Jazz, dance programs collaborate for Feb. 2 Jazz Artist Series show

MTSU is bringing together jazz and dance faculty, students and guests Thursday, Feb. 2, for a unique collaboration of music and movement in the second concert of the 2016-17 MTSU Jazz Artist Series.

Don Aliquo

Jamey Simmons

Marsha Barsky

The special production will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Hinton Hall inside MTSU’s Wright Music Building. A searchable, printable campus parking map is available at http://tinyurl.com/MTSUParkingMap.

Tickets for the Feb. 2 concert are $10 for the public. Admission is free for MTSU students, faculty and staff with a valid ID, and discounts for area music students and educators also are available.

The concert will showcase the choreography of Marsha Barsky, assistant professor of dance, and a new musical composition by trumpeter Jamey Simmons, director of jazz studies in MTSU’s School of Music, and saxophonist Don Aliquo, a professor of jazz studies.

“The relationship between jazz music and dance is a close one, but as jazz has evolved into art, music collaborations between dancers and choreographers have become more common,” Simmons said.

Simmons and Aliquo co-wrote “Leaving Home,” which Simmons said aims to “recreate the universal narrative elements inherent in the process of movement of people from the familiarity of home to a different life — the movement away from oppression, the struggle to escape, personal pilgrimage, the presence of friends and enemies and the final liberation of the individual to new levels of freedom and discovery.

“We hope that the originally composed music and dance are universal in nature, as they can also represent the artistic, personal and spiritual search for new life,” he added.

Now in its 18th season, the MTSU Jazz Artist Series brings internationally renowned jazz artists to campus for performances and educational workshops. Past guest artists have included some of the most important musicians and educators in jazz history.

The 2016-17 Jazz Artist Series concludes Saturday, March 25, with the series’ third concert planned to celebrate the MTSU Illinois Jacquet Jazz Festival.

For more information about MTSU’s Jazz Artist Series, please visit www.mtsu.edu/music/jazzseries.php.

For details on other MTSU School of Music performances, call 615-898-2493 or visit the MTSU School of Music “Concert Calendar” link.

— Gina E. Fann (gina.fann@mtsu.edu)

Members of the MTSU Dance Theatre troupe perform a lift in “Moments of Awakening,” a performance choreographed by director Marsha Barsky, in Tucker Theatre in this file photo. (Photo by Martin O’Connor)