With the holiday season now in full swing, it’s only appropriate that the Reno Jazz Orchestra (RJO) brings Jazz for the Holidays to northern Nevada for all to enjoy on December 20, 2014 at The Nightingale Hall – University of Nevada. Accompanying the 17 piece band of the RJO is award-winning jazz vocalist Madeline Eastman, international tap and ballet stars, the Reno Youth Jazz Orchestra, and other special guests who will all perform their holiday magic on Saturday night beginning at 7:30 pm.
“Our holiday concerts celebrate family, friends, and community because they are key to keeping jazz alive in northern Nevada. Without the great support the RJO receives all year, America’s great art form of jazz would have disappeared with the showroom orchestras,” said Chuck Reider, Music Director for the Reno Jazz Orchestra. “This year we showcase the holiday spirit through jazz in music, song and dance that will entertain fans of all music genres and ages.”
Tickets are now on sale through the non-profit organization’s website at www.renojazzorchestra.org. Student tickets are $10 with adult tickets priced at $25.
Every year the RJO selects some of the nation’s finest vocal and dance talent to join them on stage and this year is no exception. Jazz Vocalist Madeline Eastman will share her zeal for jazz that has produced numerous awards including the “Best Female Jazz Vocalist” and other prestigious titles and awards. Eastman has been heralded for her vocal gifts and interpretive savvy throughout the world and has been noted as “… an inventive, endlessly entertaining artist” by the Los Angeles Times.
Eastman has traveled and performed from Japan to Finland, throughout America from coast to coast, and at many prominent events which include the Cotati Jazz Festival, the legendary Monterey Jazz Festival, and the Glasgow Jazz Festival.
Complementing the program within this festive evening is international Tap star Sam Weber and versatile dance artist Ananda Bena-Weber.
Sam Weber is considered one of the greatest master Tap dancers of the 21st century with talent that has led him to perform in musical theater and television with some of the businesses’ most famous stars. Ananda Bena-Weber has performed throughout the world in the areas of theater, dance, film and television.
Vocalists Trey Stone, Jackie Landrum, Maurice Allen, and Pat Esters, featured this summer in the RJO’s production “Bring Me the Funk of James Brown” , will join the Reno Jazz Orchestra as their special guest stars.
No holiday event is ever complete without bringing in the community’s own local youth and this year is no exception. The show kicks-off with holiday fanfare from the Reno
Youth Jazz Orchestra.
“The students have a tendency to steal the show,” boasted conductor Vern Scarbrough who leads this ‘sister organization’ of the Reno Jazz Orchestra.
This special holiday event is supported in part by the E.L. Cord Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Healing Healthcare Systems, Ashley Quinn, ArtWorks, Nevada Arts Council and the RJO Band of 100.
For more information, visit www.renojazzorchestra.org. call contact Lee Weber Koch, Marketing Partner with the RJO, at 775 846 5444 or email [email protected].
SOURCE: RJO.
