Arthur White, a graduate of the West Virginia University School of Music and currently serving as director of Jazz Studies at the University of Missouri, will visit the Creative Arts Center Monday, March 16 to work with students and take part in the Jazz Ensembles concert that evening.

His visit is part of the College of Creative Arts Alumni-in-Residence Series, in which outstanding alumni of the College return to work with students.

The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Gladys G. Davis Theatre. For tickets and information, call 304-293-SHOW.

Directed by Paul Scea, along with faculty member Craig Fraedrich and students John Posey, and Alex Heflin, the concert will feature Dr. White performing several of his works with students in the jazz program, including “Bump and Grind,” “Sabor A Mi,” “Tunnel Vision” and “Cats and Kittens,” written by Peter Erskine and arranged by White.

Other works on the program include: “Fistful of Haggis” by Charlie Hunter; “Staving Off Boredom” by student Kyle Simpson; “You Only Live Twice” written by students John Barry and Leslie Bricusse, and arranged by Kyle Simpson; an improvisation by the student group Duel; “All The Things You Are” by Oscar Hammerstein and Jerome Kern; “Everybody’s Party” by John Scofield; and “Gashums Ala Cody Barcroft” by student Frank DiDiano.

Originally from Kansas, Arthur White received his Master of Music in Jazz Pedagogy from WVU in 2000. He also holds a bachelor’s degree in Music from Emporia State University and a doctorate in Saxophone Performance from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

White conducts the Concert Jazz Band at the University of Missouri, which has risen to national prominence since his arrival at MU in 2009. Previously he was the director of jazz studies at Northeastern State University in Oklahoma, where he produced five critically acclaimed CDs with the NSU Jazz Ensemble and was named the 2007 Oklahoma Jazz Educator of the Year by the Oklahoma Jazz Educators Alliance.

He has performed with numerous nationally acclaimed jazz and pop artists and high school and college jazz ensembles throughout the country have performed his arrangements and original compositions. White is also active as a clinician with high school and college bands and as an adjudicator at jazz festivals throughout the United States.

-WVU-

cl/03/12/15

CONTACT: Charlene Lattea, College of Creative Arts
304-293-4841 ext. 3108, Charlene.Lattea@mail.wvu.edu

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