The Gustavus Adolphus College Jazz Lab Band will embark on a seven-day concert tour to various locations in Illinois and Wisconsin March 20-26. The ensemble will also play a home concert at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 18 at Jussi Björling Recital Hall.
The Gustavus Jazz Lab Band is directed by Dr. Stephen Wright, a nationally known trumpeter, jazz arranger, and composer. Wright has played lead trumpet for such performers as Tony Bennett, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Ray Charles among others and is a member of the Twin Cities Jazz Society, American Composers Forum, International Association of Jazz Educators, and the American Federation of Musicians.
The schedule for the upcoming tour is as follows:
- Friday, March 20 / Chaska High School / 2 p.m.
- Saturday, March 21 / St. Andrew Lutheran Church / Eden Prairie, Minn. / 7 p.m.
- Sunday, March 22 / Fitzgerald’s / Berwyn, Ill. / 6 p.m.
- Monday, March 23 / Naperville North High School / Naperville, Ill. / 3:30 p.m.
- Tuesday, March 24 / St. Francis High School / Wheaton, Ill. / 7 p.m.
- Wednesday, March 25 / Sun Prairie High School / Sun Prairie, Wis. / 7 p.m.
- Thursday, March 26 / Albany High School / Albany, Minn. / 7 p.m.
The Gustavus Jazz Lab Band is the official touring jazz ensemble from the College’s Department of Music. The band has performed with such jazz artists as Marvin Stamm, Dick Oatts, Frank Mantooth, the Hornheads, John Fedchock, Denis DiBlasio, and Allen Vizzutti. The band was also featured on a 2003 A Prairie Home Companion radio show broadcast live from Gustavus.
The band has performed competitively at the Eau Claire Jazz Festival and has been invited to appear at a variety of venues including the KBEM Jazz Fesitval, the American Swedish Institute, and the Lamberton Jazz Festival.
The importance of music in the Gustavus undergraduate curriculum has long been recognized. Nearly half of its more than 2,500 students register for courses in theory, history, appreciation, pedagogy, and performance of music each year and many are members of some 30 performing ensembles.
The College’s Department of Music is housed in the Schaefer Fine Arts Center. The center’s music wing features the 475-seat Jussi Bjorling Recital Hall; a fully computerized music lab for students in music theory, composing/arranging, and class piano; class and rehearsal rooms; 30 private practice rooms; and the Lund Music Library, which contains more than 20,000 music recordings, 45,000 scores and anthologies, a music reference section, and listening equipment.
For more information about the Gustavus Jazz Lab Band and its upcoming tour, go online to gustavus.edu/finearts/Tour_Site.cfm or contact Lisa Westphal, manager of music tours at Gustavus, at 507-933-7163 or lwestph2@gustavus.edu.
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