Media Contact: Susan Cipollaro, scipollaro@fairfield.edu , 203-254-4000 x2726
FAIRFIELD, Conn. (November 13, 2018)—The Fairfield University Jazz Ensemble will present its annual fall concert on Thursday, December 6 at 7:30 p.m. on campus in Gonzaga Auditorium. Special guest Vic Juris will be featured on the guitar. Tickets for the performance are $5 and will be available to purchase at the door.
Directed by Brian Q. Torff, Fairfield University’s Music Program Director, the Jazz Ensemble will lend its improvisational energy to classics from John Coltrane, Wes Montgomery, and Paul Desmond, as well Aretha Franklin’s “Think,” in an arrangement by Joey Barbieri ’20. Original compositions by Barbieri and Torff will round out the playlist.
Since 1991, the Jazz Ensemble has welcomed more than 40 guest artists to join their performances. Vic Juris, a musician and author, has worked alongside many great jazz musicians and vocalists such as Mel Torme, Dizzy Gillespie, Phil Woods, Jimmy Smith, and Dave Liebman. Juris taught at The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, Lehigh University, and Rutgers University and has written several instructional books for guitar. His musicality and virtuosity is acclaimed in Europe, among their more sophisticated jazz audiences.
Brian Q. Torff is a bassist, composer, author, and educator who currently serves as Music Program Director at Fairfield University. Torff has led the Jazz Ensemble since 1991 and has been featured in The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, and Jazz Times , as well as many other music publications. Founder of the Fairfield University Summer Jazz Workshop, he is a past co-chair of the music advisory board for the National Endowment of the Arts.
Posted On: 11-30-2018 11:11 AM
Volume: 51 Number: 36
Fairfield University is a modern Jesuit Catholic university rooted in one of the world’s oldest intellectual and spiritual traditions. More than 5,000 undergraduate and graduate students from the U.S. and across the globe are pursuing degrees in the University’s five schools. Fairfield embraces a liberal humanistic approach to education, encouraging critical thinking, cultivating free and open inquiry, and fostering ethical and religious values. The University is located on a stunning 200-acre campus on the scenic Connecticut coast just an hour from New York City.