JEN 2016, Louisville, KY

Happy New year Everyone!!

A lot of things happening in the next few weeks, but I'll begin with only one of them, the JEN Conference to be held this week in Louisville, KY.

The Socrates Garcia Latin Jazz Orchestra has been invited to perform twice:

Thursday - SGLJO will perform the music from my upcoming album, Back Home. We have an amazing ensemble for JEN.

Sidenote: the album is going to be available as a pre-release purchase at JEN! The worlwide release date is set for March.

Back to JEN...

Also on Thursday: I'll present a clinic entitled "Latin Jazz with a Dominican Tinge," where I will talk about three Dominican genres (merengue, bachata, and palos) and how I used them in my jazz orchestra writing.

Saturday - SGLJO will perform the music of the winners of the Young Composers Showcase. It is truly an honor to be invited to do this! I am super excited about the opportunity to conduct this music.

The band includes some of the players I admire the most in the world. It is humbling to have a group of players of this caliber willing to share their art to perform my music. It's going to be a blast!

Here's the roster

Saxes:

Alto 1 - Briana Harris (University of Northern Colorado)

Alto 2 - Adam Blakey (University of Northern Colorado)

Tenor 1 - Don Aliquo (Middle Tennessee State University)

Tenor 2 - Kenyon Brenner (University of Northern Colorado)

Baritone-Ryan Middagh (Vanderbilt University)

Trumpets:

Stephen Hawk (Texas State University)

Brad Goode (University of Colorado Boulder)

Jamey Simmons (Middle Tennessee State University)

Clay Jenkins (Eastman School of Music)

Trombones:

Michael Conrad (University of Northern Colorado)

Paul McKee (University of Colorado Boulder)

Frank Cook (University of Northern Colorado)

Brian Entwistle (Vanderbilt University)

Rhythm Section:

Dana Landry - Piano (University of Northern Colorado)

Erik Applegate - Bass (University of Northern Colorado)

Steve Kovalcheck - Guitar (University of Northern Colorado)

Helen de la Rosa - Drums

Percussion:

Ruben Alvarez – Congas (Latin Percussion –LP)

Pablito Peña - Tambora

Daniel Berroa - Güira/Bongo

My most sincere "Thank you" to each one of the people involved in making this possible.

More info as it develops. 

Peace,
S