Category Archives: jazz

Display highlights ‘Wonderland’ Xtravaganza

alumni, conducting, events, jazz, student news

The community is invited to a “Wonderland” of the arts at Bowling Green State University on Dec. 6 during the ninth annual ArtsX event, from 6-10 p.m. in The Wolfe Center for the Arts, Kobacker Hall and the Fine Arts Center.

The immersive arts experience will begin even before visitors enter a building, with “Cinema Optique!” Nowhere else in northwest Ohio can visitors enjoy a cinematic experience on a surface nearly as long as a football field.

The 250-foot-wide “screen” is the Wolfe Center’s sloping south wall facing the Fine Arts Center. Throughout the evening 3-D art projections of custom-made films and 3D animations will make the wall appear to come alive in a constantly changing display. Four large projectors producing 14,000 lumens of light will beam live-action and animated films to create a visual spectacle.

“The clean lines and smooth surface of this new building inspired us to develop content custom made for the architecture — over seven million pixels per frame,” said Heather Elliott-Famularo, chair of the digital arts department.

Students of Elliott-Famularo and film instructor Thomas Castillo created the projection-mapped art works in a collaborative class between the School of Art and the Department of Theatre and Film. Their students will also have an exhibition of video installations, “The Wunderkammer,” in the Willard Wankelman Gallery

Corporations such as LG, Nike and Audi have used the projection mapping technique to advertise their products; global cities like Moscow, Quebec, Dubai and Shanghai have lit up the night, transforming their buildings into 3-D works of art. But never before has it been done on such a large scale in this region.

Indoors throughout the evening, the arts and talents of faculty and students will be showcased in performances, exhibits, hands-on activities, a film premiere and a Festival Series concert. Holiday shoppers can find handmade gifts crafted by BGSU art students while being entertained by performers of all types.

Events include the 63rd annual Faculty and Staff Exhibition of mixed media, print, paint, glass and graphics in the Dorothy Uber Bryan Gallery; dramatic readings, aluminum pours, glass blowing, aerial acts and improvised comedy. Children will enjoy the costumed characters, jugglers and archaeological “digs.”

The 7 p.m. Festival Series concert in Kobacker will feature soprano Kisma Jordan, a BGSU alumna, as soloist, plus 200 students, faculty and community members along with some of BGSU’s top ensembles, including the BG Philharmonia, University Choral Society, BGSU Wind Symphony Brass and BGSU’s Heart and Music musical theater students.

Filled with classics like “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch,” traditional carols and some special holiday medleys, “the concert has evolved into a holiday performance of epic proportions,” said Susan Hoekstra, director of public events for the College of Musical Arts. Hoekstra hinted there would be some surprise soloists in the Haydn “Toy Symphony,” where toys take center stage.

Tickets can be purchased at BGSU.edu/FestivalSeries or by calling the box office at 419-372-8171.

ArtsX visitors can also see the premiere of film faculty member Daniel Eric Williams’ movie “Hacked,” a story set in a world where technology rules, privacy is suspect, and everyone is potentially a terrorist — and where one keystroke will destroy your life. Williams will follow the film with remarks about the process and film. The screening begins at 9 p.m. in the Donnell Theatre at the Wolfe Center.

BGSU will also welcome back Jonathan Van Dyke, an expert in interactive photography experiences. This spring he left an impression with his gallery ARTalk. For a preview, visit his website: http://jonathanvandyke.com.

“It’s hard to believe ArtsX is nine years old,” said Abigail Cloud, ArtsX board member and a graduate student in the Creative Writing program. “ArtsX was created to give students a chance to show and sell their work to the community. It’s been growing treelike; the branches keep growing out and incorporating more arts areas.”

ArtsX comprises contributions from the students and faculty of the College of Musical Arts, School of Art, the Department of Theatre and Film, Creative Writing, Interior Design and Architecture and Environmental Design, as well as numerous student groups and clubs.

Visit the Arts website for more details.

BGSU Festival Series concert celebrates the season

alumni, composition, conducting, events, faculty news, jazz, keyboard, student news, voice

BOWLING GREEN, O.—The holiday Festival Series performance at Bowling Green State University on Dec. 6 will live up to its name, presenting a festival of music, poetry, dance, theater and more.

The 7 p.m. concert in Kobacker Hall will feature soprano Kisma Jordan, a BGSU alumna, as soloist with the BG Philharmonia in Bach/Gounod’s “Ave Maria,” plus 200 students, faculty and community members along with some of BGSU’s top ensembles, including the University Choral Society, BGSU Wind Symphony Brass and BGSU’s Heart and Music musical theater students.

Filled with classics like “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch,” traditional carols and some special holiday medleys, “the concert has evolved into a holiday performance of epic proportions,” said Susan Hoekstra, director of public events for the College of Musical Arts. Hoekstra hinted there would be some surprise soloists in the Haydn “Toy Symphony,” where toys take center stage.

The award-winning Prestige Barbershop Quartet will bring their harmonies to “What Child Is This?” and the bouncy rhythms of “Sleigh Ride” will liven the pace.

Tickets can be purchased at BGSU.edu/FestivalSeries or by calling the box office at 419-372-8171.

The concert is part of a whole evening of entertainment with BGSU’s family-friendly ArtsX events across campus.

Series tickets on sale for Festival Series

alumni, education, events, jazz, keyboard, student news, Uncategorized

BOWLING GREEN, O.—The College of Musical Arts at Bowling Green State University invites the community to “Experience the Top” during the 2013-14 Festival Series. Highlighting performances in a variety of categories, the series features artists who are rising to the top. Series tickets are available now online at the BGSU box office.

The series begins on Sept. 28 in Kobacker Hall, where guests can listen to outstanding young musicians at a live taping of the popular National Public Radio show “From the Top,” hosted by acclaimed pianist Christopher O’Riley, who also performed as a soloist in the 2012 BGSU Festival Series.

What began as a radio experiment in 2000 quickly became one of the fastest growing and most popular weekly classical music programs on public radio. Broadcast on nearly 250 stations nationwide to an audience of more than 700,000 listeners each week, “From the Top” celebrates the performances and stories of America’s best pre-college classical musicians.

“‘From the Top’ gives young musicians the stage but lets them act their age. It’s serious music but classically kids,” said The New York Times.

Continuing the series, guests will experience an extravaganza of BGSU’s top artistic talent on Dec. 6 at a special holiday concert that will be part of the annual ArtsX event. In the first ever such large-scale collaboration, the College of Musical Arts, the School of Art, and the departments of theater and film, creative writing, and dance will present an artistic showcase themed “Wonderland.” The concert will include ensembles from the University and community, as well as readings, performances and artistic expressions celebrating the season from students and faculty in theater, film, dance and fine art. This is a holiday event that encompasses all the talents among the arts at BGSU, and will be an evening for all ages.

In the spring of 2014, Festival Series will welcome one of today’s top pianists, Jeremy Denk, performing on Feb. 15. “Mr. Denk, clearly, is a pianist you want to hear no matter what he performs, in whatever combination – both for his penetrating intellectual engagement with the music and for the generosity of his playing,” said the New York Times.

An American pianist with an international reach, Denk has steadily built a reputation as an unusual and compelling artist, with a broad and thought-provoking repertoire. He has appeared as soloist with many major orchestras in the United States and around the world. But beyond that, Denk is also known for his witty and personal music writing, which has appeared in The New Yorker and Newsweek, on the front page of the New York Times Book Review, on the NPR Music website and in his widely read blog.

The Festival Series concludes April 5, 2014, on a comic note with the renowned Improvised Shakespeare Company (ISC). Based on an audience suggestion, the company creates a fully improvised play in Elizabethan style. Each of the players has brushed up on his “thee’s” and “thou’s” to produce evening of off-the-cuff comedy using the language and themes of William Shakespeare. Any hour could be filled with power struggles, star-crossed lovers, sprites, kings, queens, rhyming couplets, insults, persons in disguise and all that we’ve come to expect from the pen of the Great Bard. The night could reveal a tragedy, comedy, or history. Nothing is planned out, rehearsed, or written. Each play is completely improvised, so each play is entirely new.

The Improvised Shakespeare Company, founded in 2005, has been performing its critically acclaimed show every Friday night at the world-famous iO Theater in Chicago and entertains audiences around the globe. It has been named Chicago’s best improvisation group by both the Chicago Reader and the Chicago Examiner and has received a New York Nightlife Award for “Best Comedic Performance by a Group.”

The Festival Series is one of the oldest running performance series at BGSU, and is made possible by the support of the community. Series tickets range from $58-$147 and are available online, or by calling the Arts Box Office at 419-372-8171. Individual event tickets will be available in August. Visit the Arts Box Office website for specific ticket prices and event times.

Hugh Masekela closes out Festival Series

events, jazz, theory-musicology-ethnomusicology


BOWLING GREEN, O.—The Bowling Green State University College of Musical Arts closes out the 2012-13 Festival Series with renowned South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela. He will perform with his band at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, April 3, in Kobacker Hall of Moore Musical Arts Center.

An innovator in the world music and jazz scene, Masekela is best known for his 1968 Grammy-nominated hit single, “Grazing in the Grass,” which sold over four million copies. He played an integral role in Paul Simon’s tour for “Graceland,” which was one of the first pop records to introduce African music to a broader public.

Masekela has collaborated with numerous artists in the United States, Africa and Europe, including Miriam Makeba, Dizzy Gillespie, Harry Belafonte, Herb Alpert, Fela Kuti (in Nigeria) and Franco (in the Congo). Renowned choreographer Alvin Ailey chose a piece by Masekela to create a work for his Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Masekela also co-created the Broadway smash musical “Sarafina” that introduced the sounds and passion of South African music to theater audiences worldwide.
He was recently nominated for a 2012 Grammy Award in the “Best World Music Album” category for the album “Jabulani,” produced and arranged by Don Laka and released through the Gallo Record Company label in South Africa and Razor and Tie Records in the U.S.

Masekela’s music portrays the struggles and joys of living in South Africa and voices protest against slavery and discrimination. His work as an activist raised international awareness of the South African government’s restrictive apartheid policies. In the 1980s his hit song “Bring Him Back Home” became an anthem for the Free Nelson Mandela movement.
In the 1990s Masekela himself finally returned to South Africa and renewed the musical ties to his homeland. In 2004 he released his autobiography, “Still Grazing: The Musical Journey of Hugh Masekela,” a stunning memoir that is both heartbreaking and hilarious.

Maskela is joined by Abednigo Sibongiseni Zulu, bass guitar; Frances Manneh Edward Fuster, percussion and backing vocals; Randal Skippers, keyboards and backing vocals, and Lee-Roy Sauls, drums and backing vocals. The BGSU performance is the first on an 18-city tour in support of his new recording, “Playing@Work.”

To purchase tickets online, visit http://bgsu.edu/arts. Tickets can also be purchased by calling 419-372-8171.

BGSU students selected for Ohio All-State Inter-Collegiate Jazz Band

jazz, student news

Congratulations to guitarist Ariel Kasler,drummer Dave Nelson, and saxophonists Chris Kosar and AJ Shank, who were selected to participate in  the 2013 Ohio All-State Inter-Collegiate Jazz Band.  These students were chosen from musicians all over the state who auditioned for a chance to perform at the 2013 OMEA convention in Columbus, under the direction of Rob Parton of Capitol University.

BGSU alumnus performs with Johnny Mathis on The Tonight Show Dec. 20

alumni, faculty news, jazz, jazz-alumni, keyboard

For 1975 BGSU alumnus Scott Lavender, his career has been a series of connections that has led to his musical success.

One of his most enduring connections was made in 1990, when Johnny Mathis’s librarian/copyist, whom he had met during a gig in the late 1970s in Wichita, Kansas, suggested Lavender audition to play with the popular music singer. He was hired, started in January 1991 and has worked with him ever since.

“It’s the best job of its kind,” Lavender said. “He (Mathis) carries four of us with him for his shows; we play all over the country, always with an orchestra.

“No one carries people around with them any more, not even Tony Bennett.” Lavender added.

And this week on Thursday night, Mathis is bringing his team along when he performs holiday tunes on The Tonight Show. It’s not the first time Lavender has been on The Tonight Show with Mathis, but he always enjoys the opportunity.

In addition to working with Mathis, Lavender has made a name for himself as a conductor in the world of symphony pops concerts. He has conducted nationally and internationally and offers pops programs to orchestras and audiences across North America.

Lavender grew up in Findlay, Ohio, in a house where music was the norm. His parents appreciated music ranging from classical to country. “If it was good music, they played it,” Lavender recalled. At the age of 7, he started playing piano, but like many children he was bored with practicing, so he gave up the piano when he was 11.

That didn’t end his musical career; instead, he joined a rock and roll band in junior high, and then discovered jazz in college at BGSU. His musical prowess caught the attention of then-musical arts faculty member David Melle, who recruited him as a sophomore to play trombone in the jazz lab band. For the next three years, while earning a bachelor’s degree in piano performance, he was in the jazz lab band performing everything from jazz to pop music.

Following graduation, he followed up on a jazz band connection that landed him at the University of North Texas in their prestigious jazz studies master’s program. He found the studies a bit confining, so instead opted to go on the road with Jesse Lopez, a buddy he met in Dallas and brother to Trini Lopez. “Three hundred dollars a week seemed like a good thing at the time,” Lavender said with a laugh.

While touring with Lopez, a job in Wichita also made a forever connection for him- it’s where he met Carolyn, his wife-to-be, in 1976. Two years later, they married and moved to L.A. in search of work with $500 in their pockets. Shortly after the move, he was contacted by another Texas connection – Marlene Ricci – who asked if he wanted to go to Las Vegas and perform, opening for Sinatra at the Palace. After one week there, he and his wife moved to Vegas, where they stayed for three years. “I worked there doing all kinds of production shows, small groups and gaining an understanding of the profession.

A Las Vegas connection then hooked him up with folk singer Glenn Yarbrough (and the Limelighters), which afforded him the opportunity to move back to L.A., where his wife could study communicative disorders, and he eventually earned a master’s in instrumental conducting.

The only time he did not have a connection for that next gig was in 1984. “I had put my name into a musician’s contact service, where anyone can pay a fee to look for available musicians.” Lavender said.

“One night I had been playing in a smoky bar and came home to a message on my machine of a guy looking for a keyboard player,” he recalled. It turned out to be Daryl Dragon of the musical duo Captain and Tennille.

He has kept in touch with people who are particularly talented, he admits, which has helped pave the way for his successful career. ‘The biggest success is lasting this long and being able to make a living in this business,” he said.

“I’ve been able to do what I love, support and family and do OK. And I’m still at it,” he said. If anyone had told 35 years ago that he would realize this kind of success, he would have been surprised.

“If I had jumped from the starting point to this, it would have been surprising, but as you go along, over the years, it’s a different perspective,” he said. “I liken it to looking at a painting up close: you only see the dots when you are up close, but when you step back and get perspective, you see the whole picture.”

Recently, they decided to get out of the big city. He and his family moved to his hometown to start a new phase of life. “I hoped at some point to have the opportunity to teach,” he said. And by chance, he was watching a BGSU basketball game when Jeffrey Showell, dean of the College of Musical Arts, introduced himself and asked if Lavender would be interested in teaching at BGSU. “It’s another case of perfect timing,” he said.

For the first time this fall, he taught a conducting course on campus, and plans to continue in the spring, as well. “The students here are so focused and take their studies so seriously,” he said. “Most of them have no idea who Johnny Mathis is, but when I told them I would be on the Tonight Show, that’s what they wanted to talk about.”