, he has played with various ensembles at international festivals and clubs in Germany, Russia, India, Switzerland, Brazil, Wales, England, Barbados, Bermuda, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, the Netherlands, Canada, France, Hungary, Finland and Norway. Parker leads the Trumpet Mafia and plays with numerous diverse bands, such as Irvin Mayfield and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, Bill Summers and Jazalsa, The Next Generation Big Band, The Original Hurricane Brass Band, Vivaz! and the Moscow-New Orleans Project. He has played with musicians such as Ellis Marsalis, Jason Marsalis, Herlin Riley, Roland Guerin, Leroy Jones, Derek Douget, Adonis Rose, Nicholas Payton, Dmitry Mospan, Vadim Eilenkrig, Igor Butman, as well as vocalists Anthony Hamilton, Aretha Franklin, and Dee Dee Bridgewater. Parker’s most recent CDs, with the Ellis Marsalis Sextet, were recorded live at New Orleans Jazz Fest in 2014 and 2015. He shared in the 2009 Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble for the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra’s debut album, Book One. The New Orleans Jazz Orchestra’s next album, Dee Dee’s Feathers, is scheduled for release in the United States in August, 2015. Parker has been leading the jazz trumpet studio in the music department at the University of New Orleans since January 2011.
Visit www.ashlinparker.com to learn more.
Photos by C. King Photography
The Shenandoah Conservatory Little Big Band displays its improvisational chops with a program featuring jazz standards and original arrangements.
Duke Ellington (arr. Craig Fraedrich): Battle Royal
Victor Young (arr. Craig Fraedrich): Beautiful Love
Sonny Rollins ( arr. Mike Tomaro): Pent Up House
Sonny Rollins (arr. Mark Taylor): Doxy
Duke Ellington (arr. Craig Fraedrich): Concerto for Cootie
Vincent Youmans (arr. Craig Fraedrich): Without a Song
Abel Meeropol, Billie Holiday (arr. Craig Fraedrich): Strange Fruit
Craig Fraedrich: Acquiescence
Jay Livingston, Ray Evans (arr. Craig Fraedrich): Never Let Me Go
Traditional (arr. Craig Fraedrich): I Am a Poor Wayfaring Stranger
Traditional (arr. Craig Fraedrich): Sometimes I feel Like a Motherless Child
Craig Fraedrich (Shenandoah Conservatory Little Big Band): The Hydra’s F Blues
All facilities are wheelchair accessible. Infrared hearing system headsets are available in Ohrstrom-Bryant Theatre only. Accommodations for disabilities may be arranged by contacting the Box Office at least three days prior to the performance.
Photos by C. King Photography
Created by Martha Redbone and Aaron Whitby
Music and Lyrics by Martha Redbone and Aaron Whitby
Revered blues and soul singer Martha Redbone performs a concert version of Bone Hill, a new musical theatre work in progress inspired by the artist’s family lineage in the Appalachian Mountains. Featuring a cast of eight actors/musicians, the story follows Redbone’s return to her homeland on Black Mountain—and the coal mines of Harlan County, Kentucky—where her family has dwelled for centuries.
Spanning the lives of four generations of women in a Cherokee family, Redbone travels back in time to her own childhood, and into the memories and tales of her ancestors, to tell the story of one family’s connection to the land—the simplicity and sacredness of that connection and the ruptures that threatened to extinguish it. Written and performed by the multi-award-winning Redbone, the performance powerfully blends the folk and country sounds of the Appalachian Mountains with the gospel music traditions of Redbone’s African American father and the Cherokee/Choctaw spirit of the artist’s mother. Along the way, this dramatic musical reveals a thought-provoking uniquely American story, and one that has yet to be told by history.
Bone Hill: The Concert is commissioned by Joe’s Pub and The Public Theater as part of the New York Voices artistsé initiative; co-commissioned by the Lincoln Center David Rubenstein Atrium. Bone Hill is the recipient of the NEFA National Theater Project, an NPN Creation and Touring grant and Redbone is a 2015 Native Arts and Cultures Foundation Fellow. Redbone and Bone Hill: The Concert are represented by SRO Artists, Inc.
This performance is part of the 2019 Women’s History Month presented by Shenandoah University’s Gender and Women’s Studies program. Support for the project is provided by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Theater Project, with lead funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and support from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.
Concessions will be available for cash purchase beginning one hour prior to this performance.
Join Martha Redbone for an interactive workshop exploring the traditions of Cherokee and Choctaw music. This workshop is free and open to the public.
Join Martha Redbone and her creative partner, instrumentalist/composer Aaron Whitby for a workshop exploring songwriting tools and techniques, and how the artists have collaborated to create a diverse range of works. This workshop is free and open to Shenandoah University students.
All facilities are wheelchair accessible. Infrared hearing system headsets are available in Ohrstrom-Bryant Theatre only. Accommodations for disabilities may be arranged by contacting the Box Office at least three days prior to the performance.
Jazz pianists Robert Larson and Tony Nalker perform a free recital showcasing music for jazz piano.
Selections will be announced during the performance.
TONY NALKER performs widely in Washington, D.C., currently serving as jazz pianist with the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra Pops. From 1989 to 2016, Nalker was the pianist of the premier jazz ensemble of the U.S. Army, the Army Blues, and served as the group’s enlisted leader. Nalker played for the highest levels of the U.S. government and military and performed on USO tours to Iraq and Afghanistan. He has also toured on musical diplomacy missions throughout the world on behalf of the U.S. Department of State. Since 2005, Nalker has served as pianist of the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra, performing throughout the country to share the Smithsonian’s collection of iconic jazz works with the American public. Since 2012, he has also performed with the National, Maryland, and Baltimore symphonies.
Over the past twenty-five years, Nalker has performed with many artists across a multitude of musical genres. He has also performed on hundreds of recordings in a variety of styles including jazz, folk, children’s music, pop, Broadway, and country. He is also the pianist for Hal Leonard Publishing’s Jazz Play-Along series which has produced nearly 200 instructional books with CDs and for Alfred Publishing’s Jazz Play-Along and big band series. His numerous compositions and arrangements range from works for big band and smaller jazz ensembles to theater, dance, and film. He received his undergraduate degree in music from James Madison University and his Master of Arts in Music from the University of Iowa.
ROBERT LARSON joined the faculty of Shenandoah Conservatory in 1982. He is the Director of Jazz Studies and has served three terms as chair of the Instrumental Division. He holds degrees from Eastern Washington University, the University of Oregon, and Shenandoah Conservatory. He conducted the Shenandoah Conservatory Jazz Ensemble from 1987 to 2000, and during that time the ensemble performed with guest artists such as Randy Brecker, Billy Taylor, Bob Berg, Conrad Herwig, Allen Vizzutti, Vince DiMartino, Chris Vadala, and many others. The ensemble performed in China, Japan, Spain, France, and Iceland as well as throughout the mid-Atlantic region.
Larson teaches courses in jazz history, jazz improvisation, jazz repertoire, jazz pedagogy, and private jazz piano instruction. His book, Arranging for the Small Jazz Ensemble (Armfield Academic Press) has received glowing reviews from jazz educators and students across the country and internationally. He has published articles in the Music Educators Journal, the Virginia Music Educators Association Journal, and the International Association of Jazz Educators Papers. Larson has presented at conferences for the Jazz Educators Network, the National Jazz Workshop, and for the National Association of Jazz Educators on the early recordings of Bill Evans. He has provided clinics throughout the region and adjudicated at many jazz festivals and competitions.
Larson has recently recorded and released his first CD under his own name, Popular Delusions, and can be heard on two recordings with the Alan Baylock Jazz Orchestra: Two Seconds to Midnight and Primetime featuring Doc Severinsen. He performs with his own trio, with the Capitol Bones, the Metropolitan Jazz Orchestra, and many others. Larson has served on the touring panel for the Virginia Commission for the Arts, the board of First Night Winchester, and is the host of the National Jazz Workshop at Shenandoah Conservatory.
All facilities are wheelchair accessible. Infrared hearing system headsets are available in Ohrstrom-Bryant Theatre only. Accommodations for disabilities may be arranged by contacting the Box Office at least three days prior to the performance.
Jazz Combos present their spring concert featuring a diverse lineup of jazz standards.
Kenny Dorham: Blue Bossa
Duke Ellington: Take the “A” Train
Horace Silver: Song For My Father
James Williams: Say Dr. J
Joey Calderazzo: Midnight Voyage
Wayne Shorter (arr. Terence Blanchard): Footprints
Herbie Hancock: Driftin’
Skylar DeGroot: Una Noche
José Feliciano: Affirmation
Frank Foster: Shiny Stockings
George Duke: Creepin’
More selections to be announced from the stage.
All facilities are wheelchair accessible. Infrared hearing system headsets are available in Ohrstrom-Bryant Theatre only. Accommodations for disabilities may be arranged by contacting the Box Office at least three days prior to the performance.
Photos by C. King Photography
(540) 665-4569
Box Office at Shenandoah University
1460 University Drive, Winchester, VA 22601