Contact:
Eric Sloss
412-268-5765

For immediate release:
February 4, 2005

Carnegie Mellon Jazz Ensembles To Perform Annual Winter Concert at Carnegie Music Hall Friday, February 11, at 8 p.m.

PITTSBURGH—The Carnegie Mellon University Jazz Ensembles, under the direction of David Pellow, will perform their annual winter concert at Carnegie Music Hall in Oakland at 8 p.m. Friday, February 11. The program will include music by Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, Bob Mintzer and John Coltrane. The concert will also serve as preparation for the ensemble's upcoming trip to the Notre Dame Jazz Festival on February 26.

"This band is probably the finest we have had since I've been at Carnegie Mellon," Pellow said. "An excellent blend of soloists and ensemble players gives this band the flexibility to live up to the music. They have performed professionally many times and it shows in their polished performances."

Although jazz studies didn't become part of the curriculum until the early 1990s, there has been a performing jazz ensemble at Carnegie Mellon since the early 1970s. In fact, the first Carnegie Mellon Jazz Ensemble recording was released in 1975. The two jazz ensembles comprise students from all across the university, including music majors. The goal of the jazz ensembles is to foster the interest and love of playing jazz. The jazz program aims to give student musicians, no matter their academic major, the necessary knowledge and experience to continue playing on a professional level when they leave Carnegie Mellon. The Carnegie Mellon Jazz Ensembles perform not only at university events, but also at an annual winter concert at Carnegie Music Hall in Oakland and at fundraising events throughout the Pittsburgh area. Recent guest artists to appear with the Jazz Ensembles include drummer Roger Humphries, trombonist Jay Ashby, trumpeter Gary Feinberg and jazz faculty members Eric DeFade, saxophone, and Betsy Lawrence, jazz vocal.

Pellow has been the director of jazz studies in Carnegie Mellon's School of Music since 2002. Prior to that, he was an artist lecturer in double bass and conductor of the Carnegie Mellon Jazz Ensembles. Pellow has performed in countries including Japan and at Switzerland's Montreaux Jazz Festival, with many great jazz musicians.

For more information, contact at 412-268-5765 or ecs@andrew.cmu.edu.