Students from both the Department of Music and the Department of Dance at Hope College will be featured during a jazz concert on Tuesday, May 4, at 7:30 p.m. The concert can be viewed online at hope.edu/live
Out of an abundance of caution due to the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic, there will be no in-person audience.
The concert will include all three of Hope College’s jazz ensembles: the Jazz Arts Collective, the Jazz Combo I and the Latin Jazz Combo. The ensembles are under the direction of music faculty members Jordan VanHemert and Nathan Borton.
The event will showcase a special collaboration between the Jazz Combo I and the Department of Dance’s upper-level Tap III course, under the direction of Jordan VanHemert and Heather Cornell of the dance faculty. Other works on the program will include compositions by Benny Carter, Herbie Hancock, Freddie Hubbard, Mongo Santamaria and Chano Pozo, as well as a new arrangement by Hope student Charlie Jordan.
The Jazz Arts Collective is the premier large jazz ensemble at Hope College. The collective places a creative focus on ensemble communication and improvisation. Consisting of a rhythm section and flexible wind/string instrumentation, this select group performs compositions and arrangements from across the full spectrum of music. The collective’s repertoire ranges from the great historical jazz composers such as Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus, to works by modern jazz masters like Vince Mendoza, Jim McNeely and John Hollenbeck. The Jazz Arts Collective frequently performs commissions, works by emerging young composers and originals by Hope College faculty and students.