PAN-JUMBIE

Daily Chronicle USA - The NIU Steelband and the NIU Jazz Ensemble will present a joint concert at 8 p.m. March 20 at the Duke Ellington Ballroom in the Holmes Student Center, located on the campus of Northern Illinois University.

This concert will feature original compositions specifically written for the Steelband and Jazz Ensemble combination. The compositions and arrangements were done by NIU alumnus Sune Borregaard and will include Miles Davis’ “Nardis,” the Gillespie/Pozo/Fuller standard, “Manteca,” as well as Borregaard’s own “The Blue Pan” and “April.”

Directed by Professor Ronald Carter (director of NIU Jazz Studies), the NIU Jazz Ensemble includes students from around the world and has long been considered one of the best college jazz bands in the world, according to a news release. The ensemble performed at the 54th annual Midwest Music Clinic in Chicago with saxophonist Jimmy Heath as the guest artist, and at the 28th annual International Association of Jazz Educators Conference in New York with trumpeter Wynton Marsalis as the guest artist.

During the summer of 2001, the band performed at the North Sea Jazz Festival in the Netherlands, at the Jazz à Vienne Festival in France and at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. The list of guest artists with whom the ensemble has toured and performed includes Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Bellson, Clark Terry, Tito Puente, James Moody, Randy Brecker, Benny Golson, Curtis Fuller and many others.

The NIU Jazz Studies Program has been rated since 1996 as one of the top 10 jazz programs in the United States by U.S. News & World Report.

The NIU Steelband is directed by Liam Teague and Clifford Alexis. Started in 1973 by G. Allan O’Connor, who was head of percussion studies in the School of Music at that time, it was the first actively performing steelband formed in an American university and has performed throughout the United States and around the world.

NIU Steelband is a 35-member group mainly comprised of steelpan and percussion majors. The band performs regularly at public schools, colleges and universities, conventions and arts series concert programs. The band has three recordings to its credit, including its most recent: “Festival of Voices,” a live concert featuring an eclectic blend of musical styles.

In addition to the NIU Steelband, two other steelband ensembles exist on campus. The All-University Steelband, a group open to any NIU student regardless of major or previous experience on pan, and the Steelpan Studio, comprised exclusively of steelpan majors.

NIU is one of the few institutions in the world offering music degrees with steelpan as the major instrument of choice.

The concert is free and open to the public. The Holmes Student Center is accessible to all.

This concert will be broadcasted live → NIU School of Music HD Webcasts (LIVE)

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