KINGSTON, R.I. – Oct. 14, 2026 – Centennial year celebrations of two influential jazz artists will be among the many faculty-student performances, fusions, festivals and recitals that the University of Rhode Island’s Department of Music will publicly offer this fall.
The URI Big Band and the In the Pocket Jazz Choir—directed by Lecturer of Amplified Voice Hannah Martin and Artist/Teacher in Jazz Piano Andrew Wilcox—will perform pieces by legendary trumpeter Miles Davis and saxophonist John Coltrane in honor of their respective 100th birthdays this year on Oct. 25 at 5 p.m. in the URI Fine Arts Center Concert Hall, 105 Upper College Road, on the Kingston Campus. Martin said this show will push the boundaries for both the band and choir by adding lyrics and vocals to pieces that are traditionally instrumentals.
While the Big Band and Jazz Choir will each have their own separate performances that evening, the two groups will also perform a song together with a horn section that can be imitated by the singers. The show will also feature original lyrics sung by the choir that were added to traditional instrumental solos, Martin said.
“It’s a cool way to introduce vocalists to more instrumental sounds and repertoires instead of just taking songs that have always been for singers,” Martin said. “This helps with our ear training and pushes our students to feel comfortable about improvising by adding instrumental influences into their singing.”
Wilcox hopes audiences attending the shows will appreciate and celebrate the musical depth from both Davis and Coltrane that will be showcased by University students throughout the fall.
“Miles Davis and John Coltraine pushed the boundaries of how jazz should sound, everything from jazz standards that people will know to their own material they developed throughout their careers,” Wilcox said. “Our goal with the Big Band and Jazz Choir is to honor that history and musical significance on our stage.”
Four jazz combos performances will also be held Oct. 20 and 27, and Dec. 8 and 10 at the URI Fine Arts Center’s Concert Hall, each show starting at 7:30 p.m. Wilcox said the combos will be an eclectic mix of classical and Latin jazz.
Strike up the bands
The URI Guitar and Mandolin Festival, a music staple now in its 11th year, will run Oct. 18-25. The weeklong music celebration, led by URI Associate Teaching Professor and Instructor of Classical Guitar Adam Levin, will bring together world-renowned string artists performing a variety of genres for the local community, as well as offer educational and competitive programs.
The URI Concert Band and Wind Ensemble, led by URI Director of Bands Brian Cardany, will have two shows this fall at the Fine Arts Center, one on Oct. 18 and the other on Nov. 22, both at 3 p.m. This year’s showcase of the two bands will offer audiences a mix of history and energy.
Two pieces by composer Brian Balmages will be among the standards performed by the Concert Band this year, one being “Sparks!”—themed around imagination and innovation—and “Among the Clouds,” transporting audiences into a dreamlike state. The Wind Ensemble, Cardany says, will perform wind-band pieces dating back centuries. The setlist will include “Overture for Winds,” an 1826 score by Felix Mendelssohn and “Sonata pian e forte” by renaissance composer Giovanni Gabrielli, among others.
“Wind music has been around for centuries, but didn’t become an artform until within the last 100 years. We hope the audiences will gain an appreciation of the historical roots of wind music with this year’s selections,” Cardany said.
The community American Band, also conducted by Cardany and one of the country’s oldest continuously active bands, will delight audiences with a full, 35-minute transcription of Modest Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition” on Nov. 1 at 3 p.m. at the Fine Arts Center. The American Band consists of more than 50 adult musicians from Rhode Island and nearby Connecticut and Massachusetts.
A mix of Inuit proverbs, nighttime and mystery will be among the music selections performed by the URI Concert Choir’s Nov. 19 show—start time 7:30 p.m. Professor Mark Conley, director of choral performance, will lead the choir consisting of a select group of singers. Some pieces to be sung by the choir include two settings entitled “Hallelujah!,” one is the “Hallelujah Chorus” from Handel’s Messiah, and another is a setting of Psalm 150 by 19th century German Jewish composer Louis Lewandowski, sung in Hebrew.
Both the URI Symphony Orchestra and the University Chorus will have a joint performance on Nov. 18 at 7:30 p.m. in the Fine Arts Center’s Concert Hall. Along with each group performing their respective individual sets, both the orchestra and chorus will jointly collaborate on their respective rendition of Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus.”
“We have really enjoyed the collaboration and the opportunity to sing with the full orchestra is especially exciting for the singers,” Chorus Director Elizabeth Woodhouse said. “Performing the ‘Hallelujah Chorus’ is always thrilling, including for the audience. We hope the audience gets inspired from what they hear on Nov. 18 and it will be a beautiful way to showcase how music brings a community together.”
The University Chorus is composed of 75 students, faculty, staff and community members, who encompass a range of choral singing experience. Woodhouse said the chorus’ first set—“Don’t Be Seen” by Stuart Chapman Hill, “Earth Song” by Frank Ticheli and “Where the Light Begins” by Susan LaBarr—will center around the “Hide and Seek” theme, featuring works by living contemporary composers.
The chorus will also perform two holiday pieces, one a South African Christmas carol arranged by Victor C. Johnson titled “Sizalelwe Indodona (Unto us a child is born)” that will be sung in Zulu. The other is the traditional Hebrew dreidel song arranged by Betty Bertaux titled “S’vivon.”
URI Director of Orchestral Studies Luis Viquez says the orchestra’s set will combine challenging pieces and works by underrepresented composers, which students are looking forward to playing. Along with Leonard Bernstein’s “Symphonic Dances from West Side Story,” the orchestra will also perform Jenni Brandon’s “The Weaver”—conducted by URI graduate student Victor Sanchez.
Viquez is also excited to bring to the stage Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 1,” which he has taught as a conducting professor for more than 15 years but never conducted in public.
“Our goal is for our students to not only appreciate the standard repertoire that has been written for orchestra, but also understand the importance of promoting music by women and other underrepresented composers,” Viquez said. “We’ve made a very conscious effort here in the music department to do that.”
Tickets for concerts can be purchased through Eventbrite or one hour prior to performance at the Box Office. General Admission tickets cost $20, students and seniors (60 and older) cost $10 and children 12 and under are free. Events are located in the Fine Arts Center Concert Hall, unless stated otherwise.
To see the full list of concerts being offered this semester, please visit the Music Department events page.