Performance begins at 7:30p.m. at the John F. Welsh Auditorium at Natrona County High School on February 10, 2009.
The Basie Orchestra is one of the most thriving big bands in history With 17 Grammy awards. Their musicians have grown up with the Kansas City Swing style of Count Basie and add their own voice to the band. With 19 performers, 17 sidemen, 1 vocalist, and 1 bandleader, they have become the premier jazz band in the nation. Check out the Kansas City style swing for yourself. The Orchestra celebrates the big band experience through the completely original and identifiable Count Basie repertoire.
Come and experience this musical heritage. You can then say, " I came back to Basie. The real Basie! Not a counterfeit...."
The Casper College Kinser Jazz Festival mission is to promote jazz education in Wyoming. It strives to foster and celebrate greater cultural awareness and divisersity within the community.
Casper College is an institutional member of
the International Association of Jazz Educators and the National Association of Schools of Music.
Kinser Jazz Festival Committee
Robert Kleinschmidt
Executive Director
268-2246 Weblink
Tickets for the evening concert must be purchased separately
High school and junior high/middle school ensembles perform in noncompetitive settings, with the option of receiving an assessment score and rating from adjudicators, who base their assessment on high, professional standards, which may not coincide with the standards of the Wyoming Music Educators Association.
Each ensemble is scheduled for a 30-minute public performance, which includes set up, a brief public clinic with an adjudicator, and a strike. Thereafter, each ensemble receives an additional 30-minute clinic with an adjudicator in a nonpublic setting. The ensemble receives the adjudicators’ written comments, rating scores (if required), and a digital video recording of the performance and clinic.
The Casper College Kinser Jazz Festival is a noncompetitive, educational event. Each group will have the option of receiving either a score with a rating, or performing for comments only. All groups will receive a videotape of their performance, and written and/or taped comments. Each group will be given a 30 minute time slot which includes set up, tear down and on-stage clinic. In addition groups will receive a separate 30 minute off-stage clinic with an adjudicator following their performance.
Info Table
We will have a Registration/Information table set up at each performing site. In the Aley Fine Arts Building, this will be located in the main lobby as you enter the building from the parking lot, and in newly remodeled Krampert Theatre, it will be located in the South Lobby. Please check in with the person at the registration desk no later than a half hour before your performance time . Please turn in the two copies of your Performance Selections/Soloist form and your scores at that time.
Evaluations
Adjudication sheets, scores, audiotapes and videotapes will be available in the Director's Hospitality Room in the Aley Fine Arts Room 302 not more than two hours after your performance. If you are unable to pick up your packet, it will be mailed to your school after the festival. Ratings lists, bibliography lists, and a survey will be mailed to you after the festival.
Hospitality Room
Complimentary coffee and refreshments are available to directors in the Aley Fine Arts Director's Hospitality Room, FA 302.
Lost/Found
Casper College is not responsible for lost or stolen items. However, we will keep any lost or found items turned into us at the registration desk. Printed music, if found, will be returned provided it is stamped with your school's name.
Performance Information
Performance Selection/Soloist Form
We will include two copies (per group) of the performance/selection/Soloist form for you to fill out. Please bring both copies with you when you come to the festival. We depend on you to provide accurate information on these forms so we can award outstanding soloist certificates, release accurate information to the media, ensure accurate stage set up, and to publish a bibliography of all music performed at the festival.
Warm-Up
Approximately thirty minutes prior to your assigned performance time, report to the registration desk. Someone will then take you and your group to your warm up room. This system helps us keep hallways clear and helps insure each group gets their full twenty minute warm up time.
Equipment
We will have the following equipment available for your use at each site:
• Vocal Ensembles Piano, electric bass amp, trap set, risers, PA system, 16 microphones, and a sound technician.
• Instrumental Ensembles Piano, electric bass and guitar amps, trap set, music stands and chairs, risers, vibes, bass amp, conga drums, bongos, timbales, synthesizer and sound technician.
Please DO NOT plan to bring you own equipment. Our sound technician will place microphones as you indicate on the stage set up form.
Storage
We will NOT be able to provide storage for cases or coats this year. You may either bring those items with you as you move through the rotation, or leave them on the bus while you perform.
Performance Set-Up
The basic stage set up will be in place before you arrive. If you have special needs, you are responsible for those changes.
Performance
Each group will be allotted thirty minutes of stage time. This time MUST include set up, tear down, performance and adjudicator clinic. We recommend that you limit your performance to no more than twenty minutes to allow the adjudicators time to work with your ensemble.
Clinics
Each group will receive a 30 minute clinic offstage with one of the adjudicators.
Cost
The entry fee is $85 per ensemble. This fee includes the performance, clinic, and admission to all daytime events.
Hotel PARKWAY PLAZA HOTEL & CONVENTION CENTRE
123 West “E” Street
Casper, WY 82601
Host Hotel for CASPER COLLEGE KINSER JAZZ FESTIVAL
School Rate: $60 per room
Meals
Lunch:
We are pleased to provide a service for purchasing meals with Casper College Food Service. We encourage you to consider a box lunch provision this year that will enable you to feed your students as well as attend a noon/lunch hour clinic. The cost will be $4.95 for a sandwich, chips, cookie or fruit and drink. Please indicate on your lunch ticket order form how many box lunches you will need so they can be prepared for pickup the day of your performance.
Kinser Jazz Festival Location & Lodging
Hotel The Parkway Plaza, is the host hotel for the Casper College Kinser Jazz Festival participants. Special rates are available for groups staying for the festival. Contact April Mitchell at 307-235-1777.
Procedures. In anticipation of your visit to our campus, I want to take this opportunity to outline some procedures that will contribute to the safe and efficient movement of all the participants.
The parking lot in front of the Fine Arts Building will be blocked off and normal parking procedures will be suspended. Buses will be able to enter the lot, discharge passengers and exit (a diagram will be included in your final packet). Buses should be parked in the dirt parking lot across from Swede Erickson Thunderbird Gym. There will be a security officer stationed at the entrance of the FIne Arts parking lot to answer questions and render assistance.
Buses transporting participants to the Kramper Theatre should enter the south parking lot behind the Theatre, and drop of passengers at the south entrance to the building (a diagram will be included in your final packet). Buses, may then proceed up Lisco Drive and park across from the T-Bird Gym in the dirt parking lot.
Special issues such as handicapped parking and judge parking may be brought to the attention of the security officer in the parking lot and he/she will assist with individual concerns.
Please remember to secure all vehicles that are left unattended, always yield to pedestrians and obey posted speed limits.
11:30 a.m.-noon
Casper College Jazz Ensemble and Combos in Concert
Robert Kleinschmidt, director
Durham Hall, Aley Fine Arts Center
1-1:30 p.m.
Casper College Contemporary Singers
Patrick Patton, director
Roberts Commons Ballroom
7:30 p.m.
Wyoming All-State Jazz Band
Mike Tomaro, director
Headline Concert: The Count Basie Orchestra
Natrona County High School, John F. Welsh Auditorium
Tickets: $15
11:30 a.m.-noon
Casper College Jazz Ensemble and Combos in Concert
Robert Kleinschmidt, director
Durham Hall, Aley Fine Arts Center
1-1:30 p.m.
Casper College Contemporary Singers
Patrick Patton, director
Roberts Commons Ballroom
7:30 p.m.
Wyoming Music Educators Big Band Jam!
Bring your instrument; jam with adjudicators and educators
Parkway Plaza Hotel, Natrona and Mardi Gras Rooms
Please call Casper College Music Department at (307) 268-2021 to order tickets.
Art Bouton
Associate Professor of Saxophone and Chair of the Woodwind Department at the University of Denver's Lamont School of Music, Mr. Bouton is first call saxophonist and woodwind performer throughout the Western U.S. He has extensive performance experience on all saxophones, flutes, clarinets, and bassoon, as well as the Akai Electronic Wind Instrument. Art is a founding member of the Lamont Jazz Faculty group The Climb and is featured on many of their recordings. He plays lead alto and flute for the Ninth and Lincoln Orchestra and the Wil Swindler Elevenet, contemporary ensembles specializing in new music for jazz ensembles. Mr. Bouton regularly performs with the Colorado Symphony, the Colorado Springs Philharmonic, and is a member of the pit orchestra at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.
Mr. Bouton has studied saxophone with Douglas Masek, Roger Greenberg, and Vince Gnojek. Art performs as guest soloist and clinician at high schools and colleges throughout the U.S. and has served on the faculty of the Yellowstone Jazz Camp, Mile High Jazz Camp, the Telluride Jazz Camp, and Clark Terry Great Plains Jazz Camp. Art can be heard playing lead alto on recordings of New Music for Jazz Ensemble by Kendor Music.
Dr. Frank F. Eychaner
Dr. Eychaner came to Colorado Christian University in the fall of 2006 as the Director or Choirs and Music Education. He completed his BA in Music Education and the MA in Choral Conducting at Central Washington University under the direction of Dr. Geoffrey Boers. Frank recently completed the coursework for the DMA in Choral Conducting at the University of Kentucky where he was a graduate assistant to Dr. Jefferson Johnson, and is scheduled to defend his dissertation “Transformational Choral Leadership” in December. Choirs and Vocal Jazz Ensembles under his direction have been invited to perform at State and Regional conventions of ACDA and MENC where they consistently distinguished themselves through excellence both on and off-stage.
Dr. Eychaner has published many articles on vocal jazz techniques including “The Jazz Choir Goes Legit: Copyright Law for the Vocal Jazz Educator,” which was recently published in the Choral Journal, the National journal of the ACDA. He also is a frequent guest conductor, clinician and workshop presenter, speaking on topics as diverse as choral tone, choral leadership and vocal jazz improvisation. A past member of Male Ensemble Northwest, Frank enjoys performing musical theatre, vocal jazz and leading worship. In other professional activities, Dr. Eychaner is an active composer and arranger. Arrangements are available through UNC Jazz Press. He has served in various capacities on the state boards of Colorado ACDA, Colorado CMEA, Oregon ACDA and Idaho MENC.
Craig Hall
Montanan Craig Hall is a jazz guitarist and acoustic bassist who has carved out an existence as the definitive sideman of the upper mountain states. He has played in recent years in over 30 states and on four continents with a diverse array of groups, from The Montana Mandolin Society to Eden Atwood groups, the Jeni Fleming Trio and others. Closer to home he gigs with Michael Myers, Bob Britten, John Alexander, Kristin Korb, festival headliners, good singers, bad singers, in between sax players…. hardware store owners … hoodlums …and teaches a few private students.
With Ann Tappan he co-leads the group Springhill, with whom he has toured in Eastern Europe three times, playing progressive modern jazz drawing on rock and folk influences. He has played on over 50 CD’s. Currently, when not side manning, he is angling toward recording self-lead jazz projects. Turn-ons include the third mode of the Melodic Minor scale and thin, quiet, ethereal distant atonal volume swells.
Darren Kramer
Mr. Kramer is an Edwards Performing Artist and is in demand as a freelance trombonist, composer and educator throughout the United States. Darren graduated from the University of Miami and moved to NYC where he toured with Matchbox Twenty, Tom Jones, Tommy Dorsey Orchestra and Duke Ellington's Sophisticated Ladies. He has also recorded with such artists as Michael Brecker, Eric Marienthal and Jerry Hey.
Mr. Kramer is now the President/CEO of his own music company, DKO The Darren Kramer Organization, whose inspiring concerts, educational clinics, five exceptional recordings, and over fifty challenging arrangements (available now for small group AND big band!) have helped modernize the trombone and expand its role in contemporary music. The latest 2008 DKO CD release entitled “Beyond The Boneyard” features an inspiring one man band performance utilizing electric trombone, keyboards and computer loops. This acid jazz electronica is also being presented by Mr. Kramer throughout the country as a music software PowerPoint Presentation "Creating Music Using Technology…and an Electric Trombone!"
Mike Masterson
Dr. Masterson began teaching in the Music Department at Northwest College, Powell, Wyoming, in 1977. He serves as Chair of the Visual and Performing Arts Division and teaches Music History, various American music courses, and the Studio Singers Jazz Choir that performed at the 1997 All-Northwest Convention. A trombonist, Dr. Masterson clinics and adjudicates in both vocal and instrumental areas in five regional states. A former president of the Wyoming Chapter of IAJE, the International Association for Jazz Education, Mike organizes the vocal side of the Northwest College Jazz Festival and helped start the All State Vocal Jazz program that serves Wyoming high school vocal jazz students.
Mike holds music degrees from Ball State University and Arizona State University, and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in American Studies from The University of New Mexico. His doctoral study focused on “Music in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show” that led to a professional recording, Wild West Music of Buffalo Bill's Cowboy Band: Recorded by the Americus Brass Band, from which Disney used five selections in their 2004 film, Hidalgo. Dr. Masterson will be taking a Wild West Cowboy Band of Wyoming and Montana musicians to Denver in March 2009 for a featured presentation at the Society of American Music National Conference.
Mike continues to research topics that connect music to culture. In February 2003 he presented a paper on “Music is Life” at the All-Northwest Music Educator’s conference in Portland, Oregon. In 2006 he presented a General Session at the Wyoming All State Conference: “The Times They Are a Changing”: A Practical Guide to Ways that Cultural Studies can Enhance Music Education.
Donna Wickham
Ms. Wickham holds a BM in vocal performance and an MM in conducting from the Lamont School of Music at the University of Denver. Donna is an active jazz performer, composer and arranger, a classical soloist and conductor, and a vocal jazz clinician and adjudicator.
She is the vocal jazz instructor at the University of Denver’s Lamont School of Music, Music Director at Christ Episcopal Church in Denver, and is a music instructor for Colorado Community Colleges Online.
All-State Jazz Choir
The seventh annual Wyoming All-State Jazz Choir will be presented and sponsored by the Casper College Kinser Jazz Festival. Please see www.wyojazz.com for audition information.
Dr. Thomas Kinser
Festival Named in honor of respected instructor & jazz promoter
The Casper College Kinser Jazz Festival, now in its 39th year, is named for the late Dr. Thomas Kinser, who founded the festival and promoted jazz as a standard component of music study in Wyoming. In 1967, the festival hosted three ensembles. Today, the festival has grown to accommodate more than 50 vocal and instrumental ensembles, with regional junior high schools, middle schools, and high schools participating. It appropriately serves Casper College students, regional public schools, and other supporting organizations.
The main goal of the Kinser Jazz Festival is to educate Wyoming music students. This is accomplished in a variety of settings. Renowned jazz adjudicators listen and evaluate each student ensemble. The clinicians provide written critiques, a rating, and a work session where they strive to improve the students' performances. Regularly scheduled seminars, workshops, and performances are offered to expose the students to even more quality jazz. Finally, an evening concert featuring some of the finest artists in the jazz industry culminates the festival activities. In past years, jazz greats Dizzy Gillespie, Betty Carter, the Count Basie Orchestra, Airto Moreira, Flora Purim, Ellis Marsalis, Clark Terry and others have performed.
The Casper College jazz program has a strong tradition of excellence. The comprehensive program includes courses in jazz improvisation and jazz history, and performing groups such as the Casper College Jazz Ensemble, Casper College Jazz Combos, and the Casper College Contemporary Singers. The core of the curriculum is the jazz improvisation course, which has its roots in traditional music theory, while studying and exploring the styles and practices of modern jazz improvisation. The festival greatly augments the Casper College jazz program, and provides the students listening opportunities rarely found in the area.
Dr. Thomas Kinser
