More than 500 students in 27 jazz ensembles from across the bi-state region will perform at the 21st Annual Clark Terry/Phi Mu Alpha Jazz Festival Feb. 1-2 at Southeast Missouri State University’s River Campus.

The ensembles will perform for two jazz experts who will give them written and recorded comments as well as a live clinic session. The bands will perform from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 1, and Saturday, Feb. 2, in the Donald C. Bedell Performance Hall located in the Cultural Arts Center at Southeast’s River Campus.

Admission is free to the daytime event.

“The Clark Terry/ Phi Mu Alpha Jazz Festival showcases excellent student musicians as well as guest artists from around the nation, all contributing to a vibrant festival of jazz and the celebration of music performance and education on our beautiful River Campus,” said Dr. Joseph L. Jefferson, festival director. “This year, we look forward to welcoming new student groups, national artists, clinicians, and adjudicators from across the country. Every student will leave the festival energized, with a greater appreciation and knowledge for the art of Jazz music and performance.”

Bands attending include Cape Central Junior High School and High School, Bismarck High School, Dexter High School, Fox High School, Hillsboro Junior High School and High School, Jackson High School, Kelly High School, North County High School, Northwest High School, Perryville High School, Poplar Bluff Junior High School and High School, Potosi High School, Ridgewood Middle School, Seckman High School, Sikeston High School, and Woodland High School.

Capping events Feb. 1, Southeast Missouri State University’s Department of Music will present its second concert of the 2018-2019 Jazz Series featuring composer, arranger and jazz saxophonist Mike Tomaro. The annual gala concert is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. in the Donald C. Bedell Performance Hall and will feature Tomaro in performance with Southeast’s Studio Jazz Ensemble and Jazz Lab Band.

Tomaro is a saxophonist, composer, arranger and educator. He is the director of the Jazz Studies Program at the Mary Pappert School of Music at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and co-artistic director and lead alto player of the Pittsburgh Jazz Orchestra, the city’s premier big band, where he composes and arranges most of the material that group performs. He has worked with such diverse artists and groups as Rosemary Clooney, Ray Charles, Michael Feinstein, Linda Ronstadt, Debby Boone, Johnny Mathis, Wayne Bergeron, Terence Blanchard, Louis Bellson, Terry Gibbs, Dizzy Gillespie Tribute Big Band, Woody Herman Orchestra and the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra, where he is featured on their DVD, “Live at MCG.”

The Southeast chapter of Phi Mu Alpha music fraternity handles the logistics of this event, including guiding bands from warmup to performance, handling collection of adjudication data, audio recording of each ensemble, as well as setup and teardown before and after each group. This is an annual service project for this fraternity which benefits the University as well as the surrounding community.

For further information, please contact Joseph Jefferson at (573) 651-2398.

Tickets for the Evening Gala Concert may be purchased by contacting the River Campus Box Office, located in the Cultural Arts Center, 518 S. Fountain St., weekdays 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., or by calling (573) 651–2265