Department of Music

The McIntire Department of Music presents A Night of Percussion with special guest John D'earth.  The UVa Percussion Ensemble, directed by I-Jen Fang, is a chamber ensemble that performs literature from classical transcriptions to contemporary music. The ensemble draws upon a large family of pitched and non-pitched percussion instruments. The ensemble members are Brandon Burton, Aliyah Cotton, Julianna Lee, Gregory Lewis, Mark Panetti, Shaun Spisak, Laura Tracy, Crystal Triplett, and T.J. Walsh.  The number of players and equipments varies greatly from piece to piece.  The concert presents an eclectic mix of genres and styles—from jazz to new music to orchestral—and features a program written largely by UVa faculty, alumni, and students. The group will perform The Speed of Sound in an Ice Rain by Matthew Burtner, the chair of music department, as well as a piece inspired by computer-generated poetry by current graduate student Kevin Davis. In addition, the ensemble will play Variations on the Good Old Song by Craig Hunter and Rite of the Elves by Siyang Shen, both of whom are alumni of the UVa music department. The concert also features an arrangement by Greg Lewis, a member of the ensemble for the past six years.

Jazz trumpeter and composer John D'earth studied, as a teenager, with saxophonist Boots Mussulli (Stan Kenton, Charlie Ventura, Teddy Wilson,) with John Coffey (principal trombonist BSO) and arranging with Thad Jones. He attended Harvard University and, later, moved to New York City where he studied with Carmine Caruso, Vince Penzarella and Richie Beirach.* D'earth has performed and recorded internationally and appeared on over one hundred CDs working with Buddy Rich, Lionel Hampton, Miles Davis/Quincy Jones, Tito Puente, Bruce Hornsby, Emily Remler, Bennie Wallace, Eddie Gomez, The George Gruntz Concert Jazz Band, Bob Moses, Pat Metheny, Joe Henderson, Clark Terry, John Scofield and John Abercrombie, among many others. He has composed and arranged music for the Kronos String Quartet, The Kandinsky Trio, The Charlottesville Chamber Festival, Bruce Hornsby, The Dave Matthews Band, The San Diego, Atlanta, Richmond and Roanoke Symphony Orchestras, The University of Virginia Jazz Ensemble, The Great American Music Ensemble and The Charlottesville-Albemarle Youth Orchestra. Among his original works are the five movement *Natural Bridge*, commissioned by the Kandinsky Trio and *Suite Rakalam*, in four movements, for string septet, trumpet and drumset commissioned by the Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival. He completed a two hour score for five instruments to be performed live with Mernau's 1926 silent film masterpiece, *Faustus*. D'earth has recorded as a leader for Vanguard Records, ENJA Records, DoubleTime Jazz and his own Cosmolgy label.

Currently residing in Charlottesville, Virginia he is a co-founder of the Free Bridge Quintet, is the music director for the Thompson D'earth Band with his wife, vocalist and composer Dawn Thompson, leads the Charlottesville Swing Orchestra, the jazz/poetry project and his own quartet/quintet. As the Director of Jazz Performance at the University of Virginia Mr. D'earth teaches improvisation, jazz trumpet and directs the UVA Jazz Ensemble. As a jazz musician and composer he is interested in the nexus of composition and improvisation and in working with musicians who are committed to pushing their own boundaries in both of these areas. John D'earth's career in music is documented in the recently published Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz*, (Oxford Press) by Leonard Feather and Ira Gitler.

I-Jen Fang by Rick Stillings

I-Jen Fang is on the faculty of the McIntire Department of Music at the University of Virginia and is the Principal Timpanist and Percussionist of the Charlottesville Symphony at the University of Virginia. She directs the UVA New Music Ensemble, the Percussion Ensemble and co-directs the Lunchbox Recitals. She received her B.F.A. from Carnegie Mellon University, M.M. from Northwestern University and Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of North Texas.

Members of the U.Va. Percussion Ensemble are Brandon Burton, Aliyah Cotton, Julianna Lee, Gregory Lewis, Mark Panetti, Shaun Spisak, Laura Tracy, Crystal Triplett, and T.J. Walsh.

All events are subject to change.  For more information call the Music Department at 434.924.3052