Wednesday, November 22, 2006
PRINCESS ANNE, MD – A prestigious national All-star Band has selected two University of Maryland Eastern Shore students to join their ranks, one of them in a lead position. For the fifth consecutive year, UMES was included when the International Association for Jazz Education (IAJE) and the African American Jazz Caucus (AAJC) recently announced the 20 members of the 2007 African American Jazz Caucus Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Student All-star Big Band. Senior Mercury Morris, from Baltimore, MD, will play lead (first) trombone and freshman Elliot Womack, from Philadelphia, will play third trumpet. Both are music education majors and are members of the UMES Jazz Ensemble and the UMES Wind Ensemble. Charles Smith, also from Philadelphia, has been selected as one of ten alternates who will be asked to play if any of the trumpet players who have been chosen will not be able to perform. Dr. Lamkin will serve as one of the three conductors for the band.
According to a statement from the AAJC, the selection committee had a monumental task of selecting the best jazz performers from the Historically Black Colleges and Universities in a blind audition process.
The AAJC/HBCU Student All-star Jazz Ensemble will be featured in three concerts in three different celebrated settings, performing at the Hilton New York during the 34th annual International Association for Jazz Education Conference on Thursday, January 11, 2007, at the Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers during the same conference on Saturday, January 13, 2007 and at the New York Public Library/Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture on Sunday, January 14.
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Maureen McNeill, UMES Office of Public Relations, 410-651-7580, memcneill@umes.edu.
