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Big Band (Jazz Ensemble)
Big Band (Jazz Ensemble)
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Undergraduate course number 660-262, Lab 2
Graduate course number 660-562, Lab 2
1 credit
The UW Big Band is a college "lab" jazz ensemble, its goal being to simulate, as closely as possible, the experience of working in a professional, commercially pertinent musical setting. Rehearsal time is heavily weighted towards the learning of those contemporary styles--swing, latin, and funk, among others--that students are most likely to encounter after graduating. The UW Big Band performs each semester, both on and off campus, including outreach activities and clinics. Make-up of the UW Big Band is typically a balance between music majors and students from other areas.
Admission to the ensemble is by audition. Sign up before each semester begins on the Jazz Board, at the center of Humanities, bottom floor. Auditions are usually in the evenings of the first 2 class days of the semester. They will include two prepared pieces of contrasting styles (students' choice), sight-reading and improvisation (optional).
Rehearsal Times:
Mondays 6-8 PM
Thursdays 6-8 PM
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Fall 2009
The UW Big Band is hard at work learning a major work by Johnny Richards, the Cuban Fire Suite, written for the Stan Kenton Orchestra and recorded in 1956. This is a 7-movement suite which is essentially Afro-Cuban in rhythm and jazz in an improvisational sense, but also classical in its many late romantic-style brass passages. Instrumentation is big band plus 2 french horns, tuba and 6 percussion.
Professor John Stevens will be conducting the work. Evening Performances will be at:
Sun Prarie High School -- Monday, Nov 16 (CANCELED)
Middleton PAC -- Tuesday, Nov 24
Music Hall -- Wednesday, Dec 2
Verona Public Library -- Thursday, Dec 3
Memorial High School -- Tuesday, Dec 8.
Performance times to be determined. Stay tuned!
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