The Washington State University School of Music will present “A Virtual Celebration of Jazz,” at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 20.
The event will feature videos of the award-winning WSU Jazz Big Band, combos, Big Band II, the Faculty Big Band and the faculty ensemble Jazz Northwest.
Special guest for the virtual concert is trumpet and flugelhorn artist Mike Galisatus. A native of the San Franscisco Bay Area, Galisatus is director of the Stanford University Jazz band, leader of the Mike Galisatus Big Band and a top freelance artist. Also, for many years, Galisatus was Director of Bands at the College of San Mateo.
The Jazz Big Band will present the premiere of “RBG,” a tribute to the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, composed by recent WSU master’s graduate Alison Poteracke and “Conspiracy Theory” by Coordinator of Jazz Studies, Greg Yasinitsky.
The program will also include Yasinitsky’s “To the Max” featuring Graduate Teaching Assistant Max Harrington and “After Charlie,” a tribute to saxophonist Charlie Parker featuring saxophonists Brant Fisher and Adam Hureau.
“Best of Friends,” written especially for Galisatus, will be performed by the Faculty Big Band and “No Hoax” performed by Jazz Northwest. Also featured will be Big Band II, directed by Harrington, performing “From A-Z” by Kris Berg, leader of the Metroplexity Big Band. Other soloists will include saxophonist Thomas Wieland, pianist Josh Pinkham, bassist Joe Ballestrasse and drummer Erik Hawkins.
This event is made possible in part by generous funding from Allegro, the Student Association for Music Advocacy.
The virtual concert will be livestreamed on the WSU Pullman Music YouTube channel.
Watch a teaser video for “A Virtual Celebration of Jazz at WSU.”
