Event: The 28th Annual Illinois Wesleyan University Jazz Festival
Date: Jan. 18, 2003 (Saturday)
Time: Performances by junior high and high school bands will start at 7:45 a.m. and run until 4:25 p.m.
The IWU Jazz Ensemble will perform at 12:45 p.m.
Location: Westbrook Auditorium, Presser Hall, 1210 N. Park St., Bloomington
and Main Lounge, Memorial Center, 104 E. University St., Bloomington
Admission: Free and open to the public
Program: The 28th Annual IWU Jazz Festival will feature performances by junior high and high school jazz ensembles from throughout the state of Illinois. The event will also include a 12:45 p.m. concert by the IWU Jazz Ensemble in Westbrook Auditorium with featured guest soloist pianist Shelton Berg.
Background: The L.A. Times calls Berg “a powerhouse jazz pianist who always swings hard.” A finalist in the 1988 Great American Jazz Piano Competition (PBS Television), he is the pianist and arranger for trombonist Bill Watrous and is musical director for vocalist Carmen Bradford.
Berg has composed for television shows including CBS’s A League of Their Own and HBO’s Dennis Miller Live. He has written for the Royal Philharmonic, the American Symphony and also composed the theme song to the 1986 U.S. Olympic Festival.
Berg is the Chair of Jazz Studies in the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California and is also a former President of the International Association of Jazz Educators. He has appeared as a performer, lecturer and clinician throughout the United States as well as in Canada, Mexico, Europe, Japan and Israel.
Editor’s Note: The 28th Annual IWU Jazz Festival is organized by Thomas Streeter, IWU professor of brass instruments and theory.
Contact: For more information or a complete list of playing times, call the IWU School of Music Office at 309/556-3061.
