Trumpet Player Peter Olstad Featured in Upcoming Jazz Concert at UW

The Wyoming Jazz Ensemble, directed by J. Scott Turpen, and the UW Jazz Ensemble II, directed by Ben Markley, will perform Thursday, Feb. 18, at 7:30 p.m. in the University of Wyoming Buchanan Center for the Performing Arts concert hall.

The concert will feature jazz and contemporary jazz music. Peter Olstad will perform as lead trumpet player on pieces such as “’Round Midnight,” “Blues for a Gated Community,” “The More I See You” and “Caravan.”

Tickets cost $10 for the public, $7 for senior citizens and $6 for students. For tickets and information, call (307) 766-6666, visit www.uwyo.edu/finearts, or visit the Wyoming Union information desk or Performing Arts box office.

Olstad has toured and performed with Maynard Ferguson, Buddy Rich, Woody Herman, Blood, Sweat and Tears; Mel Torme, Brian Setzer, Tom Jones and Latin pop star Luis Miguel.

Born in Burbank, Calif., Olstad later moved to Evergreen, Colo. He attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, Mass., and the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley. While in college, he received Downbeat Magazine's "Best Jazz Soloist Award" three years in a row in the college division and, later, was one of five finalists in the Thelonious Monk Institute's Louis Armstrong Jazz Trumpet Competition in Washington, D.C.

Olstad spent 15 years as a freelance trumpet player in Los Angeles, Calif., and later relocated to New York City for another 10 years, before settling back in Denver, Colo., where he now resides.

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