UW Jazz Festival Concert Features Wyoming Jazz Ensemble and Jeff Hamilton Trio Feb. 27

Fresh off its recent invited performance at the prestigious Jack Rudin Jazz Championship at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City, the Wyoming Jazz Ensemble will perform its competition set Monday, Feb. 27, at 7:30 p.m. in the University of Wyoming’s Buchanan Center for the Performing Arts concert hall.

UW Department of Music Associate Professor Ben Markley directs the Wyoming Jazz Ensemble. The concert will be followed by a public reception hosted by UW’s Office of the President in honor of the Wyoming Jazz Ensemble’s accomplishments.

Tickets are $14 for the public, $10 for senior citizens and $8 for students. To buy 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. To receive the discount, visit the Performing Arts box office between noon-6 p.m. Monday-Friday or call (307) 766-6666.

The jazz concert is the headliner for the annual Wyoming Jazz Festival and also features a set by the acclaimed Jeff Hamilton Trio; members are guest artists and clinicians for the festival.

Drummer Jeff Hamilton is a dynamic bandleader and top-tier jazz musician who is constantly in demand, whether he is recording or performing with his trio or renowned musicians such as Ray Brown and Oscar Peterson.

Featuring pianist Tamir Hendelman and bassist Jon Hamar, the trio is widely considered one of the finest small groups in jazz. The trio has released several albums. The latest, “Jeff Hamilton Trio -- Live From San Pedro,” grabbed the top spot on National Public Radio critic Ken Franckling’s ballot for Best New Release of 2018.

The recent jazz championship in New York City honors the legacy of Rudin, a longtime supporter of Jazz at Lincoln Center (JALC) and founding supporter of the center’s Essentially Ellington program. The two-day invitational competition features ensembles from nine of the most well-regarded university jazz programs in the country for rehearsals and workshops; a combo showcase in the Appel Room; several rounds of competition performances; and a final concert in the Rose Theater, featuring the JALC Orchestra.

Winners of the 2023 competition were selected by a panel of judges that included trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, who also is JALC managing and artistic director; Hamilton; saxophonist Ted Nash; vocalist Catherine Russell; and trumpeter Bijon Watson.

The Wyoming Jazz Ensemble was among three groups honored at the championship for Outstanding Saxophone Section, which featured UW students Belé Carson, Spencer Jacobs and Jacob Walker, all from Cheyenne; Ryan Larsen, of Casper; and Colby Turpen, from Nampa, Idaho.

Casper’s Micah Miller; Sam Jones and Jordan Swayze, both from Cheyenne; and Gerrit Worthington, of Gillette, also were recognized for Outstanding Trumpet Section.

Miller also received Honorable Mention Trumpet and Honorable Mention Original Composition; and Cheyenne’s Bryce Schlacter received Honorable Mention Drums.

“I am so proud of our students,” Markley says. “Their hard work and preparation for the Jack Rudin competition were outstanding. UW Jazz Studies gained new fans and more recognition on a national level for what we are doing here.”

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