Department of Music

Photo credit: Dan Addison

On Nov 7th the Free Bridge Quintet, in partnership with the Virginia Film Festival, will perform a two hour accompaniment to the 1926 silent film Faust, directed by F.W. Murnau. The score, composed by Free Bridge trumpeter and U.Va. Director of Jazz Performance John D'earth, was originally commissioned by the U.Va. Film Society in 2003 for a presentation of the restored print. The film will screen in Old Cabell Hall and will feature the Quintet with special guest, principal percussionist of the Charlottesville
Symphony, I-Jen Fang.

Photo credit: Rick Stillings

Roger Ebert on Murnau and Faust (full review):

"The greatest master of horror in the silent era"

"He was an original, and no one else ever made films that looked like his. They are strange and haunted; you reflect that if such satanic dealings were possible, they would probably look very much like this.

The Free Bridge Quintet is the official faculty jazz quintet of the University of Virginia McIntire Department of Music. Founded in 1997, it features Jeff Decker on saxophones, Robert Jospé on the drums, Peter Spaar on bass, John D’earth on trumpet and flugelhorn, and Butch Taylor on piano. The quintet has been a staple of not only the UVA and Charlottesville jazz scene, but also the greater Central Virginia jazz scene for more than 10 years.

Old Cabell Hall is located on the south end of UVA's historic lawn, directly opposite the Rotunda. (map) Parking is available in the central grounds parking garage on Emmet Street, in the C1 parking lot off McCormick Rd, and in the parking lots at the UVA Corner.  Handicap parking is available in the small parking lot adjacent to Bryan Hall.

Tickets are $15 for the general public, $5 for students and free for UVA Students who reserve in advance.  Tickets can be purchased by calling the Arts Box Office at 434.924.3376 or by visiting the Arts Box Office.

All programs are subject to change. For more information please call the McIntire Department of Music at 434.924.3052.

I-Jen Fang photo by Rick Stillings, Free Bridge Quintet photo by Daniel Addison