XAVIER UNIVERSITY TO HOST ANNUAL CAMPUS JAZZ FESTIVAL

New Orleans LA - The Xavier University of Louisiana Department of Music will host its 11th annual campus Jazz Festival, a three-day event offering an evening concert series and clinics/workshops focusing on the multiple genres of the jazz art form, Tuesday-Thursday, April 23-25.

This year's event features evening performances by Dr. Michael White & the Original Liberty Jazz Band, the Courtney Bryan Quartet, and the Xavier Jazz Ensemble with guest Ashlin Parker. All three main artists will participate in clinics/workshops Friday afternoon. 

The festival is designed to expose Xavier students and the New Orleans community to a wide range of jazz forms and world-class jazz artists.

All concerts will be held in the Blanche M. Francis Music Building Recital Hall. All events are free and open to the public.

DAY 1 (April 23) 7:00 p.m. – The festival opens with an evening concert featuring internationally-acclaimed traditional jazz musician Dr. Michael White ‘76 and his Original Liberty Jazz Band. White, a Xavier graduate and the Keller Endowed Chair in the Humanities at Xavier, has received international recognition as a lecturer, historian, and performer of original New Orleans traditional jazz. The Original Liberty Jazz Band has received numerous performance awards and has traveled the globe presenting New Orleans traditional jazz in most of the world’s leading festivals.

DAY 2 (April 24) 7:00 p.m. – Contemporary Jazz is featured on Day 2 with another evening performance by the Courtney Bryan Quartet. A native of New Orleans, Bryan is a pianist and composer of panoramic interests. Her music ranges from solo works to large ensembles in the new music and jazz idioms, film scores, and collaborations with dancers, visual artists, writers, and actors, and is in conversation with various musical genres, including jazz and other types of experimental music, as well as traditional gospel, spirituals, and hymns.

DAY 3 (April 25) 12 noon to 4:00 p.m. – The final day of the festival starts Friday afternoon with a Music Business Seminar hosted by moderator Lou Hill and a series of 50 minute clinic/workshops conducted by White, Bryan, and Parker, respectively.

DAY 3 (April 25) 7:00 p.m. – The festival concludes with an evening performance by the Xavier University Jazz Ensemble under the direction of XU music professor and Festival organizer Dr. Tim Turner. Special guest performer will be Ashlin Parker, a New Orleans-based, versatile jazz trumpeter based who is much sought out for big band, small ensemble, and solo performances. Parker leads the Trumpet Mafia and plays with numerous other diverse bands.