Jazz festival features Jon Faddis and the Chicago Jazz Ensemble

The 34th annual Pittsburg State University Jazz Festival will feature a performance from famed musician Jon Faddis and the Chicago Jazz Ensemble as well as a day of exciting competitions among area students.

More than 65 student groups from school districts including Kansas City, Wichita, Webb City, Carthage, Diamond, Cherokee, and more will perform at the festival. Band judging will be held from 8 a.m. -12:30 p.m. and from 1:30-5:30 p.m. on March 7. Competitions will be held at three locations – Pittsburg’s Memorial Auditorium, and McCray Hall and the Overman Student Center on the campus of PSU.

Breaking up the intense day of competition will be a PSU jazz concert held at 1 p.m. at Memorial Auditorium. At 7:30 p.m., Faddis and the Chicago Jazz Ensemble will perform (the group had been scheduled to perform at last year’s festival but had to cancel due to bad weather). That concert will also be held at Memorial Auditorium.

As a conductor, composer and educator, Faddis has been praised as a consummate musician capable of an incredible range and virtually unparalleled talent. Time Out New York (2003) praised him as “the world’s greatest trumpeter” with “breathtaking technical acuity,” and The Wall Street Journal (2005) has characterized him as a musician with “prodigious lyrical force.”

Tickets for the evening concert are $12 for adults and $10 for those over 65 or 12 and under. Tickets can be purchased by calling Bob Kehle at 620-235-4474 or the PSU Ticket Office at 620-235-4796.

---Pitt State---