Department of Music

The U.Va Jazz Ensemble, under the direction of John D’earth, presents Principals In Jazz on Saturday February 28th, 2015 featuring four principal musicians from the Charlottesville Symphony.

The UVA Jazz Ensemble will present their winter concert, Principals In Jazz, on February 28th in Old Cabell Hall.  The concert will feature, as guest artists, four principals from the Charlottesville Symphony: I-Jen Fang on marimba and percussion, Aaron Hill on the oboe, Nathaniel Lee on trombone, and David Sariti on violin.  Each is the professional leader of their section in the orchestra, and all have recorded and performed on the national and international stage.  The Jazz Ensemble will be performing classic and original works that will feature the guest artists alongside the soloists in the band.  The concert will be an exploration of what Gunther Schuller called “Third Stream Jazz," the blending of jazz and classical sounds and techniques.  Beyond the technical virtuosity, which is the stock-in-trade of any orchestra principal, these four classically trained musicians share a wide variety of musical skills including experience with improvisation.

I-Jen Fang joined the faculty of the McIntire Department of Music at the University of Virginia in 2005 and as Principal Timpanist and Percussionist of the Charlottesville Symphony. Fang was born in Taipei, Taiwan and began her musical education at age six taking piano. Taking up percussion at the age of nine, she came to the United States at age fifteen to pursue her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Percussion Performance at Carnegie Mellon University.  She has recorded and performed with numerous ensembles and orchestras across a stylistic spectrum that ranges from strict classical roots to the newest of newly composed music. 

Aaron Hill plays principal oboe in the Charlottesville Symphony and English horn in the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra. He spends summers performing as the principal oboist with the Wintergreen Festival Orchestra.  He played principal oboe on William Bolcom's Songs of Innocence and Experience with Leonard Slatkin, a recording for Naxos, which won the Grammy Award for Best Classical Album. He has also been awarded the Grand Prize in the Mu Phi Epsilon Society for Musical Arts Competition and the Leche Trust Prize at the Barbirolli International Oboe Competition.

Nathaniel Lee serves as Principal Trombone of the Charlottesville Symphony and is in demand as a freelance classical artist comfortable with many forms of music including jazz.  During his doctoral studies at the University of Iowa he was awarded the 2013 Downbeat Magazine Award for Outstanding Graduate Soloist.

David Sariti, a principal violinist from the Charlottesville Symphony, is known for his performance and research interests that cut across styles and eras, with a repertoire spanning from the seventeenth century to the present day.  A cutting edge performer and scholar, Dr. Sariti brings his expertise with the improvisatory aspects of baroque music and his fluency and interest in a wide diversity of styles and periods to create an unusually rich picture of what a modern classical musician can embody.

“This is a quartet of musical friends with whom I have collaborated in various formats and projects over the years,” says D’earth.  “They are some of the best classical musicians I know and they all stretch themselves into new areas of expression in much the way that jazz musicians do.  Dave Sariti is a superb improviser on the violin, for example, and has played jazz with me in a variety of settings.  I-Jen Fang is a charismatic marimba soloist and percussionist who brings huge energy and virtuosity to her music.   Aaron Hill’s extreme agility on the oboe brings him together with his jazz saxophone cousins and lets this not entirely unfamiliar jazz instrument find its place in the jazz vortex.  And Nathaniel Lee is simply a consummate brassman at home in any style.  We are going to hear new sounds from four master instrumentalists!”

The four guests will be interacting with featured UVa Jazz Ensemble soloists Harrison Frye on trumpet, tenor saxophonist James Copeland, lead alto sax Matthew Smith, bassist Kris Monson, drummer Pat Hayes, lead trumpet Lizzie Weaver, trumpet soloist Lauralee Yeary, vibraphonist Ben Vogel, and pianist Peter Hodskins.  Also featured will be community members of the Jazz Ensemble: Doug Bethel and Cameron Williams on trombone, and Adam Turay on guitar. 

The band will be performing classics like Dizzy Gillespie’s Con Alma and John Coltrane’s seldom-performed Dear Lord, along with some originals by D’earth like Careless Magic Blues and Prestidigitation which is based on the Miles Davis composition So What.

Tickets are $10 for the general public, $5 for students and free for U.Va Students who reserve in advance. Tickets can be purchased at the Arts Box Office by calling 434.924.3376 or visiting https://artsboxoffice.virginia.edu/.

Old Cabell Hall is located on the south end of UVa's historic Lawn, directly opposite the Rotunda. Parking is available in the Central Grounds Parking Garage, or in the lots off University Avenue at the University Corner. Handicapped parking is available in the C1 parking lot or in designated spaces on McCormick Avenue.

All programs are subject to change.

For more information, please call the McIntire Department of Music at 434.924.3052.

To find out more about Jazz events at UVa visit music.virginia.edu/jazz-series.