America’s music returns to university
Jazz Festival slated for February
Local high school and junior high ensembles will perform, alongside two Cal State Stanislaus ensembles at the fifth annual Jazz Festival on Feb. 5.

POSTED  Jan. 26, 2010 10:06 p.m.
The California State University, Stanislaus auditorium will be filled with the sounds of trumpets, saxophones, and clarinets when the fifth annual Jazz Festival gets underway Feb. 5.

The all-day event will feature the music stylings of nine high school and one junior high Jazz ensembles. The festival will culminate with an evening concert that will feature two of the ensembles, the CSU Stanislaus Jazz Ensemble, visiting clinicians and performers John Davis and Steve Roach, and special guest artists,

The Collective.

All day long the student bands will have the opportunity to perform and learn techniques that ultimately, will make them better Jazz musicians, said Andy Nevala, the coordinator of Jazz Studies at CSU Stanislaus.

“The goal of the CSU Stanislaus Jazz Festival is to bring together students, educators, and the community to experience a day of great Jazz with performances and clinics from the some of the best educators and professionals in the country,” Nevala said. “Every high school has some sort of Jazz ensemble, big or small, and festivals like these are a good way to inspire the aspiring musicians to want to perform the first musical genre that can truly be called ‘American’.”

Joining the festival this year as clinicians are professors Davis and Roach. Davis is the director of Jazz Studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Under his direction the program has won 14 Down Beat Magazine Student  Music Awards in the past six years, and was named one of the country’s outstanding big bands by the magazine in 2003 and 2005.

Roach is the director of Jazz Studies at CSU Sacramento and is currently on the executive board for the California Institute for the preservation of Jazz and the Capital section of the California Music Educators Association.

Also lending their expertise is the Jazz ensemble The Collective, with trumpeter Larry Engstrom, pianist David Ake, bassist Hans Halt, drummer Andrew Heglund, and saxophonist Peter Epstein.

The music starts at 9:30 a.m. Feb. 5 with each ensemble performing for 30 minutes.

The evening show starts at 7:30 p.m. in the Bernell and Flora Snider Music Recital Hall. Tickets will be available at the door and are $10 for general admission and $8 for students, seniors and CSU faculty and staff. Seating is on a first come, first served basis. Proceeds benefit the Department of Music Scholarship Fund. Parking is free for this event only in Lot #3.

The CSU-Stanislaus Jazz Studies program is focused on providing an educational environment for future jazz educators and performers. Students involved in CSUS jazz have numerous opportunities to perform, participate in master classes, study privately, and to pursue independent projects. In addition, the jazz program offers a comprehensive classroom experience emphasizing performance, composition/arranging, jazz history, pedagogy, styles and analysis, and large and small ensemble playing. The Jazz program also performs a number of outreach activities that are designed to enrich elementary, middle school, and high school students throughout the area, and the community at large.

Click here to watch a video of CSU Jazz Ensemble I!!!!

The growing California State University, Stanislaus, Jazz Studies Program welcomes participation from students throughout the Stanislaus campus, regardless of major. All jazz ensembles are placed through auditions held at the beginning of each semester, including two big bands and 5 jazz combos. Each year, prominent jazz artists are invited to campus to perform and conduct clinics.

For more information, please contact anevala@csustan.edu or call (209) 667–3533.