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Great Arts at Eastern talks with Richard Schwartz about the upcoming JazzFest and MasterClass sessio

GENTRY:  And now Great Arts at Eastern, from the Portales Campus of Eastern New Mexico University. I'm Jeff Gentry, Dean of the College of Fine Arts here on KENW, your public radio network. Today my guest is Richard Schwartz of Eastern's Department of Music. Rich, thank you for joining me today.

SCHWARTZ:  Thank you for having me.

GENTRY:  So ENMU'S JazzFest takes place on April 9th and 10th. What format will you be using for the festival this year?

SCHWARTZ:  Well, in regards to the format Friday night at 7:00 o'clock, that's April 9th, that will be a live concert featuring the ENMU Jazz Combos and the ENMU faculty and guest quintet.

GENTRY:  Great. and then on Saturday, you've got MasterClasses, meet the faculty.

SCHWARTZ:  Yeah, we have three events on Saturday, April 10th, the first of which is at 1:00 o'clock. And these are all via Zoom, by the way. So 1:00 o'clock, we have a Meet the Faculty event where we will meet with high school students that are interested in meeting our faculty. And, we will discuss topics which include: How to maximize -how to obtain a maximize music scholarship. What it's like to be a music major. And perhaps how jazz has affected our professional teaching and performance adventures. The 2:00 o'clock event will be masterclasses with our faculty. So, they'll give them hands-on advice for saxophone, trumpet, trombone, and rhythm section. And then at 3:00 o'clock, we have our headlining artist, and that is Sean Jones, he's a jazz trumpet artist.

GENTRY:  So high school students can notify the Department of Music if there interested. Or their teachers can, right?

SCHWARTZ:  Correct.

GENTRY:  Great, so who's in the faculty lineup for your faculty and guest quartet or quintet, which will perform on Friday evening?

SCHWARTZ:  That's a great question, Friday evening 7:00 o'clock April 9th. That concert will feature Doctor Sidney Shuler on trumpet, myself on saxophone, our new piano faculty Doctor Myles Massicotte, on-base - Terry Burns, and on drums- Mr. Neil Rutland.

GENTRY:  It kinda of sounds like an All-Star cast if you ask me?

SCHWARTZ:  Sure, I'll take that as a compliment.

GENTRY:  Well yeah, I mean and Massicotte being the new kid on the block. But he has a wide range, including jazz.

SCHWARTZ:  Yes, in fact, he really enjoys Bill Evans. We had a discussion via email. One of our tunes that we're going to play is Someday my Prince will come, and that is a Bill Evans classic.

GENTRY:  That's fantastic, so can you name any of the other repertoires?

SCHWARTZ:  Sure, we're going to play "Take the A train," we're going to do a tribute to Chick Correa, who just passed away. We're going to play "500 Miles High" and a few other tunes, so it'll be fun.

GENTRY:  Great. and will students be performing?

SCHWARTZ:  Yes, the ENMU Jazz Combos will open the concert, and they're going to play two standards, including Autumn Leaves and All the Things You Are. We've been preparing these tunes for a few weeks now. They've been working on jazz improvisation during their classes- And we meet face to face every other Friday.

GENTRY:  So, this is something that folks can watch live. Is it going to be on the ENMU YouTube channel?

SCHWARTZ:  That is correct. it's going to be the ENMU Department of music YouTube channel, and it will be live. They can also, if they would like come to the concert themselves, but it will be socially distant. So, they will need to bring masks, and they will need to sit 6 feet apart.

GENTRY:  OK. So, the primary method there is the YouTube live feed, then?

SCHWARTZ:  Correct.

GENTRY:  And you will be socially distanced on the stage too.

SCHWARTZ:  Correct. you know we're going to have measuring sticks out there, and you know

GENTRY:  But a really, I mean- I- I really want to tune into this because I get to see an actual concert with people who are not just in separate cities.  Right, but folks being together. And then on Saturday, you have a MasterClass too?

SCHWARTZ:  Correct, so we have the three masterclasses on Saturday. and that will be via Zoom. 

GENTRY:  And Sean Jones, an acclaimed trumpeter, is going to participate?

SCHWARTZ:  Yeah, Sean Jones is something special he might be in his mid-30s. He's already performed with many people, including Grammy Award-winning albums. He's featured trumpet player- or he was with the Jazz at the Lincoln Philharmonic- Jazz at the Lincoln Center. I'm sorry with Wynton Marsalis, and now he teaches at Peabody.

GENTRY:  Fantastic that's part of Johns Hopkins University, right?

SCHWARTZ:  Correct.

GENTRY:  Excellent. Well, Richard Schwartz, I'm very excited to see the JazzFest concert Friday evening, April 9th, at 7:00 PM. we can all watch and listen atenmu.edu/MusicPerformances. Oh, I'm sorry, is that your YouTube. What's your YouTube address?

SCHWARTZ:  ENMU Department of Music.

GENTRY: Right, and so if they just Google that, then they'll be able to pull up the concert?

SCHWARTZ: Correct.

GENTRY: So, thank you, Rich. And thanks to everyone for listening on KENW, your public radio network.

ENMU JazzFest

Faculty and Guest Quintet

Coordinated by Richard Schwartz

FRIDAY, APRIL 9

7 p.m. The ENMU Jazz Combos and the ENMU Faculty and Guest Quintet

Live in Buchanan Hall

(socially distanced) and available on the Department of Music Youtube Channel 

enmu.edu/MusicPerformances

SATURDAY, APRIL 10 | EXCLUSIVELY ON ZOOM

1 p.m. Meet the ENMU Jazz Faculty

2 p.m. High School Jazz Workshops

3 p.m. Masterclass with Sean Jones

All times listed are Mountain Daylight Time (MDT)

To Subscribe to the MasterClass Zoom Sessions email: Richard.schwartz@enmu.edu prior to April 9th