TAMPA - Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center welcomes the Eastman Jazz Ensemble from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, for a four-day residency at the Patel Conservatory beginning Saturday, Oct. 14.
Four days of events kick off with a Saturday concert, 8:30 p.m., in the TECO Theater, when the Eastman Jazz Ensemble, led by conductor Bill Dobbins, jams with local musicians including Patel Conservatory faculty member and Eastman alumni James Crumbly.
The residency with the Eastman Jazz Ensemble also includes a lecture and demonstration master class on the history of jazz piano on Sunday, Oct. 15. On Monday, Oct. 16, local secondary school students will join the ensemble for a daylong workshop culminating in a free concert at 2:30 p.m. on the riverfront at TBPAC. EJE will give a second riverfront concert on Monday at 6:30 p.m.
And on Tuesday, Oct. 17, at 10:15 a.m., the Eastman Jazz Ensemble will give an On-School-Time performance for as many as 1,000 local students.
The Eastman Jazz Ensemble has been recognized as one of the world's premier collegiate jazz performing organizations for three decades. Years before Eastman alumnus Chuck Mangione became the ensemble's first faculty director, the band was established and governed by Eastman student musicians. In 1970, former Radio City Music Hall musical director Rayburn Wright was hired to develop the Eastman jazz studies and contemporary media program and in 1972, he succeeded Mangione as director of the Jazz Ensemble. Bill Dobbins, who led the group from 1989 to 1994, returned to the position in 2002 after an eight-year tenure as principal director of the WDR Radio Big Band in Cologne, Germany. Fred Sturm served as director from 1995 to 2002.
The Eastman Jazz Ensemble has frequently received the award for "Best Big Band" in the Annual Down Beat Magazine Student Music Awards, most recently in 2000. It has frequently been featured at the Annual Conference of the International Association of Jazz Educators, most recently in New York City in 2001. The group has performed at the International Jazz Festival in Montreux, Switzerland and in renowned concert halls throughout the world.
Tickets for the Oct. 14 concert are $10; Master class tickets are $5. Tickets may be purchased by calling 813-229-STAR (7827) or 800-955-1045 outside Tampa Bay, in person at The TBPAC Ticket Office or online at TBPAC.ORG.
For more information about the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center and its upcoming events, please visit TBPAC.ORG.
