Local Area Students to Perform in Clark Terry/Phi Mu Alpha Jazz Festival
01/23/2017

More than 500 students in 23 jazz ensembles from across the bi-state region will perform at the 19th annual Clark Terry/Phi Mu Alpha Jazz Festival Feb. 3-4 at Southeast Missouri State University’s River Campus. The ensembles will perform for three jazz experts who will give them written and recorded comments as well as a live clinic session. The bands will perform from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 3, and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 4, in the Donald C. Bedell Performance Hall located in the Cultural Arts Center at Southeast’s River Campus. Admission is free to this daytime event. Bands attending include the award-winning Cape Central High School, St. Clair High School, North County High School, DeSoto High School, Dexter High School, Woodland High School, Potosi High School, West County High School, Perryville High School, Northwest High School, Fox High School, Charleston High School, Hillsboro High School, Seckman High School and Bismarck High School, as well as junior high bands from Cape Girardeau and Hillsboro, Missouri. Capping events Feb. 4, Southeast Missouri State University Department of Music will present its second concert of the 2016-2017 Jazz Series featuring jazz saxophonist Jim Pisano, director of jazz studies at Bethany College in Wichita, Kansas. The annual gala concert is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. in the Donald C. Bedell Performance Hall and will feature Pisano in performance with Southeast’s Studio Jazz Ensemble and Jazz Lab Band. Pisano is equally comfortable as a jazz saxophonist or classical clarinetist and has an international reputation as a performer. He has been a member of the saxophone section of the Jazz Heritage Orchestra in Cleveland, Ohio, since 2001. He has shared the stage as a soloist with legendary jazz artists Phil Woods, Frank Foster, Louie Bellson, Clark Terry, Harry “Sweets” Edison, Nancy Wilson, James Moody, Hank Jones, The Lionel Hampton Big Band, The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, The Artie Shaw Band, The Cab Calloway Orchestra, the Dizzy Gillespie Reunion Big Band, and saxophonists Brad Leali, Dave Pietro and Benny Golson. The Southeast chapter of Phi Mu Alpha music fraternity handles all of the logistics of this event, including guiding bands from warmup to performance, handling collection of adjudication data, audio recording of each ensemble, as well as setup and teardown before and after each group.   This is an annual service project for this fraternity which benefits the University as well as the surrounding community. Tickets For further information, please contact Robert Conger at (573) 651-2398. Tickets may be purchased by contacting the River Campus Box Office, located in the Cultural Arts Center, 518 S. Fountain St., weekdays 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., or by calling (573) 651–2265 or by visiting www.RiverCampusEvents.com.