By Ainsley Green, Staff Writer
On Feb. 24, the Sunderman Conservatory’s Jazz Ensemble performed their first concert of the spring semester at 8 p.m. in Gettysburg’s Majestic Theater. The concert was concise, with eight pieces running for under an hour, yet still displayed an immense amount of hard work from the ensemble as they only had a few weeks to prepare. The ensemble was directed by Coordinator of Jazz and Lecturer of Saxophone at the Sunderman Conservatory Dr. Amanda Heim.
Many of the pieces played at the concert were by Wayne Shorter, one of the most prestigious jazz improvisers in the genre’s history. The focus of the program was to commemorate Shorter’s lasting legacy after his death last year and to celebrate Black History Month. The program encapsulated music from many decades and composers, displaying a wide range of different musical styles and moods.
The Sunderman Conservatory’s Jazz Ensemble performing at the Majestic Theater. (Photo Ainsley Green/The Gettysburgian)
The performance opened with the upbeat “Children of the Night” by Shorter and featured solos from Michael Motta ’25 on the drums and Justin Morgan ’27 on the tenor saxophone.
“Wayne Shorter was an incredible American composer,” Heim said to the audience after the first of Shorter’s pieces was played. “He contributed an incredible amount to jazz literature.”
Heim also encouraged the audience to listen to Shorter once they returned home as “there’s just a treasure of music to listen to.”
Next, another tune by Shorter called “ One by One” was played with soloists David Grant ’24 on the alto saxophone and Sal Formisano ’26 on the trumpet.
The program also featured pieces from other prominent jazz composers, the first being “Boo-Dah” by Billy Strahorn, featuring Jacob Hunkins ’24 on the trumpet and flugelhorn, James Humphrey ’25 on clarinet and Dylan Hewett ’24 on bass. “Infant Eyes” was played next to return to Shorter’s repertoire. This piece was a saxophone section spotlight with the rhythm section, and Morgan had another solo on tenor saxophone for this slow, mellow piece, which Heim called a “beautiful ballad.”
“Golden Cress” by Duke Ellington and Lawrence Brown was next in the program and featured Jess Schaefer ’24 on the piano intro. This piece was written to highlight a solo trombonist, and that part was performed by Michael Tropp ’25. Shorter’s “Footprints” was performed next, which featured Morgan and Hewett once again as soloists. This piece also highlighted the guitar with Hugo Pochan ’26 was the featured soloist, which blended with the other two instruments and added a unique sound to the jazz waltz tune.
After “Footprints” finished, Heim said, “It’s important for us to celebrate Black History Month as jazz musicians, so this next tune is another Duke Ellington tune…we can’t stay away from Duke!”
Ellington’s “Addi” featured Grant again on the alto saxophone, and the piece was inspired by the Punjab village in India named Addi. The final song of the night was another Shorter tune entitled “On The Ginza,” which featured Grant, Tropp and Motta as soloists. Shorter was inspired to write this piece by the Ginza shopping district in Tokyo, where he spent time when he was in Japan.
The Jazz Ensemble received lots of applause from the audience for all of their hard work on the program. After the Ensemble finished their last piece of the evening, Heim thanked the audience for attending.
The Jazz Ensemble has another performance coming up in April.
