The University of Idaho campus will fill with visiting students and the sounds of jazz once again for the 2019 Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival this Friday and Saturday.
More than 130 schools will bring roughly 4,000 students from colleges and elementary, middle and high schools around the Northwest as well as Minnesota and Canada, according to a news release.
Mitch Gibbs, a fourth-year music student who plays trumpet, visited UI for the Jazz Festival when he was a sophomore in high school. UI ended up being the only college Gibbs applied to. It was the only place he wanted to go to, he said.
“The Jazz Festival is what drew me to UI and drew me to the Lionel Hampton School of Music,” Gibbs said.
Vern Sielert | Courtesy
Gibbs said other students from his high school band who are not pursuing a music degree also decided to attend UI after visiting during Jazz Fest.
Jazz Fest can provide a source of inspiration for aspiring musicians as well as a look into what a music career could look like, Gibbs said.
Vern Sielert, director of jazz studies at UI, said education has always been the foundation of the festival.
“It’s education in terms of helping the students and getting a little piece of knowledge from clinicians to help them get better, but also it’s the inspiration that comes from hearing these world-class artists,” Sielert said. “From my experience, that’s what made me want to go home and practice.”
Sielert said he loves the excitement from students during the festival — as they prepare to perform, learn new things and begin to understand that with determination and hard work, the level of musicianship seen during the festival could be possible for them too.
“It’s getting students excited about the possibilities of the art form,” Sielert said. “Realizing that everybody starts from somewhere. All these great artists, they weren’t born that way.”
Hour-long workshops, catered to a variety of viewpoints, will take place in buildings all around campus from about 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday and Saturday, said Joshua Skinner, Jazz Fest manager. Workshops are free and open to the public and can be music specific or relate other disciplines to music, Skinner said.
Joshua Skinner | Courtesy
Pianist and vocalist Dawn Clement’s Gratitude Trio will perform Friday evening as well as UI Jazz Choir I and Jazz Band I with Dawn Clement and trombonist Paul McKee.
The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, a multiple Grammy Award-winning group, will perform Saturday. According to a news release, the band works to highlight the work of its soloists by allowing them to play much longer than was previously typical in large ensembles.
The festival will end Saturday night with a performance by The New Lionel Hampton Big Band, featuring vibraphonist Joseph Doubleday and vocalist Antonia Bennett. Sielert said the band will be “self-contained” this year, which means they will have an 11-piece ensemble instead of 17.
Evening shows will also highlight the day’s student solo/combo winners.
All evening concerts will be 7:30 p.m. in the ASUI-Kibbie Activity Center. Ticket prices range from $15 to $45. Tickets are available for purchase in the UI Ticket Office, located in the Kibbie Dome, or by phone at 1-888-8UIDAHO or online at www.uidaho.edu/ticketoffice.
Sielert said The New Lionel Hampton Big Band will be playing a whole set of Lionel Hampton’s music this year, as opposed to just a couple tunes.
“It’s important for keeping Lionel’s legacy and just keeping his music out there,” Sielert said.
Where to get tickets:
UI Ticket Office, located in the Kibbie Dome
By phone at 1-888-8-UIDAHO
Online at www.uidaho.edu/ticketoffice
Jordan Willson can be reached at [email protected]