The 51st annual SWOSU Jazz Festival will virtually take place on February 11-12.
The Southwestern Oklahoma State University event in
Weatherford will not feature any visiting artists or bands due to COVID-19 but the festival still will be online with free concerts.
The headliner for this year’s event is Texas drummer Stockton Helbing and his bandmates pianist Josh Hanlon and bassist James Driscoll.
The trio will present a livestream concert at 7 p.m. Thursday, February 11.
Friday, February 12, the day will start with Helbing providing free masterclasses. In addition to his drum set masterclasses, there will be three members of the New York City-based DIVA Jazz Orchestra on hand to give jazz directing, saxophone and trombone classes. Drummer Sherrie Maricle is the leader of the band, and her colleagues Alexa Tarantino and Jennifer Krupa are excited to be a part of the SWOSU jazz tradition.
The festival concludes with a concert by Jazz Ensembles ‘A’ and ‘B,’ 8 p.m. Friday evening. Jazz ‘A’, led by Dr. Richard Tirk, will present music written and arranged by Helbing while Jazz ‘B’, co-led by graduate students Megan Levendosky and Pamela Welborn, will be playing several great standards.
All events are free and open to the public. Links to the concerts will be provided later on the SWOSU website.
The 51st Annual SWOSU Jazz Festival is generously supported by the SWOSU Foundation,
Oklahoma Arts Council, National Endowment for the Arts, and several individual patrons. For more information, please visit www. swosujazz.com or contact the SWOSU Music Department at (580) 774 - 3708.