New York City-based Big Band to Perform March 23

For its Saturday, March 23, concert, Performance Music at The University of Scranton will host the highly versatile New York City-based big band Kyle Athayde Dance Party. The concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the University’s Houlihan-McLean Center, Mulberry Street and Jefferson Avenue. Admission is free, with seating on a first-come, first-seated basis.

In addition, a free masterclass will be offered earlier that day. The class is open to local amateur and professional musicians, ages 16 and older. Those interested in participating should email music@scranton.edu for more information.

Athayde has been a past featured composer for Performance Music’s World Premiere Composition Series Concert and has given several clinics and masterclasses at the University in recent years. He is also well known for his impressive skills as a gamer. He and the other members of Kyle Athayde Dance Party have previously performed at the University as the band for Rob Kapilow’s “What Makes It Great?” program on Duke Ellington, and at swing dances at the DeNaples Center.

“They’re spectacular,” said Cheryl Y. Boga, conductor and director of Performance Music at the University. “Some of the music they do is video game inspired, but in a big band style. They do swing, they do Latin. Originals, covers, you name it. It’s a real mix of everything. They’re some of the greatest young players in America right now. Every member of the band is a little bit of a rising star in their own right.”

Athayde’s music draws inspiration from a number of disparate sources, from video games and internet memes to jazz and classical masterworks.

“Kyle has one of the top five ears of anyone I’ve ever met,” Boga said. “He’s crazy talented.”

A fan of J. S. Bach, Duke Ellington, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Eric Dolphy, Dmitri Shostakovich, Louis Armstrong and Charlie Parker, Athayde has composed and arranged music within a number of genres, with an emphasis on jazz, classical, salsa and electronic.

His recent commissioned compositions and premieres include a double concerto for the New York Sinfonietta, a tone poem for Bobby Sanabria and The Manhattan School of Music Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra, and music for the ending credits of the film, “Diller, Scofidio + Renfro: Reimagining Lincoln Center and the High Line.” In addition, he’s arranged music for the University of California at Berkeley Marching Band’s halftime show and is a visiting faculty member at the Sitka Fine Arts Camp, where he developed and taught a class on video game music history and composition.

The Kyle Athayde Dance Party has performed at a wide range of venues throughout the United States, including clubs, schools, concert halls and even Super Smash Con. The band has performed at a number of high-profile spaces, including Boston’s Jordan Hall; New York City’s Merkin Hall and Dizzy's Club at Jazz at Lincoln Center; SmashCon conventions at the Dulles Convention Center near Washington, D.C.; and a variety of smaller jazz clubs, venues and schools on both the east and west coasts. They recently headlined the Sitka Jazz Festival in Sitka Alaska.

For further information on the concert, call 570-941-7624, email music@scranton.edu or visit scranton.edu/music. For more on Kyle Athayde Dance Party, visit kyleathaydedanceparty.com.