First Posted: 11/11/2014

Internationally acclaimed musician Wycliffe Gordon will join The University of Scranton Concert Band as guest soloist for a concert at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 16, in the University’s Houlihan McLean Center. Admission to the concert is free. Doors open at 6:40 p.m., and seating is on a first-come, first-seated basis.

The program will include a work entitled “Me, We,” arranged for Concert Band by Gordon in celebration of the inauguration of University president Kevin Quinn, S.J., and premiered at his inauguration.

Gordon will also offer a free masterclass for brass players Saturday, Nov. 15. Interested brass players high school age and older can obtain more information on scheduling and registration for the masterclass by emailing music@scranton.edu or calling 570-941-7624.

An award-winning trombonist, composer, conductor, arranger and educator, Gordon has been a part of The University of Scranton community since his first visit in 1996, and since visited regularly to perform and teach.

He received an honorary degree from the university in 2006, offering the commencement address using his “real voice” – his trombone. He composed and premiered three major works through the university’s World Premiere Composition Series, and was a featured participant when the university hosted the 23rd annual conference of the Lilly Fellows Program in Humanities and the Arts in 2013.

Gordon performed in venues throughout the world and recorded with many of the world’s greatest musicians. He recorded 19 solo CDs as well as a prodigious number of recordings as a co-leader and sideman, and received the Jazz Journalists’ Association Award for Trombonist of the Year nine times since 2001, as well as the Jazz Journalists Association and Downbeat Critics’ Choice Awards for Best Trombone.

The University of Scranton Concert Band is an 80-plus member ensemble made up of University student musicians from majors spanning the curriculum. They perform four or more concerts each year. The majority of their performances are open to the public, free of admission charge, and often feature a nationally or internationally renowned guest soloist.