4/19/2004
Contact: K.E. Schwab --
724-738-2199; e-mail: karl.schwab@sru.edu
SRU TO PREMIERE PERFORMANCE OF THE
THREE RIVERS JAZZ ORCHESTRA SUNDAY
SLIPPERY
ROCK, Pa. - The premiere performance of The Three Rivers Jazz
Orchestra, a hand-selected group of jazz musicians, will be held at
7 p.m. Sunday [April 25] in the Multi-Purpose Room of the
University Union as part of Slippery Rock University's 11-day
Kaleidoscope Arts Festival.
The
group, which has already recorded a CD, was created and directed by
Steve Hawk, assistant professor of music at Slippery Rock
University, and Mike Tomaro, director of jazz studies at Duquesne
University. Hawk, who recently was presented the President's Award
for Excellence in Teaching and who has played trumpet for a similar
group in Cleveland, explains he had long wanted to form such a jazz
group in Pittsburgh. The jazz orchestra will offer a number of jazz
standards, and a number of works by Tomaro, considered one of the
nation's leading jazz composers and arrangers in the educational
arena.
Tickets
are $5 for the general public; $3 for students.
"The
TRJO is comprised of many of the most outstanding big band jazz
musicians in the Pittsburgh region," says Hawk, adding the group's
goal is to provide Pittsburgh with a jazz ensemble able to play
challenging, concert, jazz literature by its own members and some
of today's leading jazz composers, as well as arrangements of
American popular songs and jazz standards.
The
jazz group's first CD titled "Nightowl Suite" is scheduled for
summer release on Sea Breeze Records.
Sunday's
program will include a number of original or arranged works by
Tomaro, as well as such compositions as "Blue Skies," written by
Irving Berlin and arranged by Charles Richard, "Sing, Sang, Sung,"
by Gordon Goodwin, and "Friend Like Me," by Randy Newman and
arranged by Bill Liston.
The
arts festival continues through April 28. Details are available at
www.sru.edu/pages/9090.asp
Members
of the Three Rivers Jazz Orchestra are:
