Tag: jazz
Theater, visual arts and instrumental jazz are on the summer camp agenda at NIU this summer. At Summer in the Arts at Northern residential camps for junior high and high school students, campers work and live with NIU faculty, alumni, and students, gain a greater appreciation for the life of an artist, and experience their...
The New NIU Jazz Ensemble, formerly known as the NIU Jazz Lab Band, directed by Rodrigo Villanueva, is booked to perform this week at the House Café in DeKalb and next week at the legendary Jazz Showcase in Chicago. Shows at the House, 263 E. Lincoln Hwy., are scheduled for 8 and 9:30 p.m. Thursday,...
Since 1938, the Pump Room has been a home for fine food, music and celebrities, including its most famous regular, Frank Sinatra. PUBLIC Chicago now invites the local community with warmth to celebrate the rich history and bright future of jazz in a place where it has already thrived. Jazz at The Pump Room will...
The NIU Jazz Orchestra, directed by Reggie Thomas, will present the “Let’s Swing Dance!” from 6 to 8 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 18, in the Duke Ellington Ballroom of the Holmes Student Center. NIU students with ID are admitted free. General admission tickets are $10; the price for senior citizens and other students is $7. Tickets...
Lenard Simpson, a sophomore from Milwaukee, was recognized as a 2015 Luminarts Fellow in Jazz during the Luminarts Cultural Foundation annual competition held Feb. 18 at Buddy Guy’s Legends in Chicago. “The thing I enjoy most about playing is just the feeling of being free and putting everything else that’s going on behind me,” said Simpson,...
The NIU Jazz Ensemble, under the tutelage of new director Reggie Thomas, will perform at 8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 20, in the Duke Ellington Ballroom of the Holmes Student Center. The concert is free and open to the public. Alongside the Jazz Ensemble will be international jazz trombonists Michael Dease and Tom Garling. Dease has...
NIU and DeKalb-area high school students join instructors from the School of Music every year for a trip to the annual Illinois Music Education Conference in Peoria. The all-state event promotes life-long learning and leadership among music enthusiasts. In attendance are those widely considered the who’s who of high school and collegiate music programs across...
UPDATE: Marquis Hill is the winner! Congratulations! Marquis Hill, a 2009 alumnus of the NIU School of Music, is a semifinalist in the Thelonius Monk International Jazz Competition. Widely regarded as the most prestigious jazz competition in the world, this year’s competition is strictly for trumpeters. Hill will join 12 other trumpeters Saturday, Nov. 8,...
Reginald “Reggie” Thomas has accepted the position as coordinator of the internationally recognized Northern Illinois University School of Music‘s internationally renowned Jazz Studies program. Thomas succeeds the esteemed jazz educator Ronald Carter, who is retiring after 20 years at NIU. Thomas comes to NIU from the Michigan State University College of Music, where he has...
After 20 years of directing the NIU Jazz Ensemble and shaping the diversity of the program, School of Music professor Ron Carter will retire this spring. “I will definitely miss the students a lot and the great colleagues I’ve met here,” Carter said. “I’ve enjoyed having the opportunity to recruit students from all over the...
The nationally renowned NIU Jazz Ensemble will bid a fond farewell to its longtime beloved director, Ron Carter, at 8 p.m. Thursday, April 10, in the Duke Ellington Ballroom of the Holmes Student Center. Carter, who is retiring from NIU this spring, will host a pre-concert jam session for former students and friends at 6...
The Northern Illinois University Alumni Association invites alumni and friends Tuesday, April 1, to Jazz in New York City. The regional event begins at 7:30 p.m. with NIU’s Rosebud Jazztet at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, fifth floor of the Time Warner Center, 10 Columbus Circle. Seniors and graduate students make up the award-winning Jazztet and are...
