Concerts
Thank you for your support of the SUNY Schenectady School of Music.
Unless otherwise noted, all performances are free and take place in Carl B. Taylor
Auditorium.
August 2024
Monday, August 5, 7-9 p.m.
The SUNY Schenectady Faculty Jazz Combo with guest artist Delfeayo Marsalis at Music
Haven
Music Haven is an outdoor concert series that takes place in Schenectady's Central Park (500 Iroquois Path, Schenectady) that is free and open to the community.
Faculty Jazz Combo
Dylan Canterbury - trumpet
Brian Patneaude - saxophone
Christopher Brellochs - saxophone
Kevin Grudecki - guitar
David Gleason - piano
Erik Johnson/Jarod Greico - bass
Bob Halek - drums
Mia Scirocco - guest vocals
Photo by Zac Smith. Courtesy of www.dmarsalis.com
September 2024
Friday, September 6, 7:30 p.m.
A Place for Jazz: Tim Olsen Big Band
Tickets: $25 per person; students with ID, $10
(cash or check only)
Learn more at A Place for Jazz
Piano/conductor: Tim Olsen
Saxes: Kristina Johnson, Dave Fisk, Eric Walentowicz, Matt Steckler, Tom Gerbino
Trumpets: Jon Bronk, Steve Lambert, Dylan Canterbury, Mike Banewicz
Trombones: Elias Assimakopolous, Rick Rosoff, Ken Olsen, Dan Cordell
Bass: Lou Smaldone
Drums: Pete Sweeney
Percussion: Brian Melick
Vocals: Susie Olsen
Wednesday, September 11, 12 p.m.
Faculty Recital
Wednesday, September 18, 12 p.m.
Musicians of Ma’alwyck: Player’s Choice
Players’ Choice is a unique program featuring repertory selected from each of the core musicians’ favorite composers: Amram, Ximénez, Doppler, and Bréval. We will leave it to you to guess which musician selected which piece!
Ann-Marie Barker Schwartz, violin
Sten Isachsen, guitar
Norman Thibodeau, flute
André Laurent O’Neil, cello
Musicians of Ma’alwyck is a flexible-size chamber ensemble in residence at the Schuyler Mansion New York State Historic Site and SUNY Schenectady County Community College. Founded in 1999 by violinist and director Ann-Marie Barker Schwartz, the group specializes in music performed in America during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Many of the performing materials are drawn from the Special Collections of the New York State Library. Learn more about the Musicians of Ma'alwyck.
Friday, September 20, 7:30 p.m.
A Place for Jazz: Warren Wolf/Joe Locke Quartet
Tickets: $25 per person; students with ID, $10
(cash or check only)
Learn more at A Place for Jazz
Warren Wolf is a multi-instrumentalist from Baltimore, MD. From the young age of three years
old, Warren has been trained on the vibraphone/marimba, drums, and piano. Under the
guidance of his father, Warren Wolf Sr., Warren acquired a deep background in all
genres of music. He has studied the classical composers and the legends of ragtime,
as well as jazz artists and composers such as Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington,
Louis Armstrong, Freddie Hubbard, Clifford Brown, Herbie Hancock, Oscar Peterson,
Milt Jackson, Bobby Hutcherson, Cal Tjader, Return to Forever, Weather Report, Wynton
Marsalis and many others.
Long known to be a soloist capable of stunning physical power and broad emotional
range, it was not until the last decades that Joe Locke emerged as the composer, bandleader and conceptualist that he is considered today.
This is in no small part due to his solo projects since the beginning of the 2000s,
notably Four Walls of Freedom, a 6-movement suite featuring the late tenor saxophonist
Bob Berg; Live in Seattle (Origin) by The Joe Locke/Geoffrey Keezer Group, which
won the 2006 EarShot award for Concert of the Year; and his eloquent and vibrant quartet
Force Of Four (Origin).
Wednesday, September 25, 12 p.m.
Hot Wrk Ensemble
Saxophone/woodwind and percussion trio founded in 2020 by award-winning musicians J Brooks Marcus (J Why), Lois Hicks-Wozniak and Brad Hubbard, Hot Wrk Ensemble is committed to creating community through diverse, genre-eclectic “chamber grooves” that include everything from Bossa Nova, Son Jalisciense, Scarlatti, contemporary classical and collaborative improvisation. Both questioning and answering, “what is chamber music?" Hot Wrk explores, deconstructs and wrks out concepts of traditional chamber music and the concert experience.
October 2024
Friday, October 4, 7:30 p.m.
A Place for Jazz: Artemis
Tickets: $25 per person; students with ID, $10
(cash or check only)
Learn more at A Place for Jazz
Named for the Olympian goddess of the hunt and the wild, this superlative sextet is
an international affair, with members hailing from the U.S., Canada, Israel, Chile
and Japan: ARTEMIS is an all-star group featuring six of the top performers on the
jazz scene today: pianist and musical director Renee Rosnes, trumpeter Ingrid Jensen,
clarinetist Anat Cohen, tenor saxophonist Nicole Glover, bassist Noriko Ueda and drummer
Allison Miller, and frequently vocalist Cecile McLorin Salvant. Forget about gender!
This is a significant and serious band that plays with passion, power and sensitivity.
They will bring their collective artistry to the world with unforgettable performances
of high-wire interplay and pure joy.
Source: https://artemisband.com
Sunday, October 6, 3 p.m.
Capital Region Wind Ensemble: Forests and Fanfares
Tickets: $10 for adults; $8 for students: $5 for children under 10, available at the door. SUNY Schenectady students are free with ID.
This program features the powerful CRWE brass section in a series of fanfares by Gina Gillie, Jasmine Pigott, and William Grant Still. The full Capital Region Wind Ensemble will also perform tree and forest inspired works by Warren Benson, Josh Rodriguez, Michael Markowski, and Joseph Wilcox Jenkins.
Monday, October 7, 7:30 p.m.
Chamber Music Series: A Journey through Modern Japanese Music
Evocative Melodies and Innovative Compositions
Mitsuko Suzuki, violin
Akina Yura, piano
Nachiko Maekane, percussion
Christopher Brellochs, saxophone
Saturday, October 12
Brass Day & Guitar and Bass Day
Details coming soon!
Friday, October 18, 7:30 p.m.
A Place for Jazz: Bill O’Connell Quartet featuring Craig Handy
Tickets: $25 per person; students with ID, $10
(cash or check only)
Learn more at A Place for Jazz
Bill O’Connell is a living example of what can happen when the old axiom “Good things come to those
who wait” is put to the test. His professional career spans almost half a century
and has earned him widespread acclaim for his virtuosic skills as an attention-grabbing
keyboardist, composer, arranger, and bandleader. Learn more about Bill O'Connell.
Born in Oakland, CA, as a music-hungry youngster, Craig Handy experimented on guitar, trombone, and piano before settling on his first true love,
the saxophone. While listening to the radio at the age of 11, Handy fell under the
spell of the transcendent saxophone playing of jazz legend Dexter Gordon. Berkeley
High School’s (CA) reputable Jazz Program soon beckoned, and Handy joined the ranks
of graduating stellar saxophone talent including David Murray, Peter Apfelbaum, and
Joshua Redman, to name a few. He attended North Texas State University and won the
coveted Charlie Parker Scholarship which enabled his early college experience as a
psychology major and frontrunner in the school’s exceptional One O’ Clock Jazz Ensemble.
Learn more about Craig Handy.
Friday, October 25, 7:00 p.m.
Choral Workshop Final Concert
Wednesday, October 30, 12 p.m.
Musicians of Ma’alwyck: Mayhem & Madness
Mayhem & Madness offers music from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries related to the chaotic titular theme, including a work by Guillaume-Pierre-Antoine Gatayes (1774–1846). Gatayes was a prolific composer and guitar player who lived in Paris during the time of the French Revolution. In fact, he resided in the same house as Jean-Paul Marat, a journalist and revolutionary leader whose murder was memorialized in the famous painting. The program celebrates these quirky musical characters among others.
Ann-Marie Barker Schwartz, violin
Sten Isachsen, guitar
Norman Thibodeau, flute
André Laurent O’Neil, cello
Musicians of Ma’alwyck is a flexible-size chamber ensemble in residence at the Schuyler Mansion New York State Historic Site and SUNY Schenectady County Community College. Founded in 1999 by violinist and director Ann-Marie Barker Schwartz, the group specializes in music performed in America during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Many of the performing materials are drawn from the Special Collections of the New York State Library. Learn more about the Musicians of Ma'alwyck.
November 2024
Friday, November 1, 7:30 p.m.
A Place for Jazz: Bria Skonberg Quintet
Tickets: $25 per person; students with ID, $10
(cash or check only)
Learn more at A Place for Jazz
Born in British Columbia, Canada and now residing in New York City, Bria has been a featured artist at hundreds of festivals and stages the world over, including New Orleans Jazz & Heritage, Kobe, Monterey, Breda, Newport and Montreal Jazz Festivals. Described as “one of the most versatile and imposing musicians of her generation” (Wall Street Journal), she has performed with Jon Batiste, Wycliffe Gordon, Stephane Wrembel, Steven Bernstein, U2 & Sun Ra Arkestra, The American Pops and Vancouver Symphony Orchestras, The Blacksmiths “We Insist” Band, and once sang the “Star Spangled Banner” at Madison Square Garden for a NY Rangers game. The “shining hope of hot jazz” (NY Times) has been at the forefront of a revival of classic American music as both a performer and educator, programming concerts and workshops for students of all ages.
Source: https://www.briaskonberg.com/bio
Saturday, November 2, 2-4 p.m.
Friends of Chamber Music: Ulysses Quartet
Wednesday, November 6, 7:30 p.m.
Chamber Music Series: Music for Piano Four-Hands
Saturday, November 9, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
Chamber Music Series (Educational Event): Music for Piano Four-Hands
Friday, November 15, 7:30 p.m.
Chamber Music Series: Amahl and the Night Visitors
Saturday, November 16, 3 p.m.
Chamber Music Series: Amahl and the Night Visitors
Monday, November 25
12 p.m. - Guitar & Bass Recital
7:30 p.m. - Brass Recital & Brass Ensemble Concert
Tuesday, November 26, 7:30 p.m.
Jazz Combos & Chamber Ensemble Concert
Wednesday, November 27, 12 p.m.
Woodwinds, Strings & Percussion Recital
December 2024
Monday, December 2
12 p.m. - Piano Recital
7:30 p.m. - Chorus Concert
Tuesday, December 3
4:30 p.m. - Applied Recital I
7:30 p.m. - Vocal Chamber Ensemble Concert
Wednesday, December 4
12 p.m. - Voice Recital
4 p.m. - Applied Lesson Recital II
7:30 p.m. - Percussion & Jazz Ensemble Concert
Thursday, December 5, 7:30 p.m.
Audio Listening Recital
Friday, December 6, 7:30 p.m.
Wind Ensemble
Monday, December 9
12 p.m. - Digital Music & Beat Production Listening Recital
7:30 p.m. - Guitar Ensemble Concert
YouTube Concerts Featuring Students and Alumni
SUNY Schenectady Brass Ensemble
SUNY Schenectady Wind Ensemble
Read about the concert series in The Daily Gazette.
Music of the Masters
The Class of 2021
View The Class of 2021 pre-concert discussion on YouTube.
American Currents in Song
View the American Currents in Song pre-concert discussion on YouTube.
Chopin Project
View the Chopin Project pre-concert discussion on YouTube.