JTS Presents: Jazz—The Power of Transformation, Featuring the Juilliard Jazz Ensemble, Mark Sherman

Admission to the concert is by ticket only. Tickets are $10 each; students with a valid school ID—as well as JTS alumni, faculty, and staff—may request up to two free tickets each. Space is limited. Order tickets now at www.jtsa.edu/JuilliardFall2015.

This concert will conclude a daylong Juilliard School residency of educational and inspirational performances and master classes at JTS. Through examination of the cross-cultural impact of Jewish and general spiritual themes within the arts, the residency—including this evening performance, which is open to the public—highlights music’s power of transformation.

The Juilliard Jazz Ensembles are a feature of Juilliard Jazz Studies, an innovative program that combines education in the history and tradition of jazz with unparalleled professional performance opportunities. The faculty comprises distinguished educators and musicians who challenge students to be equally skilled as improvisers, bandleaders, sidemen, and educators. The Juilliard Jazz Ensembles tour and perform regularly at the Juilliard School, Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, and the Blue Note in New York City, often featuring legendary guest artists such as Herbie Hancock, Branford Marsalis, and Terence Blanchard, among others.  

Featured vibraphonist Mark Sherman won DownBeat magazine’s Critics Poll from 2007 to 2009. He has conducted master classes in more than 15 countries with the sponsorship of the Yamaha Corporation and the ProMark Corporation. He is on the faculty of the Juilliard School and New Jersey City University, and was recently selected as a Jazz Ambassador for the US State Department and Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Juilliard Jazz Ensemble saxophonist Lukas Gabric is pursuing his PhD at the City University of New York Graduate Center. A recent alumnus of Juilliard Jazz’s Artist Diploma Ensemble, Gabric is also a faculty member for Juilliard’s Music Advancement Program. Pianist David Linard plays regularly with Sammy Miller and the Congregation and the Wayne Tucker Quartet; plays drums with the up-and-coming Gracie and Rachel at venues such as Town Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and the Guthrie Center; and performs live on WNYC’s Soundcheck. Drummer Reggie Quinerly has played with Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Joe Lovano, Greg Osby, Christian McBride, and Enoch Smith Jr. He has presented master classes at Tulane University and the Cultural Arts Center of Galicia, Spain, and has created and implemented a music curriculum for School #7 in inner-city Paterson, New Jersey. Bassist Luke Sellick can be heard regularly with premier jazz artists, including Johnny O’Neal, Jimmy Greene, Orrin Evans, and Russell Malone. Luke leads the Luke Sellick Expedition, a band tailored to accommodate his compositional vision. 

The Juilliard School established this country’s standard for performing arts education in music (1905), adding dance (1951), and, as a founding member of Lincoln Center in 1968, drama. Currently more than 800 young artists from 44 states (plus Washington DC) and 46 foreign countries attend Juilliard.

JTS serves North American Jewry by educating intellectual and spiritual leaders for Conservative Judaism and the vital religious center, training rabbis, cantors, scholars, educators, communal professionals, and lay activists who are inspired by our vision of Torah and dedicated to assisting in its realization.