W&L Concert Celebrates Stan Kenton Centennial
Washington and Lee University celebrates the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of jazz icon Stan Kenton in a musical extravaganza conducted by Washington and Lee music professor Terry Vosbein.
The concert, featuring the University of Tennessee Studio Orchestra combined with the trombones of the Knoxville Jazz Orchestra, will take place in Wilson Hall at 8 p.m. on Saturday, October 8. It is free and open to the public.
Stan Kenton was an innovative band leader who started his career in the fading days of the Big Band Era. He went on to push the limits of large ensemble jazz music.
“He was never satisfied, always chasing the future,” according to Vosbein, who has spent decades studying and performing music from the Kenton oeuvre. This performance will showcase some of Kenton’s most well known titles, but in not-so-familiar string settings. In addition, the concert will feature the world premiere of a long lost composition for strings written in 1950 by the experimentalist Bob Graettinger.
Vosbein recently spent the summer in Paris, composing additional music for this concert. The centerpiece of this new material is a suite written for his friend and stellar trombonist, Tom Lundberg, lead trombonist for the Knoxville Jazz Orchestra. Featuring a string section and New Orleans style drummer in the accompaniment role, this three movement work is driving, passionate and jazzy.
The University of Tennessee Studio Orchestra, under the direction of Rusty Holloway, is an exciting ensemble that combines combinations of strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion and rhythm section players.The group’s repertoire includes both jazz and commercial music and is taken from both the established repertoire as well as student and faculty compositions and arrangements.
The Knoxville Jazz Orchestra has been garnering increasing acclaim with a string of first-rate performances and recordings. The orchestra’s powerful trombone section joins the UT players in this concert, adding their precision ensemble stylings and creative soloing to the mix.
A reception follows the performance, offering the audience a chance to meet and greet the performers.
News Contact:
Jeffery G. Hanna
Executive Director of Communications and Public Affairs
jhanna@wlu.edu
(540) 458-8459
