
The University of Scranton Jazz Band will take the stage Saturday, Feb. 22, with acclaimed saxophonist Ted Nash joining them as the evening’s featured guest. Presented by Performance Music at The University of Scranton, the concert begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Houlihan-McLean Center, Mulberry Street and Jefferson Avenue. Admission is free and the concert is open to the public. Seating is on a first-come, first-seated basis.
Nash will also offer a free masterclass for participants ranging from students (ages 16 and older) to professionals the same day, beginning at 4:30 p.m. in the Houlihan McLean Center. Those wishing to attend the masterclass should email music@scranton.edu or call 570-941-7624 for more information. (Younger students may attend accompanied by a parent or legal guardian.)
At the concert, the University’s student jazz ensemble will perform works featuring Nash. According to Performance Music Conductor and Co-Director Janelle Decker, “the program will showcase Ted’s versatility and outstanding mastery as a multi-instrumentalist through a variety of works performed by his own duo as well as together with the university’s jazz band.”
Nash is a two-time Grammy Award Winner known for his uncanny ability to mix freedom with substance, blues with intellect, and risk-taking with clarity. His father, Dick Nash, and uncle, the late Ted Nash, were both well-known jazz and studio musicians. Nash recently retired from a long-standing career as a member of Wynton Marsalis’s Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. He has become one of the most significant jazz composers of the 21st century, and his recordings have received wide critical acclaim, appearing on the “best-of” lists in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Village Voice and The Boston Globe. Portrait in Seven Shades, his first big band recording, garnered two Grammy nominations, and the JLCO recording of his composition Presidential Suite; Eight Variations on Freedom won a Grammy for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album.
Nash is co-founder of the New York-based Jazz Composers Collective, a musician-run, non-profit innovative entity dedicated to presenting the original works of composers pushing the boundaries of self-expression.
The University of Scranton Jazz Band is a 24-member ensemble of big band style instrumentation, made up of University of Scranton student musicians from majors spanning the curriculum. They perform five or more times per year, and the majority of their performances are open to the public, free of admission charge, and often feature a nationally or internationally renowned guest soloist.
For further information on the concert, call 570-941-7624, email music@scranton.edu or visit scranton.edu/music. For more info on Nash, visit tednash.com.
Ted Nash Duo and University Jazz Band to Perform
Grammy Award winner Ted Nash to perform with The University of Scranton Jazz Band on Feb. 22 in the Houlihan-McLean Center.