Guest artists will provide area jazz students with expert instruction and a concert performance during NDSU’s annual High School Invitational Jazz Festival. Scheduled for Feb. 1-2, the event will feature 24 regional high school jazz ensembles working with five jazz musicians.
Headlined by Kristin Korb and Rex Richardson as adjudicators and guest performers, the artists will present a series of clinics to area jazz students, along with critiquing the bands in performance. Additional performers include Dean Sorenson, David Stanoch and Matt Olson. All clinics are free and open to the public.
The festival concludes with a concert featuring the guest artists and the NDSU Jazz Ensemble. The concert, which will be open to the public, is scheduled for Feb. 2 at 7 p.m. in Festival Concert Hall. The cost is $5 for adults and $2 for seniors and students.
A bassist/vocalist, Korb tours internationally as a performer, clinician and guest artist with numerous jazz ensembles. As president-elect of the International Society of Bassists, Korb is artistic director for the 2013 ISB Convention in Rochester, N.Y.
Richardson is a trumpet player who was named the 2008 Brass Herald Personality of the Year. He is a professor of trumpet and jazz trumpet at Virginia Commonwealth University and is a Yamaha Artist-in-residence at the Royal Northern College of Music.
Sorenson is associate professor and director of jazz studies at the University of Minnesota. He has composed and arranged for numerous ensembles including the Glenn Miller Orchestra, the Airmen of Note, the U.S. Air Force Band and the Minnesota Orchestra.
A Minnesota-based drummer, percussionist and educator, Stanoch has 30 years of professional experience performing, recording or touring with a variety of artists and genres.
Olson is associate professor of saxophone and director of jazz studies at Furman University.
For more information on the festival, visit www.ndsu.edu/ finearts/music/jazz_festival.
NDSU is recognized as one of the nation's top 108 public and private universities by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education.