UW Department of Music Spotlight Series Features Jazz Ensemble, Combo Oct. 6

The University of Wyoming Department of Music Spotlight Series presents the Wyoming Jazz Ensemble and UW Jazz Combo I in a fall concert at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 6, in the Buchanan Center for the Performing Arts concert hall.

Tickets are $14 for the public, $10 for senior citizens and $8 for students. To purchase tickets, visit the Performing Arts box office, call (307) 766-6666 or go online at www.tix.com/ticket-sales/uwyo/6984. UW faculty and staff members, and military personnel can purchase tickets at a discounted rate of $8. To receive the discount, visit the Performing Arts box office between noon-6 p.m. Monday-Friday or call (307) 766-6666.

Ben Markley, head of UW Jazz Studies, and an active jazz pianist and composer, directs both ensembles. The program celebrates music written or arranged by female composers.

The Wyoming Jazz Ensemble will perform three works by Mary Lou Williams: “O.W.,” “Chunka Lunka” and “Mary’s Idea”; “Funny You Should Ask” and “The Early Bird” by Sherisse Rogers; and “Bird Count” by Maria Schneider.

UW Jazz Combo I will perform “Wear and Tear” by Bria Skonberg and “Willow Weep for Me” by Ann Ronell.

The Wyoming Jazz Ensemble is Wyoming’s premier big band and has regularly earned the highest ratings at national jazz festivals. The ensemble also has received acclaim for accompaniment of some of the biggest names from visiting jazz musicians who have performed at UW.

UW Jazz Combo I is a small ensemble focusing on the art of improvisation as individuals and as an ensemble.

For more information about the concert, call Kathy Kirkaldie, UW Fine Arts coordinator, at (307) 766-2160 or email kirisk@uwyo.edu.