Thursday, April 18, 2013

World Renowned Jazz Artist and Educator, Alex Norris, to perform w/ New World School of the Arts Jazz Combos in Free Community Concert


High School Jazz Combos
with Special Guest Artist,
Alex Norris

Thursday, December 19, 2013 at 7:00 PM
Free Admission

Wolfson Auditorium
MDC’s Wolfson Campus
Suite 1261, Building 1
300 N.E. Second Ave., Miami FL 33132
 MAP
Contact the Music Hotline at (305)237-7855

New World School of the Arts High School Jazz Combos Concert with Guest Artist Alex Norris Directed by Jim Gasior.


Alexander Norris grew up in Columbia, Maryland where he began studying music at the age of nine. After graduating high school he received a scholarship to the Peabody Conservatory to study trumpet. He graduated from the conservatory in 1990. In 1992, Alex moved to New York City. Here, he found work with the Village Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, and Maria Schneider’s Band, among others. From 1994-1998 Alex was a member of Betty Carter’s Jazz Ahead, becoming musical director in 1998. Alex has worked with many noted Jazz musicians such as Slide Hampton, Joshua Redman, Brad Mehldau, Chris Potter, Stefon Harris, Carl Allen, Eric Alexander, John Patitucci, The Woody Herman Orchestra, Avishai Cohen, and Brian Blade. In Afro-Cuban Jazz, Alex has worked with Andy and Jerry González, Paquito D’Rivera, Hilton Ruiz, Giovanni Hildago, Poncho Sanchez, and Chico O’Farril. As a Jazz educator, Alex has taught at Towson University, City College of New York, and University of Miami Frost School of Music.


Currently, Alex performs all over the world with his own Jazz group, and with Ron Carter's Great Big Band, The Mingus Big Band, Kyle Eastwood, Miguel Zenon, Samuel Torres, and many other Jazz and Latin Jazz artists. He performs regularly at the most prestigious Jazz venues in New York, such as Smalls, Smoke, Birdland, The Jazz Standard, and the Blue Note. He has recorded as a sideman on over 60 recordings and has a newly recorded CD soon to be released. Alex holds a Master's Degree from the Manhattan School of Music and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Miami. He has been a member of Jazz Studies Faculty of the Peabody Conservatory of Music since 2010.

Under the direction of Jim Gasior, director of NWSA’s Jazz Ensemble and Jazz Combos, numerous jazz students have been recognized on a national scale. Among their most recent honors, the Jazz Ensemble participated in the Thelonious Monk Institute national Peer-To-Peer Jazz Education Program earlier this year, joining other students from across the nation. In addition, the NWSA Jazz Ensemble has been selected as a finalist band, scheduled to compete in the Essentially Ellington competition in New York City in May.

At New World School of the Arts music students receive one-on-one instruction from accomplished musicians and grow through disciplined guidance and training as they develop their personal style and repertoire. Through its educational partnerships, NWSA’s audition-based programs, accredited by the National Association of Schools of Dance, Music, Theater and Art and Design, offer the high school diploma as well as the BFA and BM college degrees. Areas of concentration in music include: composition, performance, instrumental, piano, strings and voice.

New World School of the Arts was created by the Florida Legislature as a center of excellence in the performing and visual arts. It is an educational partnership of Miami-Dade County Public Schools, Miami Dade College and the University of Florida.


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