DUBUQUE, IOWA (January 18, 2023) — The University of Dubuque’s Department of Fine and Performing Arts will welcome nine jazz bands from six area high schools to campus for the 2023 UD Jazz Festival on Friday, February 10, 2023, in Heritage Center.
The event will offer high-school jazz bands a day of musical activities including the opportunity to hold an interactive rehearsal with a clinician. The clinicians are David Resnick, executive director of Northeast Iowa School of Music and former professor of music at Clarke University; James Dreier, emeritus professor of instruction in jazz studies at the University of Iowa; and Christopher Merz, professor of jazz studies and director of Jazz Band I at the University of Northern Iowa.
Students will also attend instrument-specific masterclasses offered by members of The Legendary Count Basie Orchestra, which has scored eighteen Grammy Awards, performed for royalty, and has featured some of the greatest soloists in music history during their tenure.
The 2023 UD Jazz Festival will conclude when the jazz band students attend a public performance by The Legendary Count Basie Orchestra directed by Scotty Barnhart with Guest Vocalist Carmen Bradford at 7:30PM in John and Alice Butler Hall, Heritage Center. For information on the orchestra or to purchase tickets, please visit dbq.edu/heritagecenter.
Also included in the 2023 UD Jazz Festival is a campus tour and lunch at the Barbara and Jack Smeltzer Dining Hall in Peters Commons for participants.
The following schools and their jazz bands will participate in the 2023 UD Jazz Festival
- Beloit Memorial High School, Beloit, Wisconsin — Beloit Memorial Jazz Orchestra and Beloit Memorial Jazz Ensemble
- Central DeWitt High School, DeWitt, Iowa — Swingin’ Sabers Jazz One
- Lisbon Community School, Lisbon, Iowa — Lisbon Jazz Ensemble
- Northwest High School, Waukee, Iowa — Northwest Jazz Orchestra
- Western Dubuque High School, Epworth, Iowa — Western Dubuque Big Band 1 and Western Dubuque Big Band 2
- Union High School, La Porte City, Iowa — Union Jazz I and Union Jazz II
