by Jamin Craig | Feb 6, 2015 | News Slider
The Department of Music celebrated the golden age of radio with a special concert called “Your Hit Parade 1936″ Thursday night in Shamblin Theater. The Great American Songbook concert series is devoted to showcasing classic American tunes from specific eras. For this concert, the music department put together a recreation of a popular radio show from the 1930s that played the weekly top 15 songs. This show was the precursor to today’s American Top 40 music charts. Patricia Roberts, a music department adjunct professor, created this Great American Songbook show. “I always try to come up with a new way to present it each year that’s kind of exciting and different,” Roberts said. “I got the idea to do the ‘Your Hit Parade,’ which was an old-time radio show, and I just started looking at all different kinds of music, and I began to see that I really loved the music from 1936, so then I picked out enough music to do a whole program with it.” A small jazz trio — composed of pianist Jeff Burnham, bassist Ike Harris and drummer Chris Nelson — provided the music for the evening. Music students came up to the front microphone to serenade the audience with the classic songs. Blake Farmer, news director and reporter for WPLN Nashville Public Radio, served as the evening’s MC. Farmer noted that as a radio personality, getting to host a 1930’s radio show was a huge joy. “When you’re in radio, this is sort of the era that everyone looks back to,” Farmer said. “This was literally when people crowded around the radio to listen...
by Aaron Schmelzer | Apr 22, 2014 | News Slider
The University Wind Ensemble played with fire in Collins Alumni Auditorium on April 21 with a professional Dixieland Jazz Combo for the ensemble’s spring concert. The seven-piece jazz combo, along with the University Wind Ensemble, performed a set of pieces called “Playing with Fire.” The pieces were “A la Bauduc,” “Shades of Blue” and “Polyphonies and Riffs.” The Dixieland Jazz Combo was made up of Sam Levine on the clarinet, Alan Suska on the cornet, Creighton Miller on the trombone, G.R. Davis on the double bass, Chris Nelson on the drums, Mark Godwin on the banjo and Kevin Madill on the piano. The wind ensemble prepared all semester for the show; however, the students were only able to rehearse with the jazz combo the night before. Despite the adversity freshman trombone player Robert Glenn said the experience was a good one. “Playing with a Dixieland Jazz Combo is fantastic. They’re just great musicians, and I’m very glad I got the opportunity to play with them,” Glenn said. The wind ensemble opened the night by preforming “Lassus Trombone” by Henry Fillmore, then followed that with “Watchman, Tell Us of the Night” by Mark Camphouse. The first two songs were conducted by Dr. Stephen L. Rhodes. The final piece before the jazz combo played was the “English Folk Song Suite.” The first piece, “Seventeen Come Sunday,” was conducted by J. Elliot Bowman. The second piece, “My Bonny Boy,” was conducted by Bailey Werner. The third and final piece, “Folk Songs from Somerset,” was conducted by Grace...
