Ensembles
Ensemble Showcase: Brazilian Instrumental Jazz, Blue Note Era Jazz, and Music of The Yellowjackets
Ensemble Showcase: The Music of Joe Henderson and Miles Davis Electric
Ensemble Showcase: Directed Studies, Reggae Dub and the Music of Pat Metheny
Ensemble Showcase: Hip-Hop, Stage Performance I & II
Ensemble Showcase: Directed Studies, Small Band Jazz, Music and Life of Bob Marley
Ethan Kaczowka's Double Header Senior Recital
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Robert Gallegos, Assistant Professor
DEPARTMENT : Ensemble Department- B.M., Berklee College of Music
- Trumpeter
- Freelance musician
- Performances with Ray Charles, the Four Tops, the Temptations, the O'Jays, the Sam Rivers Orchestra, Mariachi Cobre with the Jacksonville Symphony, Giovanni Hidalgo, Ray Barretto, the Eguie Castrillo Latin Big Band, the Kenny Hadley Big Band, the Boston Pops, the U.S. Air Force Liberty Band, and others
- Recordings with the Eguie Castrillo Latin Big Band
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Paul Elmen, Assistant Professor
DEPARTMENT : Ensemble Department"Some students have never played in a band before, and that can be difficult. That's why I always use a recording of the songs that we're playing, to give them an idea of what it is to play together if they haven't done that in the past. You listen to how it all works together. We listen to the drums, we listen to the bass, we listen to the accompanying instruments. That helps them get towards that goal of playing together. And sometimes it'll take a few weeks before it starts sounding musical. I always tell them, our goal is for a concert at the end of the semester. We're working towards that—it's a little carrot out there for them, so that they have something to really think about achieving."
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Jason Palmer, Assistant Professor
DEPARTMENT : Ensemble Department"I'm really into serial composition, improvisation based on numbers. We play songs based on sudoku games, just to get students to be able to recognize a chord structure. If they see a seven, then that means it's a seven in the scale. So it kind of connects their minds. The rules are, you can play one note, let's say the nine, as many times as you want, but you can't go to any other note except for, say, the six. So then they have to figure out what kind of rhythm they can add to the notes in order to make them sound like music instead of a robot. I did a commission about four or five years ago in New York, and I wrote a suite—two hours' worth of music-based on a sudoku game. It was great! It's fun. It's another way of thinking about music."
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