The Hope College Jazz Arts Collective and jazz combos will perform on Thursday, Oct. 15, at 6:30 p.m. in the John and Dede Howard Recital Hall of the Jack H. Miller Center for Musical Arts.

The public is invited.  Admission is free.

The Contemporary Ensemble will perform “All of Me,” by Gerald Marks and Seymour Simons, and “Summertime,” by George and Ira Gershwin.

The Mainstream Ensemble will perform “Nardis,” by Miles Davis, and “Ahmad’s Blues,” by Ahmad Jamal.

The Jazz Arts Collective will perform “All Blues,” by Miles Davis; “Safe Tree,” by Hope faculty music faculty member Brian Coyle, with photography by Steve Nelson of the Hope art faculty; “Outlier,” by Justin Stanton; and “Shofukan,” by Michael League.

The many jazz chamber ensembles at Hope afford students the opportunity to perform in the classic small group combo setting.  The ensembles vary in size and instrumentation, and place a creative focus on improvisation and group communication.  All of the ensembles perform works from the classic jazz repertoire.   The more advanced jazz chamber ensembles also perform repertoire from the contemporary jazz world.  The ensembles also place an emphasis on original student and faculty compositions.  A member of the Hope jazz faculty coaches each student ensemble.

Directed by Brian Coyle, the Jazz Arts Collective is the premier large jazz ensemble at Hope College.  The Collective places a creative focus on ensemble communication and improvisation.  Comprised of a rhythm section and flexible wind/string instrumentation, this select group performs compositions and arrangements from across the full spectrum of music.  The collective’s repertoire ranges from the great historical jazz composers such as Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus, to works by modern jazz masters like Vince Mendoza, Jim McNeely and John Hollenbeck. The Jazz Arts Collective frequently performs commissions, works by emerging young composers, and originals by Hope College faculty and students. The ensemble also collectively reinterprets and re-imagines the music from the twentieth century classical repertoire.

The students in the Jazz Arts Collective are: sophomore Ivan Akansiima of Holland, piano; junior Jamie Baarman of Holland, vocals; senior Palmer D’Orazio of Clarkston, saxophones; senior Carsten Forester of Holland, guitar; freshman Michael Girman of Valparaiso, Indiana, saxophones; sophomore Quinn Humphrey of Byron Center, drums; junior Josiah Panning of Holland, bass; senior Colin Rensch of Kalamazoo, keyboards; sophomore Nick Rozema of Kenosha, Wisconsin, trumpet; senior Matt Tallman of York, Pennsylvania, percussion; and freshman Evan Vogel of Des Plaines, Illinois, trombone.

The Contemporary Ensemble is also coached by Coyle.  The students in the ensemble include Akansiima, guitar, and Forester, bass; with freshman Kathleen Muloma of Carmel, Indiana, vocals; and sophomore Yong Chul Yoon of Tokyo, Japan, drums.

The Mainstream Ensemble is coached by Robert Hodson.  The students in the ensemble include Akansiima, piano, Humphrey, drums, and Panning, bass.

The concert will be followed immediately by the college’s Jack Ridl Visiting Writers Series, which will feature Angela Pelster and David James Poissant at 7:30 p.m., also in the John and Dede Howard Recital Hall.

The Jack H. Miller Center for Musical Arts is located at 221 Columbia Ave., between Ninth and 10th streets.