What: The One O'Clock Lab Band and Jazz Singers perform Sounds of the Holidays: An Evening with North Texas Jazz. A day prior to the community concert, there will be private performances for Denton ISD schoolchildren as part of a community engagement initiative led by the UNT College of Music and the Professional Development Institute at UNT.
When: 8 p.m. Dec. 6 (Saturday).
Where: Winspear Hall in the Murchison Performing Arts Center, located at 2100 Interstate 35E in Denton.
Tickets: $3 per person. Purchase tickets online or by calling the Murchison Box Office at 940-369-7802.
DENTON, Texas (UNT) – The University of North Texas College of Music's Grammy-nominated One O'Clock Lab Band and Jazz Singers will unite for the first time for a series of concerts Dec. 5 – 6 (Friday – Saturday) for schoolchildren and the community.
Sounds of the Holidays: An Evening with North Texas Jazz features the One O'Clock, led by director Jay Saunders, and the Jazz Singers, directed by Jennifer Barnes, performing holiday favorites. A concert geared toward the entire Denton community, Sounds of the Holidays will be performed at 8 p.m. Dec. 6 (Saturday) inside Winspear Hall in the Murchison Performing Arts Center in Denton. Two private concerts for roughly 1,200 sixth grade students from Denton ISD will also be performed Dec. 5 (Friday). These concerts are made possible by the Professional Development Institute at UNT.
The program will include holiday favorites such as "Angels We Have Heard on High," "The Christmas Song," "Christmas Time is Here" and other classics.
"One of the fun things in featuring both the One O'Clock and the Jazz Singers is that people will get to hear both instrumental and vocal jazz," Barnes said. "The Jazz Singers will be singing in three different kinds of settings – a cappella, with rhythm section and with big band. I think it will be fun and give people a chance to hear some really interesting jazz treatments of these familiar tunes to get them in the holiday spirit."
Both groups are also looking forward to performing for Denton's schoolchildren, Barnes said.
"We're very excited to have the chance to perform for the sixth-graders as a bonus for the Dec. 6 concert," said Barnes. "I think it's a wonderful opportunity for many young people to see and hear a concert that has many pieces of music with which they're familiar but set in the different style of jazz."
"The performances are a gift to the community," said Ken Robertson, president of the Professional Development Institute. The institute is paying for the transportation of the schoolchildren to the concert, and dozens of UNT students, faculty and staff have dedicated their time to practicing and preparing for these concerts.
"There are going to be children who come to these concerts who have never been to a performance like this, and for some of them, it will be their first time on a university campus," Robertson said. "We hope to reach out to them. Maybe it will help them get involved in music. We hope they will remember this as a positive experience."
With many sixth graders in the Denton community participating in the private concerts, organizers said they felt it appropriate to invite the families of the students and the local community to share in the festivities by making the final performance affordable for the whole family at $3 a person.
The One O'Clock Lab Band and Jazz Singers perform Sounds of the Holidays: An Evening with North Texas Jazz at 8 p.m. Dec. 6 (Saturday) inside Winspear Hall in the Murchison Performing Arts Center, which is located at 2100 Interstate 35E in Denton. Purchase tickets online or by calling the Murchison Box Office at 940-369-7802.
About the UNT One O'Clock Lab Band
The six-time Grammy-nominated UNT One O'Clock Lab Band – the premiere ensemble of UNT's Jazz Studies program in the College of Music – has performed and toured throughout the world, including Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Switzerland, Thailand and The Netherlands. UNT offered the nation's first bachelor's degree program in jazz studies in the 1946-47 academic year, and the university's jazz studies program is consistently rated among the nation's best.
About the UNT Jazz Singers
The UNT Jazz Singers is the premier vocal jazz ensemble within the Division of Jazz Studies in the College of Music. The ensemble consists of 13 vocalists and a four-piece rhythm section who perform a challenging and varied repertoire of jazz and jazz-influenced music, emphasizing close vocal harmonies, cutting-edge repertoire and improvisation. The ensemble was awarded "Outstanding Performance" as a Graduate-level Jazz Choir in the 2012 and 2013 DownBeatStudent Music Awards, and it has been named the Collegiate Jazz Choir winner numerous times.
About the UNT College of Music
The UNT College of Music is one of the largest and most respected comprehensive music schools in the country. More than 1,600 music students attend UNT each year, participating in more than 50 widely varied ensembles and pursuing specialized studies in performance, composition, music education or music scholarship. UNT faculty members and students have made appearances on the world's finest stages and have produced numerous recordings, many receiving Grammy awards and nominations. Distinguished UNT alumni can be found around the globe, in top music ensembles, opera companies, universities and schools.