Shepherd University will host the Jazz Ensemble and Lab Band, under the direction of Dr. Kurtis Adams, and Jazz Combo, under the direction of Dr. Nathan Lincoln-DeCusatis, at the Frank Center, Tuesday, Apr. 10 at 8 p.m. Works by Maria Schneider, Hank Levy, Chris Potter, and many others will be performed. The Jazz Ensemble will perform a special piece called Hang Gliding by Maria Schneider.

Dr. Kurtis Adams received his bachelor of music education degree from Tennessee Tech University and his master of music in performance and doctor of musical arts in jazz studies from the University of Colorado. As an integral part of the Colorado music community, he performed with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, Ultraphonic Jazz Orchestra, Metropolitan Jazz Orchestra, and the 9th & Lincoln Orchestra. Adams has shared the stage with great musicians including Arturo Sandoval, Paquito D’Rivera, Greg Gisbert, Pat Bianchi, Jeff Jenkins, Brad Goode, Peter Sommer, and Paul Romaine. In 2005, Downbeat Magazine named Adams the College Co-Winner for Best Original Composition for his composition “Instable Mate?” In 2007 he was selected to participate in the Paquito D’Rivera Latin Jazz Workshop performing with the Grammy-winning saxophonist at Carnegie Hall in New York. Adams was visiting assistant professor of jazz studies at Boise State University before joining Shepherd in 2010 as director of jazz studies.

Dr. Nathan Lincoln-DeCusatis is an award-winning Washington, D.C., composer whose past and current projects include performances by the Chesapeake Orchestra, the Left Bank Quartet, saxophonist Noah Getz, and flautist Molly Barth, and upcoming commissions by the Inscape ensemble and the piano and saxophone duo Six Impossible Things. Recent awards and accolades include a 2006 Walsum prize in composition for his string quartet Quinta Corda, a River Concert Series commission for large orchestra and narrator celebrating the 375th anniversary of the founding of the Maryland colony in 2009, and an American Music Center CAP award. At Shepherd, Lincoln-DeCusatis teaches composition and jazz piano.

The Shepherd University Jazz Ensemble has performed throughout the East Coast and Europe and is in great demand as a feature band in jazz festivals around the globe. Invited to the world-renowned Montreux Jazz festival in 2003, the Jazz Ensemble played throughout Switzerland and Italy on a nine-day concert tour.

In 1999, the band took its Ellington Tour to England and France. In the United States the ensemble has been featured at the Longwood, Blue Ridge, and East Coast jazz festivals, as well as regional festivals throughout Virgina, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey. The group is regularly featured in the Friends of Music annual Tuxedo Junction gala.

General admission to jazz night is $10 for adults; $5 for students, faculty, and staff; and free to Shepherd students and Friends of Music MAC Cardholders. Admission and seating is first-come, first-served. Box office opens one hour prior to performance.

For more information, call 304-876-5555 or visit www.shepherd.edu/musicweb.