Morningside to host Jazz Festival
The 35th annual Morningside College Tri-State Jazz Festival will be Feb. 2 on the Morningside campus.
The festival will feature performances by several area high school jazz bands throughout the day and conclude with a concert by the Morningside College Jazz Band featuring special guest Adam Schroeder at 7:30 p.m. in Eppley Auditorium.
The jazz band is directed by Peter Hittle, a 1978 Morningside graduate. Schroeder will perform as a soloist with the jazz band and also will perform with a jazz trio. The concert is free and open to the public.
Schroeder and Larry Kisor, longtime high school band and jazz band director, will serve as the festival's clinicians.
Dr. Gerry Bouma, professor and chair of music at Morningside, is director of the Morningside Jazz Festival. The festival is sponsored by Morningside's Academic and Cultural Arts Series.
Unlike recent festivals, this year's event will not be a competition. The focus this year will be on the musical and educational aspects of high school jazz ensembles. Each band will have 30 minutes to perform for a clinician who then will work with each band for another 30 minutes.
The bands participating in the festival are from Council Bluffs Lewis Central, Galva-Holstein, Lawton-Bronson, Okoboji, Rockwell City-Lytton, Sioux City Bishop Heelan and Sioux City East High schools in Iowa, Omaha Westside High School in Nebraska, and Mitchell High School in South Dakota.
Kisor retired last year after more that three decades as a high school band and jazz band director. He taught for 20 years at Sioux City North High School and previously taught at Westwood High School at Sloan, Iowa. Kisor developed a reputation as an outstanding jazz educator and is in demand as both a teacher and clinician. His jazz program at North won 11 state championships and was the state runner-up six other times.
Last year Kisor's North jazz ensemble participated in the prestigious Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra Essential Ellington Competition.
Schroeder, who hails from Sioux City, is a professional jazz musician and educator who resides in Los Angeles. He was awarded Down Beat magazine's Outstanding Young Artist Award in 2000 to become the first baritone saxophonist to ever win the honor.
Schroeder, who toured with Ray Charles for more thanb two years, is in demand as a performer, clinician, and teacher in Los Angeles, San Diego and the San Francisco Bay area.
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