WINSTON-SALEM – School of Music faculty-artist Ron Rudkin will direct the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) Jazz Ensemble in a program featuring a broad range of Big Band jazz at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 9. 

 

This concert has been moved forward from its originally scheduled date of March 1.

 

The performance will be in the Thrust Theatre in Performance Place on the UNCSA campus, 1533 South Main St., Winston-Salem.  Tickets are $12 for adults and $10 for seniors and students.  Patrons should call the UNCSA Box Office at 336-721-1945 for reservations, or visit www.uncsa.edu/performances to purchase tickets online.

 

Works on the program will include “Patterns” by Lennie Niehaus; “555 Feet High” by Bill Potts; “Hoedown” by Oliver Nelson; “Fee Fi Fo Fum” by Wayne Shorter, arranged by Mike Tomaro; “I’m Beginning to See the Light” by Rory Bourke, arranged by Sammy Nestico; “Moten Swing” by Bennie Moten, arranged by Nat Pierce; “El Caborojeno” by Bob Mintzer; “Dance of Denial” by Michael Philip Mossman; “Detach and Prance” by Kim Cissel; “Whatsa Matta” by Matt Harris; and “Passion Flower” by Billy Strayhorn, arranged by Mike Tomaro.

 

Ronald Rudkin directs the Jazz Program and teaches Music Theory at UNCSA.  He holds a Master of Music from the University of Michigan and a Bachelor of Music from East Carolina University, where he received a Distinguished Alumnus Award.  He also directs the UNCSA Jazz Ensemble, which has received widespread acclaim, performing across the state and around the Southeast at jazz festivals, concert halls, public schools and other colleges each year.  The band includes talented student musicians from graduate, undergraduate, and high school divisions of the School of Music.  The group’s repertoire includes an extensive variety of Big Band jazz ranging from the traditional greats like Count Basie and Duke Ellington to Latin pieces and music in more contemporary styles.

 

The University of North Carolina School of the Arts is the first state-supported, residential school of its kind in the nation. Established as the North Carolina School of the Arts by the N.C. General Assembly in 1963, UNCSA opened in Winston-Salem (“The City of Arts and Innovation”) in 1965 and became part of the University of North Carolina system in 1972. More than 1,100 students from high school through graduate school train for careers in the arts in five professional schools: Dance, Design and Production (including a Visual Arts Program), Drama, Filmmaking, and Music. UNCSA is the state’s only public arts conservatory, dedicated entirely to the professional training of talented students in the performing, visual and moving image arts. UNCSA is located at 1533 S. Main St., Winston-Salem. For more information, visit www.uncsa.edu.

 

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