Virtual Jazz Festival

About the event

The WSU School of Music and the WSU Jazz Society are excited to host the 2020 WSU Virtual Jazz Festival! If you are interested in participating in the master classes and workshops at the festival, please register to receive the Zoom link by going to https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScXENDYmhNQ2dAIicbo3fZKXl1HlK77OjP4o6pgDcJEuSWWww/viewform.

The festival will include the following events:

– Instrument masterclasses with WSU Jazz Faculty

– A panel discussion about virtual ensembles

– Guest artist masterclasses by Alexa Tarantino, Ray Anderson, and Dave Pollack

– Virtual performances by the WSU Big Bands and middle/high school ensembles

The festival will be streamed to the public starting at 10:00 AM on the WSU School of Music YouTube Channel.

Thank you to Allegro for funding our guest artists!

Alexa Tarantino

Alexa Tarantino is an award-winning, vibrant, young jazz saxophonist, woodwind doubler, composer, and educator. Alexa’s “lovely, ardent way of improvising,” and “sharply plotted but gracefully unencumbered straight-ahead jazz [compositions]” (Giovanni Russonello, The New York Times) establish her individual voice which shines through as a dynamic performer and educator. Tarantino was recently named one of the “Top 5 Alto Saxophonists of 2019” by the JazzTimes Critics’ Poll. Her debut album, Winds of Change, peaked at #15 on the JazzWeek Charts and landed at #79 for JazzWeek’s Top 100 records of 2019.

Dave Pollack

A native of Hamilton, New Jersey, saxophonist Dave Pollack started his musical career playing the piano at 5 years old and saxophone at 9. In high school he won many soloists awards in jazz competitions around the state and had the chance to perform with the Count Basie Orchestra, Richie Cole, Bob Mintzer, and the Philly Pops Brass Quintet.

After high school he continued his education at William Paterson University where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Jazz Studies/Music Education. While there he studied under Mulgrew Miller, Vincent Herring, Gary Smulyan, David Demsey, Armen Donelian, and James Weidman.

He has since been performing in the New York City area as well as around the world, and has had the pleasure of sharing the stage with many great artists including Richie Cole and his Alto Madness Orchestra, Mingus Big Band, Phil Woods, Randy Brecker and Jon Faddis. Dave has most recently been on tour in Australia with the Hanlon Brothers, a group based out of the Gold Coast.

Along with being a performer, Dave is also a passionate educator. He’s been teaching saxophone, flute, clarinet, and piano privately since he was 17 years old, and is the owner of Princeton Home Music Lessons. From 2010-2011 Dave was the Director of Jazz at The Lawrenceville School in Lawrenceville, NJ, and is currently the Instrumental Woodwind Specialist at the Cranbury School in Cranbury, NJ. His students have achieved great musical recognition, including being selected to perform in Region and All-State Jazz Ensembles.

Dave is a KeyLeaves endorsed artist, and you can check out his page here: https://keyleaves.com/pages/dave-pollack

Ray Anderson

Named five straight years as best trombonist in the Down Beat Critics Poll and declared “the most exciting slide brass player of his generation” by the Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD, Ray Anderson has shown remarkable range. He has led or co-led a daunting assortment of tradition-minded and experimental groups, big bands, blues and funk projects and even a trombone quartet. Anderson attended the University of Chicago Lab School, where one of his classmates was another notable trombone original, George Lewis. His teachers included Frank Tirro and Dea n Hey. In 1973, Anderson moved to New York where he studied and played with composer and music theorist Jimmy Giuffre, joined drummer Barry Altschul’s free-form trio and played for three years with the quartet of AACM saxophone hero Anthony Braxton. In the ’80s, he garnered attention with collective bands including the funk-oriented Slickaphonics and the trio BassDrumBone, featuring bassist Mark Helias and drummer Gerry Hemingway. On a series of acclaimed recordings, he has ranged from Ellingtonia and jazz classics to striking originals.