A PROGRAM OF NEW COMPOSITIONS FOR JAZZ ORCHESTRA BY PITT FACULTY, STUDENTS, AND ALUMNI
Sunday, March 19, 2023 @ 2pm, Bellefield Hall Auditorium, University of Pittsburgh
PROGRAM LINK
New jazz compositions by a number of Pittsburgh-area musicians will be featured in the 2023 Pitt Jazz Composers Concert, to be held Sunday, March 19, 2023 at 2 p.m. in the University of Pittsburgh’s Bellefield Hall Auditorium, 315 S. Bellefield Ave., Oakland. The event is free and open to the public.
The Composers Concert, first held in 2018, features compositions by Pitt students, faculty, staff or alumni, performed by a group of Pittsburgh jazz musicians. This year’s program will include works by the following composers:
Juwon Adenuga, first-year PhD student in jazz studies;
Jason Belcher, PhD in music theory/composition;
Samuel Boateng, PhD candidate in jazz studies;
Ralph Guzzi, director of the University of Pittsburgh Jazz Ensemble;
Aaron “A.J.” Johnson, interim director of the Pitt Jazz Studies Program;
Joseph Langnese, Pitt alumnus;
Mark Micchelli, PhD candidate in jazz studies and composition/theory;
Nicole Mitchell, former director of Pitt Jazz Studies, Professor of Music, University of Virginia; and
Rick Nowlin, Pitt alumnus.
A.J. Johnson developed the concert to give composers the unusual opportunity to hear their works, and those of others, performed by top professional jazz musicians.
“The idea came about when an advanced student in my jazz arranging class wrote an exciting piece that was beyond the capability of the student jazz orchestra,” said Johnson. “Very few composers will have a band of this quality standing by to play their new works. This concert, open to the entire Pitt community, is an opportunity for them to stretch out and not worry about the difficulty of the music they are writing.”
Performing musicians will include Pitt music faculty members Yoko Suzuki and Kenneth Powell, among others. The concert is cosponsored by Pitt’s Department of Music, Office of Residence Life, and Office of the Chancellor.
