Category Archives: events

Jazz Week 2011 kicks off March 28

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Jay Ashby
Jay Ashby

The sounds of piano, trombone and jazz combos will fill the air at Bowling Green State University starting March 28 as Jazz Week 2011 kicks off.

Events run from March 28 to April 1 with performances, clinics and appearances by BGSU jazz students, faculty and special guests Jay Ashby and Russell Schmidt.

Schmidt is the featured piano performer for the first concert, at 8 p.m. March 28 in Bryan Recital Hall of the Moore Musical Arts Center. Joining Schmidt on a series of selections will be BGSU jazz faculty members David Bixler, alto sax; Chris Buzzelli, guitar; Jeff Halsey, bass, and Roger Schupp, drums.

Schmidt is a previous Director of Jazz Activities at BGSU and holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music, where he studied with legendary jazz pedagogue Rayburn Wright.

As a performer, Schmidt was one of only two American jazz pianists selected to participate in the second Martial Solal International Jazz Piano Competition in Paris. Among his recent recordings are “Season of Change,” which is his debut release as a leader, “Jazz Vespers,” by Paul Ferguson, and “The Surprise of Being – Live at Birdland” by the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra featuring Joe Lovano.

BGSU students in chamber jazz ensembles will take the stage at the Bryan Recital Hall at 8 p.m. March 29.

Russell Schmidt
Russell Schmidt

On March 30, trombonist Jay Ashby and members of the BGSU jazz faculty will perform as part of the Faculty Artist Series. Ashby is a four-time Grammy Award-winning producer whose resume includes over 100 recordings, ranging in style and genre from jazz and pop to world music.

In recent years, Ashby has performed, traveled and recorded extensively with some of the most renowned artists in the industry. His longtime association with trumpet master Claudio Roditi helped develop his strong affinity for “Brazilian Jazz.” As a member of Dizzy Gillespie’s United Nation Orchestra in the early 1990s, Ashby forged relationships with jazz greats Paquito D’Rivera and Jon Faddis. In 1999, in a testament to his versatility, he began his first foray into the pop world as trombonist, percussionist and arranger with pop music icon Paul Simon.

In an educational capacity, Ashby has conducted master classes, residencies and clinics world wide, including annual events in Germany, Brazil and Russia.

BGSU’s Vocal Jazz Ensemble will be featured at 8 p.m. March 31 in Bryan Recital Hall.

On April 1 at 8 p.m. in Kobacker Hall, Ashby will join the Jazz Lab Band I in a program that will include some of Ashby’s own material and arrangements including “The BGSU Blues.”

All events are sponsored in part by Marlene Norton and Jerry Liss and are free and open to the public. To view a schedule of events, click here.

(Submitted by Susan Knapp)

Wayan Balawan and Batuan Ethnic Fusion to Visit BGSU

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Superstar Balinese guitarist Wayan Balawan and his band, Batuan Ethnic Fusion, will visit BGSU from March 17-22. Balawan will guest in several classes, visit the Arts Village, conduct a guitar workshop, and perform a free concert at the Clazel Theatre on March 21 at 8 pm. Balawan has released several albums and is famous for his guitar-tapping technique. His music is a high-powered combination of jazz, gamelan (the ensemble of gongs and metallophones in Bali) and metal

Balawan grew up in the arts village of Batuan in Bali, Indonesia, performing on gamelan, the ensemble well known for its scintillating sound and tempo. As a young man, he was drawn first to the guitar and then to the style known in the 1980s as speed metal and the music of bands such as Deep Purple and Van Halen. He was later attracted to jazz, particularly the jazz-rock styles of John McLaughlin, Chick Corea and Stanley Jordan. He was invited to study at the Australian Institute of Music in Sydney in the 1990s, and honed his jazz skills during that time to become one of the leading and most virtuosic players in Australia.

When he returned to Bali in 1997, he had mastered the tapping style of guitar playing and had mixed it with jazz harmony, rock rhythms, and Balinese gamelan sensibilities to create an entirely new sound. He founded the Batuan Ethnic Fusion band and has since toured throughout Indonesia and most of the world. He soon became famous for playing two guitars at once or two necks of a 12-string guitar at once through using all of his fingers over two fingerboards.

Batuan Ethnic Fusion has released three CDs with a fourth planned for later this year. The 2008 release, See You Soon, won an award as Best Instrumental Jazz Album in Indonesia. Balawan has also released a solo CD and was three members of Trisum, a recording project featuring superstar guitarists in Indonesia. In addition, Balawan produced a CD featuring the Bali Guitar Club, an organization he founded several years ago that is now 300 members strong.

He is touring the United States for the first time in spring, 2011, bringing with him two members of Batuan Ethnic Fusion to play gamelan instruments and picking up jazz drummers and bass players at every stop. In the United States, the band will play a combination of jazz standards and Balawan’s eclectic hybrid originals that fuse gamelan, metal, and jazz into a synthesis. Balawan and his gamelan musicians Suwida and Suarsana will be joined on stage at the Clazel Theatre by CMA jazz bass student Adam Meinerding and Afro-Caribbean ensemble director, Olman Piedra. This concert will be an unforgettable and high-powered experience!

(Submitted by Eftychia Papanikolaou)

BGSU Chamber Music Competition winners announced

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Four student chamber ensembles from Bowling Green State University’s College of Musical Arts have been announced as the winners of the fifth annual Chamber Music Competition held Feb. 20.

The winner of the undergraduate division was the “Four Corners Quartet,” coached by graduate assistant Noa Even. Playing soprano saxophone was Xiao Han from Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China. On alto saxophone was Ryan Hurd from Parma, Ohio; on tenor saxophone, Corey Whitt from Pulaski, Wis., and on baritone saxophone Anthony Nicolia from Rochester, N.Y.

Taking second place in the undergraduate division was “Flow Like Water,” a percussion trio consisting of Alvin Dawson from Toledo, Jacob Bori from Swanton, and Elizabeth Hall from Medina.

The graduate division winner was the “Ying Quartet,” coached by Distinguished Artist Professor John Sampen and consisting of John Cummins, on soprano saxophone, from Grinnell, Iowa; Drew Sevel, on alto saxophone, from Columbus; Pin-hua Chen, on tenor saxophone, from Taipei, Taiwan; and Elissa Kana, playing baritone saxophone, from Katy, Texas.

The second-place winners of the graduate division were the “Color Field Ensemble” coached by Dr. Jane Schoonmaker Rodgers. The ensemble consisted of soprano Amanda DeBoer, from Papillion, Neb.; pianist Karl Larson, from McFarland, Wis., and clarinetist Spencer Prewitt, from Braymer, Mo.

Finalists in each division received a certificate of merit. The winners of the competition received the Chamber Music Community Engagement Award and the Pro Musica Award. Pro Musica is a community organization dedicated to supporting students in the College of Musical Arts. First- and second-place winners of each division received a certificate of merit and cash prizes sponsored by Pro Musica.
Richard and Carolyn Lineback established the Chamber Music Community Engagement Award in 2006. It provides travel funds for the winning chamber ensembles to present concerts and clinics in the community and region following the chamber music competition.

(Submitted by Susan Knapp)

BGSU Festival Series presents ‘The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess’

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The Gershwin's Porgy and BessThe Bowling Green State University Festival Series celebrates Black History Month with selections from “The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess” by George Gerswhin, DuBose and Dorothy Heyward and Ira Gershwin. The performance begins at 8 p.m. Feb. 26 in Kobacker Hall of the Moore Musical Arts Center.

The performance will include the Bowling Green Philharmonia, directed by Emily Freeman Brown, with guest soloists soprano Kisma Jordan in the role of Bess, baritone Daniel Washington as Porgy and baritone Alvin B. Waddles III as Crown, a tough stevedore, and Jasbo Brown, the jazz pianist. The production also features a combined choir comprising members of the BGSU Gospel Choir, College of Musical Arts music students, and additional choral guests.

First performed in 1935, “Porgy and Bess” is considered an American folk-opera.  With music by George Gershwin, libretto by DuBose Heyward and lyrics by Heyward and Ira Gershwin, it depicts the life of African-Americans living in the fictitious 1920s Catfish Row, based on the real-life Cabbage Row in Charleston, S.C. The opera tells the story of a crippled beggar who attempts to rescue Bess from Crown, her violent and possessive lover, and from the allure of Sportin’ Life, the local drug dealer.

Washington’s recent performances include concert versions of “Porgy and Bess” with the Berlin Philharmonic, Montreal Symphony, Detroit Symphony and others. He has also portrayed Balthazar in Menotti’s “Amahl and the Night Visitors,” directed by the composer. Washington is associate dean for faculty and multicultural affairs and a professor of voice at the University of Michigan.

A BGSU alumna, Jordan has appeared with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and others. She received an invitation from renowned mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne to participate in “The Song Continues” master class and recital festival, presented by the Marilyn Horne Foundation at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall. In fall 2006, Jordan made her recital debut in Philadelphia as artist-in-residence at the Academy of Vocal Arts.

Waddles is the featured piano soloist in the annual productions of “Too Hot to Handel” in Detroit and Chicago and can frequently be heard performing his own Fats Waller Revue.

BGSU student soloists include Greg Ashe, a tenor and graduate student in voice from Dayton, Ohio, as Sportin’ Life, the dope peddler; soprano Rebecca Eaddy, a graduate student in voice performance from Milan, Mich.; baritone Franklin Brewer, a graduate student in voice performance from Dayton; soprano Monique Young, a graduate student in voice performance from Detroit; tenor Preston Wilson, a graduate student in music education from Durham, N.C.; mezzo-soprano Kristen Crokett, a sophomore in voice performance from Ann Arbor; tenor Christopher Jackson, a junior in voice performance from Cincinnati; baritone Ryan Jones, a senior in voice performance from Columbus, and Karrie Lester, a sophomore in voice performance from Lima, Ohio.

For ticket information, call the Moore box office weekdays from noon-6 p.m. at 1-800-589-2224 or 419-372-8171 or e-mail musictickets@bgsu.edu

(Submitted by Susan Knapp)