KINGSTON, R.I. – Oct. 18, 2024 – The Department of Music at the University of Rhode Island has scheduled a variety of exciting concerts this fall starting Saturday, Oct. 26, with the Jazz Big Band featuring special guest trombonist Joseph Jefferson.
Tickets for each concert can be purchased through Eventbrite or at the box office one hour prior to the performance. General admission tickets are $15, $10 for students and seniors 60 and older. Children 12 and under get in free. All events will be held at the Fine Arts Center Concert Hall, 105 Upper College Road, Kingston. To see a full schedule of performances for the semester, check out music events.
The Jazz Big Band, directed and taught by Emmett Goods, is a 15-piece ensemble showcasing the world of jazz and what it has to offer. The concert, entitled “It Was a Very Good Year,” will feature music associated with jazz artists born in 1924 and will include a pre-concert talk by Goods. The concert starts at 3 p.m.
The main reason for performing music from 1924, Goods said, is the abundance of significant jazz musicians, ranging from pianist and composer Bud Powell and trombonist J.J. Johnson to vocalists Sarah Vaughan and Dinah Washington.
There will be a variety of solos taking place throughout the concert but “keep an eye out for freshman Sebastian Rosa performing a solo on the trumpet,” Goods said.
On Sunday, Oct. 27, The American Band concert was developed around a three-movement work by Julie Giroux called Culloden, which honors the music of the Scottish Highlands in the mid-18th century, said Brian Cardany, director of the band. The American Band is one of the earliest established community bands in the country. The concert starts at 3 p.m.
URI Wind Ensemble and Concert Band will perform in a joint concert that will take place Sunday, Nov. 3, at 3 p.m., under the direction of Cardany, URI’s director of bands. This will be the fourth time that the Concert Band and Wind Ensemble participate in a joint concert, but they will perform separately.
The Concert Band will perform four songs, Halcyon Hearts (Katahj Copley), Aquarium (Johan de Meij), Sheltering Sky (John Mackey), and Elements (Brian Balmages). Sheltering Sky will be led by graduate conductor Ryan Cox.
The Wind Ensemble will also perform four songs, Liberty Bell March (John Philip Sousa), Symphonic Songs for Band (Robert Russell Bennett), Missouri Shindig (H. Owen Reed) and Free Running (Robert Buckley).
Taking their talents to the stage rather than the field, the Ram Marching Band, also coordinated by Cardany, will perform in the Fine Arts Center on Friday, Nov. 15, at 8 p.m. Joining the band will be the Color Guard to perform their floor show.
“The goal is to present concerts that are rewarding and educational for the members, and also engaging for our audiences,” said Cardany.
The URI Concert Choir plans to take the audience on an emotional journey through music on Tuesday, Nov. 19, at 7 p.m. Mark Conley and his Concert Choir will be taking a slightly different approach this year.
Conley said, “We are exploring music that addresses natural disasters and our place in these calamities, exploring a range from sorrow to contemplation to hope and even perhaps to joy. We will also be exploring the role music plays in that experience.”
Conley said the audience should look for a couple of solos in the performance, one is an extended dialogue between a solo quartet and the rest of the choir. Another is an extended solo in the choir’s final piece of the concert.
Ethan Weiner, a junior sports media major and PR minor at the University of Rhode Island and an intern in the Department of Communications and Marketing, wrote this press release.