4/26/2006

Contact: K.E. Schwab  -- 724-738-2199;  e-mail: karl.schwab@sru.edu

SRU JAZZ ENSEMBLE CONCERT TO LAUNCH SUMMER EUROPEAN TOUR; OTHER CONCERTS SET 

     SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – A send-off performance for the Slippery Rock University Jazz Ensemble’s summer European tour, including concerts in Switzerland, Holland, France and Germany,  along with an “Evening of Brass,” and a performance by the Three River’s Jazz Orchestra are on the music calendar at SRU.

      The university’s music department will feature brass at 7:30 p.m. Friday [April 28] in Swope Music Hall. The concert, directed by Dr. Stephen Hawk, Daniel Cloutier and Phil VanOuse, will include students from the trumpet, French horn, trombone, euphonium, and tuba studios. “American Fanfare for Trumpet Octet” and performances by the SRU Trombone Choir, Tuba and Euphonium Ensemble, Horn Quartet, and various configurations of the SRU Trumpet Ensemble are planned. Selections on the program include “St. Louis Blues,” “Flight of the Bumblebee,” “Hallelujah” from Handel's "Messiah," “Jupiter Chorale” from "The Planets" and “Tuba Mirum Fanfare” from Giuseppe Verdi's "Requiem." 

      The SRU Jazz Ensemble I and II will offer the annual “Spring Concert” at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday [May 2] in Miller Auditorium in preparation for the summer European tour, including performances at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Montreux, Switzerland, and the North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam, Holland, two of the largest and most historic jazz festival in the world. By audition, the ensemble was also selected to perform in Paris and in Heidelberg, Germany. The tour will run July 4-16.

      The ensembles concert, under direction of Hawk, associate professor of music, and Dr. David Glover, assistant professor of music, will feature selections from a variety of jazz styles, including some of today's leading jazz composers and arrangers -- Pat Metheny, Mike Tomaro, Chuck Owen, Fred Sturm and Thad Jones. 

      Admission to either concert is $3 for adults and free to students with ID.

      At 4 p.m., Sunday [April 30] the popular Three Rivers Jazz Orchestra will perform in the University Union as part of SRU’s Kaleidoscope arts festival. The group, composed of some of the best jazz musicians in the Pittsburgh area, is co-led by jazz artist Mike Tomaro and Hawk. The group has recently recorded its second CD which will be released later this year.

PN, PGN, WPN, PR, PT

JazzTour.kes.doc