Hope College will host the second annual Hope/Kenyon Jazz Research Symposium on Wednesday, March 31, at 7 p.m. in Snow Auditorium of Nykerk Hall of Music.
The public is invited. Admission is free.
The Hope/Kenyon Jazz Research Symposium is a collaboration between the Hope College and Kenyon College music departments. The event will feature presentations of original research by faculty and students.
Topics to be discussed include the improvisational techniques of saxophonist Paul Desmond, a comparison of hard-bop trumpeters Lee Morgan and Blue Mitchell, expressions of spirituality in the music of John Coltrane, and an examination of metric complexity in the stride piano of James P. Johnson and Mary Lou Williams.
The presenters will include Robert Hodson, assistant professor of music at Hope; Ted Buehrer, assistant professor of music at Kenyon; and Hope seniors Paul Wesselink of Grand Rapids, Alisa White of Sterling, Ill., and Richard Van Voorst of Holland. The three students who will be presenting the results of their research experiences will all be the first graduates of the college's Bachelor of Music in Jazz Performance degree program.
The first Hope/Kenyon Jazz Research Symposium was held last year at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, and the event will alternate between campuses. The symposium is supported in part by a grant from the college's Cultural Affairs Committee.
Nykerk Hall of Music is located between College and Columbia avenues along the former 12th Street.