Join the Slippery Rock University Jazz Ensemble (Dr. Jason
Kush, director) in Pittsburgh at the Manchester
Craftsman’s Guild for a free concert on Monday, November 6, 2013 at 7pm. The concert
will feature world renown jazz trumpeter and singer Benny Benack
III for a program featuring
the music of Count Basie and Frank Sinatra. Patrons will enjoy familiar tunes
such as “Come
Fly with Me,” “Fly Me to the Moon,” and
“I’ve
Got You Under My Skin.’
Benack, a Pittsburgh native and graduate of Upper St. Clair High
School, has recently been named
a Rising Star by Downbeat magazine in both the vocalist and trumpet categories.
In 2023
alone, Benack has performed as
a leader at
the
top venues from New
York to
San
Francisco,
and internationally in
South
Korea, Japan,
Germany,
Demark, Italy, Spain, Andorra, Saudi
Arabia, and others!
The Slippery Rock University Jazz Ensemble proudly continues a
tradition of excellence for over forty-five
years in the making. Throughout its history, the award-winning
SRU Jazz Ensemble
has
performed at jazz concert venues in the United States, Canada, Europe, and
Asia. In their most
recent European Tour, the SRU Jazz Ensemble was featured at the Umbria Jazz
Festival (Perugia,
IT), the Jazz à
Juan Festival (Antibes,
FR), and Conservatorio
di Musica Niccolò Paganini (Genoa,
IT). Previous tours abroad included performances in Italy, France, the
Netherlands (North
Sea Jazz Festival), Germany, Switzerland (Montreux Jazz Festivals), and the
former U.S.S.R.
The group has also appeared at multiple
Jazz Education Network (JEN), National Associate
for Music Education (NAfME), and Pennsylvania Music Educators Association
(PMEA) conferences.
The SRU Jazz Ensemble has performed concerts with world-class
jazz legends such as
Bob Mintzer, Randy Brecker,
John Clayton, Rufus Reid, Jerry Bergonzi, Dennis Mackrel, John Daversa,
Sean Jones, Wycliffe Gordon, and many others. The SRU Jazz Ensemble has
recorded seven
albums since 2000, including a 2016 project that features saxophonist Troy
Roberts, as well
as several studio-recorded
videos -available
on YouTube -which
have nearly 100,000 views.