New England Conservatory Presents The NEC Gospel Ensemble and NEC Jazz Composers Ensemble on Thursday, April 10 at Brown Hall

Join two exceptional NEC student ensembles – the NEC
Gospel Ensemble and the NEC Jazz Composer’s Ensemble – as they perform contemporary gospel
music and student compositions, plus works by Thelonious Monk and Wayne Shorter
on Thursday, April 10 at
8 p.m. in NEC’s Brown Hall, 290 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA. The
concert is free and open to the public. For more information, log on to http://necmusic.edu/nec-jazz-composers-ensemble-gospel-ensemble
or call 617-585-1122. 

Directed by faculty member Nedelka Prescod, the NEC Gospel Ensemble explores contemporary gospel music with some of the area’s best
student performers: vocalists Sami Stevens, Farayi Malek, Corinne Marina,
Alexandra Keller, Robbie Pate, Michael Mayo, and Sam Jones,
as
well as trumpeter
Josh Gilbert,
tenor saxophonist
Kaz George,
trombonist John Cushing, pianist
Chris McCarthy, organist Joseph Copeland, guitarist
Jeremy Marx, bassist
Neil Patton, and drummer
Ryan Sands.  Watch a video of the ensemble here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSYtduv03Qc.

Directed by NEC Jazz Studies Chair Ken Schaphorst,
students in the NEC Jazz Composers Ensemble perform their own
compositions and arrangements. 
Performers include Aaron
DuBenion, trumpet;
Sarah Hughes, alto saxophone;
Kaz George, tenor
saxophone;
Philip Golub, piano;
Vaughn Stoffey, guitar;
Andrew Schiller, bass;
and Ryan Sands, drums.  They’ll
perform Philip Golub’s Dream
Philip, The Setup;
Kaz
George Level One, Rubato Tune;
Thelonious Monk’s Boo Boo's Birthday;
Peter Jonatan’s Jazz Line; and
Wayne Shorter’s The Big Push. 

NEC’s Jazz Studies Department was the first fully
accredited jazz studies program at a music conservatory. The brainchild of
Gunther Schuller, who moved quickly to incorporate jazz into the curriculum
when he became President of the Conservatory in 1967, the Jazz Studies faculty has included six MacArthur "genius" grant
recipients (three currently teaching) and four NEA Jazz Masters, and alumni
that reads like a who’s who of jazz. Now in its 44th year, the
program has spawned numerous Grammy winning composers and performers. As Mike
West writes in JazzTimes: “NEC’s jazz studies department
is among the most acclaimed and successful in the world; so says the roster of
visionary artists that have comprised both its faculty and alumni.”  The program currently has 114
students; 67 undergraduate and 47 graduate students from 12 countries.

Founded in 1972 by musical visionaries Gunther Schuller and Ran Blake, New England Conservatory's Contemporary
Improvisation program is “one of the most versatile in all of music education”
(JazzEd).  Now in its 41st
year, the program trains composer/performer/ improvisers to broaden their
musical palettes and develop unique voices.  It is unparalleled in its structured approach to ear
training and its emphasis on singing, memorization, harmonic sophistication,
aesthetic integrity, and stylistic openness.  Under Blake's guidance for its first twenty-six years, the
program expanded its offerings under subsequent chair Allan Chase and current
chair Hankus Netsky. Alumni include Don Byron, John Medeski, Jacqueline Schwab,
Aoife O'Donovan and Sarah Jarosz; faculty include Carla Kihlstedt, Blake,
Dominique Eade, and Anthony Coleman. “A thriving hub of musical exploration,”
(Jeremy Goodwin, Boston Globe), the program currently has 43 undergrad and
graduate students from 14 countries. 

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www.necmusic.edu/jazz

http://necmusic.edu/ci