Guest Saxophonist Joins UW Jazz Ensemble for Oct. 28 Performance

The University of Wyoming Jazz Studies area will present guest saxophonist Jordan VanHemert with UW’s Jazz Ensemble II at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 28, in the Buchanan Center for the Performing Arts concert hall. The concert is free and open to the public.

UW Department of Music Assistant Professor Andy Wheelock will conduct the performance.

The program will feature music written and arranged by VanHemert, Wheelock and Department of Music Associate Professor Ben Markley, director of UW Jazz Studies. Works include “Nardis,” by Miles Davis and arranged by Frank Niemeyer; “Holy Land,” by Cedar Walton and arranged by Markley; “One Hand” and “I Knew You,” by Wheelock, and both arranged by Markley; and “Up Rise,” by Wheelock and arranged by VanHemert.

VanHemert, a bandleader who has performed throughout the United States leading his own groups as well as performing with other artists, is dedicated to sharing the Asian American experience through music.

Equally fluent in the realm of composition as he is in performance, VanHemert’s work is recognized for its sophistication and melodic and harmonic warmth. He is the director of jazz studies at the Joyce and Henry Schwob School of Music at Columbus State University in Columbus, Ga.

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