Jazz, CI 2013-14 Season

New England Conservatory’s Jazz Studies & Contemporary Improvisation Departments Present More Than 100 Free Performances for 2013-2014 Season Plus Residencies with World-Renowned Performers,September 3, 2013 – May 30, 2014

Highlights include residencies by John Zorn, Luciana Souza, Fred Hersch and Dave Holland;

Sun Ra Centennial Concert; Jazz and the Struggle for Freedom and Equality; A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall featuring CI Students;

Ran Blake’s annual Film Noir Concert; Faculty Recitals by Kalmanovitch, Carlberg, Labaree

In the Mix – 75 one-hour concerts by exceptional student ensembles

New England Conservatory’s internationally renowned Jazz Studies and Contemporary Improvisation Departments announce over 100 free concerts for the 2013-2014 season.  Highlights include a Sun Ra Centennial Concert; the Music of John Zorn culminating his NEC residency; the Music of Luciana Souza who performs with NEC students at the end of her 4-day residency; the Music of Dave Holland, who leads NEC students in a performance of his music; Jazz and the Struggle for Freedom and Equality featuring some of the landmark compositions created to combat racism and bigotry; Ran Blake’s annual Film Noir Concert, this year featuring music inspired by Otto Preminger’s Laura and other films; In the Mix, 75 one-hour concerts featuring exceptional student ensembles from the Jazz and Contemporary Improvisation departments, and faculty recitals by NEC luminaries including Eden MacAdam-Somer, Frank Carlberg, Tanya Kalmanovitch, David Eure, Vanessa Morris and Robert Labaree. All concerts are free and open to the public. For more information, click here  or call 617-585-1260.

Fall 2013

All concerts at 8 p.m. except In the Mix events which take place at 7, 8 and 9 p.m., each with a different ensemble.

Tues. Sept. 3, Brown Hall
Opening Night curated by Eden MacAdam-Somer
The CI department opens the academic year with a faculty showcase, featuring performances by Ran Blake, Hankus Netsky, Anthony Coleman, Dominique Eade, Eden MacAdam-Somer, Jerry Leake, and many others.

Thurs. Sept. 12 Jordan Hall       
Eden MacAdam-Somer: Walking Between the Worlds       
Eden MacAdam-Somer is one of the most exciting and versatile young musicians performing today. She’s been hailed by the New York Times as reflecting "astonishing virtuosity and raw expression," and her music transcends genre through soaring violin and fiddling, vocals, and percussive dance, weaving in and out of the many cultures that have formed her experience. In this concert, MacAdam-Somer uses her entire body as a sounding board, performing original works and re-compositions for solo performer, with guitarist and banjo player Larry Unger (her duo partner in Notorious), and students and faculty from the New England Conservatory.

Thurs. Oct. 17, Jordan Hall           
Music of Vaughn Monroe + Billy Eckstine
NEC Jazz Orchestra directed by Ken Schaphorst
Vaughn Monroe came to the New England Conservatory in 1935 to pursue his dream of becoming an opera singer. Five years later years heformed his own big band in Boston and began recording a series of hits for RCA Victor. Although he only studied at NEC for one semester, Vaughn Monroe’s archives were donated to the school after his death. This will be the first concert featuring that donated music. Another noted vocalist and brass player, Billy Eckstine, led one of the most influential big bands in the history of jazz, featuring such giants as Art Blakey, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Dexter Gordon, Fats Navarro, Charlie Parker and Sarah Vaughn. The NEC Jazz Orchestra will perform Eckstine’s hits, including I Want to Talk About You and Jelly, Jelly, as well as the early bebop classics Cool Breeze and Oo Bop Sh’bam.

Sun. Oct. 27, Jordan Hall
Pianist/Composer Frank Carlberg Faculty Recital       

Wed. Oct. 30, Brown Hall
The Music of Fred Hersch                       
NEC grad and faculty member Fred Hersch will perform with NEC students in the culmination of his four-day residency.

Tues. Nov. 5, Jordan Hall
Ninth Annual Film Noir Concert — Preminger’s Laura and more
Pianist/composer/improviser Ran Blake and trombonist/ filmmaker Aaron Hartley bring an extra dimension to Hallowe'en with specimens of that most haunting genre, film noir. Now an annual NEC tradition in its ninth year, this year's concert is based on the best-known specimens of the genre: Laura, Whirlpool (Otto Preminger, 1944/1949), and Leave Her to Heaven (Stahl, 1945). Students and faculty from NEC's Contemporary Improvisation department perform along with scenes from the film, creating a real-time original score as they respond to the drama through improvisations, recompositions, and reinterpretations of David Raksin and Alfred Newman's original music. Members of Aaron Hartley’s Storyboard Noir Ensemble play a key role in this concert.

Nov. 11—14,18—21, Pierce Hall
In the Mix
Jazz performance majors play in ensembles coached by NEC faculty. Each evening presents three sets in an ambience similar to that of a great jazz club.

Thurs. Nov. 21, Brown Hall
Music of Dave Holland
Visiting artist-in-residence bassist/composer Holland will lead NEC students in a performance of his music.  

Thurs. Nov. 21, Jordan Hall       
David Eure NEC Prep Faculty Recital
                   
Mon. Nov. 25, Brown Hall
NEC Jazz Composers Ensemble                   

Tues. Nov. 26, Mon., Dec. 2, Pierce Hall
In the Mix
Jazz performance majors play in ensembles coached by NEC faculty. Each evening presents three sets similar in an ambience similar to that of a great jazz club.                               

Tues. Dec. 3, Brown Hall
Jazz Composers Workshop Orchestra directed by Frank Carlberg   

Wed. Dec. 4, Brown Hall
Music of Luciana Souza                        
NEC grad and Grammy Award winning Brazilian vocalist and composer Souza will perform with NEC students in the culmination of her four-day residency.

Dec. 9—11, Pierce Hall           
In the Mix
Jazz performance majors play in ensembles coached by NEC faculty. Each evening presents three sets similar in ambience to that of a great jazz club.                                   
Wed. Dec. 11, Brown Hall
NEC Youth Jazz Orchestra directed by Ken Schaphorst       

Thurs. Dec. 12, Jordan Hall
Music of Ken Schaphorst with NEC Jazz Orchestra   
Chair of Jazz Studies Ken Schaphorst will direct the NEC Jazz Orchestra in the performance of his original music for big band.

Winter/Spring 2014

All concerts at 8 p.m. except In the Mix events which take place at 7, 8 and 9 p.m., each with a different ensemble.

Mon. Jan. 27, Jordan Hall           
Jazz Faculty Spotlight Concert                   

Sun. Feb. 2, Jordan Hall           
Violist/Improvisor Tanya Kalmanovitch Faculty Recital       

Tues. Feb. 18, Jordan Hall           
A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall                       
CI students and faculty use original works and recompositions to explore our identities as artists in relation to the struggles, challenges, and social issues that we come up against every day. Following in the tradition of such greats as Bob Dylan, Pete and Peggy Seeger, Abbey Lincoln, John Coltrane, Dmitri Shostakovitch, Amkoullel, and Arya Aramnejad, we will turn ourselves and our communities inside-out, examining the way that music shapes and is shaped by our place in the world around us.

Thurs. Feb. 27, Jordan Hall
Jazz and the Struggle for Freedom and Equality                           
Ken Schaphorst leads the NEC Jazz Orchestra in some of the landmark compositions created to combat racism and bigotry. Selections include Charles Mingus’ Haitian Fight Song, Carla Bley’s Dreamkeeper as well as excerpts from Duke Ellington’s Black, Brown and Beige.

Thurs. March 13, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, time tba       
Beethoven the Improviser with CI Students            

Wed. March 26, 27, 31, April 2, 7,8, 9,15, 16,21, 22, 28, 30 Pierce Hall       
In the Mix
Jazz performance majors play in ensembles coached by NEC faculty. Each evening presents three sets similar in an ambience similar to that of a great jazz club.
                               
Thurs. March 27, Jordan Hall       
Robert Labaree Faculty Recital                   
Performing with his band Dünya and special guests.

Tues. April 1, Jordan Hall           
Jazz and Contemporary Improvisation Honors Ensembles   

Thurs. April 3, Brown Hall           
Jazz: The Next Generation                       

Thurs. April 10, Brown Hall           
NEC Jazz Composers Ensemble                   

Mon. April 14, Jordan Hall       
Music of John Zorn – Curated by Anthony Coleman       
This concert will feature NEC’s Contemporary Improvisation students as the culmination of Zorn’s residency at NEC.

Thurs. April 17, Jordan Hall           
Sun Ra Centennial Concert                 
Ken Schaphorst leads the NEC Jazz Orchestra in a celebration of the 100th Anniversary of Sun Ra’s arrival day with many of his classic compositions including A Call for All Demons, Brainville, Planet Earth, Saturn, and Space is the Place.

Tues. April 29, Jordan Hall           
Jazz Composers Workshop Orchestra directed by Frank Carlberg    

Tues. May 20, Jordan Hall           
NEC Youth Jazz Orchestra directed by Ken Schaphorst       

Friday, May 30, Brown Hall       
Vanessa Morris NEC Prep Faculty Recital                   

ABOUT NEC’S JAZZ STUDIES AND CONTEMPORARY IMPROVISATION PROGRAMS

NEC’s Jazz Studies Department was the first fully accredited jazz studies program at a music conservatory. The brainchild of Gunther Schuller, who moved quickly to incorporate jazz into the curriculum when he became President of the Conservatory in 1967, the Jazz Studies faculty has included six MacArthur "genius" grant recipients (three currently teaching) and four NEA Jazz Masters, and alumni that reads like a who’s who of jazz. Now in its 44th year, the program has spawned numerous Grammy winning composers and performers. As Mike West writes in JazzTimes: “NEC’s jazz studies department is among the most acclaimed and successful in the world; so says the roster of visionary artists that have comprised both its faculty and alumni.”  The program currently has 114 students; 67 undergraduate and 47 graduate students from 12 countries.
   
Founded in 1972 by musical visionaries Gunther Schuller and Ran Blake, New England Conservatory's Contemporary Improvisation program is “one of the most versatile in all of music education” (JazzEd).  Now in its 41st year, the program trains composer/performer/ improvisers to broaden their musical palettes and develop unique voices.  It is unparalleled in its structured approach to ear training and its emphasis on singing, memorization, harmonic sophistication, aesthetic integrity, and stylistic openness.  Under Blake's guidance for its first twenty-six years, the program expanded its offerings under subsequent chairs Allan Chase and Hankus Netsky. Alumni include Don Byron, John Medeski, Jacqueline Schwab, and Aoife O'Donovan; faculty include Carla Kihlstedt, Blake, Dominique Eade, and Anthony Coleman. “A thriving hub of musical exploration,” (Jeremy Goodwin, Boston Globe), the program currently has 43 undergrad and graduate students from 14 countries.

Contact: Ann Braithwaite
 Braithwaite & Katz
 781-259-9600
 ann@bkmusicpr.com
or Ellen Pfeifer,
Senior Communications Specialist
617-585-1143
ellen.pfeifer@necmusic.edu