MUSIC

The Immanuel and Helen Olshan TEXAS MUSIC FESTIVAL (TMF) announces its 22nd season, Made in America, with performances by the Festival Orchestra (Orchestra Series), faculty artists (PERSPECTIVES Series: Chamber Music and Jazz), institute participants (jazz, piano, voice), and the Classical Minds Guitar Festival and Competition.

The 19-person Texas Music Festival (TMF) Jazz Project, led by Director/Trumpeter Noe Marmolejo, will perform a "Distinctly American” jazz concert Tuesday, June 7, 7:30 p.m. at the University of Houston (UH) Moores Opera House. The TMF Jazz Project is an all-star jazz orchestra whose musicians come together from all over the state to play the best in what’s hot in America’s native musical idiom.

According to Marmolejo, the TMF Jazz Project strives for a performance that projects spontaneity. “The musicians are at a level where they can sight read the music once and play a full concert,” he noted. “That really gives a little bit of edge to the performance.”

The “Distinctly American” evening of jazz will showcase compositions by Duke Ellington, Thad Jones, Chuck Owens, Aaron Lington, Rich DeRosa, Sammy Nestico and John Mahoney, among others. The orchestra includes such respected jazz music professionals as saxophonist Warren Sneed, who heads the Jazz Studies at High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (HSPVA), and UH Moores School jazz faculty members Joel Fulgham, drums; Ryan Gabbart, trombone; David Klingensmith, bass; Woody Witt, saxophone; and Mike Wheeler, guitar.

TMF Jazz Project will have its first-ever pre-concert festivities in the UH Moores Opera House courtyard featuring the “It’s a Wrap!” mobile bistro food truck’s gourmet sandwich wraps for sale from 6:30 -7:15 p.m. the Moores Opera House is located at Entrance 16 off Cullen Boulevard.

The June 7 TMF Jazz Project is part of the Immanuel and Helen Olshan TEXAS MUSIC FESTIVAL (TMF), now in its 22nd season. The month-long orchestral training program (June 6 - July 2), whose theme is “Made in America” this year, has components of vocal, guitar, jazz, and piano programs for young professional musicians from noted music schools around the world. The orchestra fellows study and rehearse under the direction of international faculty of conductors, artists/teachers who also perform in the Perspectives Series.

Noe Marmolejo, University of Houston Moores School of Music Director of Jazz Ensembles and director of the Jazz Institute of the Texas Music Festival, earned his master's degree in music at University of Houston and has headed the UH jazz studies program since 1985. Prior to entering graduate school he was Westchester High School high school band director from 1976-83. A past recipient of the UH Teaching Excellence Award, Marmolejo likes the challenge his music students present to teachers. "I'm a big believer that great teachers are the result of great students.”

The University of Houston Jazz Institute for high school students has been instrumental in recruiting students to University of Houston Moores School of Music. Marmolejo has taken jazz at the UH Moores School and built it into one of the premiere jazz programs in the Southwest. He leads the Moores School Jazz Orchestra in the many styles of jazz big bands: swing, Latin music, and more contemporary styles like funk, rock, and hip-hop.

In February of each year, the Moores Jazz Festival features international jazz artists as part of an adjudicated program for middle schools, high school, and college jazz groups. Marmolejo is an active jazz and classical trumpet performer as well as an active adjudicator and clinician in the Houston area.