Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Wycliffe Gordon to be Presented with Visiting Professorship

AUGUSTA, GA (Kelly Jasper) – Renowned jazz trombonist and international recording artist, composer, and arranger Wycliffe Gordon will be presented with a visiting professorship in the Department of Music at Georgia Regents University when he takes the stage with the GRU Jazz Ensemble on Tuesday.


Gordon will perform with the GRU Jazz Ensemble under the direction of Dr. Rob Foster, Professor of Music, at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 12, at the Maxwell Theatre, 2500 Walton Way. A formal announcement will be made during the performance, said Dr. Angela Morgan, Chair of the GRU Department of Music.

“He’s an internationally renowned Jazz musician, known all over the world, but the exciting thing is that he’s from right here in Augusta,” Morgan said.

Gordon was born in Waynesboro, Ga., and is a graduate of Augusta’s Butler High School. To date, he has released more than 20 records as a solo artist, and tours regularly with the Wycliffe Gordon Quartet. He is a former veteran member of the Wynton Marsalis Septet and Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, and currently teaches in the Jazz Arts Program at Manhattan School of Music. From 2001-13, he was named “Trombonist of the Year” by the Jazz Journalists Association eight times. In 2007, he received the ASCAP Foundation Vanguard Award for his work as a composer, instrumentalist, performer, and educator in the field of jazz. 

Gordon’s visiting professorship begins in fall 2014. He will spend six weeks of each semester at GRU, working with students in a new Jazz Studies Track in the Bachelor of Music degree program.

“Students will be able to concentrate their efforts in jazz to prepare them to be better jazz musicians,” Morgan said.

Tickets to Tuesday’s performance are $5 at the Maxwell Theatre Box Office. GRU students, faculty, and staff are admitted free with a valid JagCard.

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