Eminent Musician-in-Residence Antonio J. García performs Wednesday with the Wyoming
Jazz Ensemble and the UW Jazz Ensemble II.
The Wyoming Jazz Ensemble, the University of Wyoming's premiere jazz group, along with UW Jazz Ensemble II, will present a public concert Wednesday, March 28, at 7:30 p.m. in the UW Arts and Sciences auditorium. Admission is free.
Directed by Professor Scott Turpen, the Wyoming Jazz Ensemble regularly earns the highest ratings at national jazz festivals, and much acclaim for accompanying some of the biggest names in jazz music. The UW Jazz Ensemble II, directed by Mark Rabideau, performs a variety of repertoire from all styles and periods of jazz music.
The concert will feature Eminent Musician-in-Residence Antonio J. García, a widely acclaimed jazz artist/educator and one of the nation's prominent young music educators. A performer, composer/arranger, producer and author in both instrumental and vocal genres, García is the director of jazz studies at Virginia Commonwealth University. His book, "Cutting the Changes: Jazz Improvisation via Key Centers," offers musicians of all ages the opportunity to improvise over standard tunes using just their major scales.
García has performed as trombonist, bass trombonist or pianist with 70 major artists, including Ella Fitzgerald, George Shearing, Mel Torme, Billy Eckstine, Doc Severinsen, Louie Bellson, Dave Brubeck and Phil Collins. A Bach/Selmer clinician/soloist and avid scat-singer, he is associate jazz editor for the International Trombone Association Journal, past editor of the International Association for Jazz Education Journal, and serves as a network expert for improvisation materials for the Jazz Education Network.
