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Craig Treinen, associate professor, chair theatre and music/director jazz studies, starts the concert and welcomes the Santa Fe Trail High School Jazz Ensemble group to the concert.The concert took place May 1 inside White Concert Hall.
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Santa Fe Trail High School Jazz Ensemble stand ready to begin their performance. The group performed “Splanky” by Michael Sweeney as their first piece.
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Cameron Arnold, senior music education and music performance major, plays the drums. He performed different pieces with the group.
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Lance Quilling, band director at Santa Fe Trail High School, leads the group. They performed “Green Onions” by Roger Holmes.
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Emily Harmon, sophomore music education major, stands and presents a piece with the group. The group performed “Deep in the Scene” by Mike Sailors.
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Washburn University Jazz Orchestra group play their instruments and present the pieces. They performed four pieces together.
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Orion Craig, senior music education major, plays the trombone. He performed his solo piece, “Summer Never Ends.”
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Weslie Evans, junior education major, plays piano. He played piano in each piece with the group.
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Treinen performs his saxophone solo. He received bachelor degrees in music education and saxophone performance from Washburn University.
The Washburn University music department presented Washburn University Jazz Ensembles and featured Washburn University Jazz Orchestra on May 1, inside White Concert Hall at 7:30 p.m. The concert started with the performances of Santa Fe Trail High School Jazz Ensemble.
Emily Harmon, sophomore music education major, shared her passion for her instrument and connection with it and shared her journey to join jazz.
“I started in fifth grade, just when it was time for the beginning band to start, ” Harmon said. “I went to school, did an instrument petting zoo and I just enjoyed the saxophone. So I started out playing it and just never stopped.”
Harmon’s interest in jazz started after her middle school band teacher encouraged her to try out. She enjoyed the challenge of jazz compared to other styles of music and wanted to continue to play in college.
“Jazz music is just a different style [of music], and it’s also very, very difficult. It requires a lot of accuracy, a lot of listening to people around you and just playing different styles of music exposes you to how to better yourself as a musician in ways you don’t often even realize.”
Weslie Evans, junior music education major, discussed his journey in music.
“I started playing when I was six,” Evans said. “I don’t really know what sparked it. I just found it interesting. It’s kind of different for everybody. I’ve been having occasional gigs for a while. I’m trying to teach private lessons on the side. My major is music education, for a lot of people here, that means they’re going to go teach in a public school. I might actually go and do music therapy instead after and get a graduate degree.”
Orion Craig, senior music education major, shared his journey and memories with jazz.
“I started when I was in fifth grade and just played trombone,” Craig said. “I’ve just seen a lot of people, and I’ve met a lot of people that are passionate about music and just made me love it. There’s been a couple times when we’ve gone out into the community, like with this group, and we’ve just played for [different audiences]. There was one time we played at an old folks home, and that was really cool, because they were all super excited about it.”
Tristan Shepard, sophomore music performance major, discussed his connection with the audience through his music and shared about his instrument.
“I feel like my music connects with them as a whole. I try to play so that way they can hear and feel what I’m feeling,” Shepard said. “I played the tenor saxophone, I typically play alto sax. Playing in a jazz band is kind of like a whole new world for me, because it’s a completely different instrument than the one that I usually play.”
Edited by Reid McEvoy and Jeremy Ford.
