7:00 to 8:00 pm – PJCE Quintet plays music by student composers
8:20 to 10:00 pm – PJCE Quintet plays YOUR originals
Come on out and support the future generation of jazz composers and bring your own charts for us to perform!
The PJCE’s Grasshoppers Project is a series of workshops, mentorship, and a final concert geared toward learning valuable lessons about the technical details of scoring for winds and rhythm section, incorporating improvisation, and producing a score to professional standards. On top of that, they’ll get the chance to hear their creative ideas come to life, a rare opportunity for such young students.
Now in its fourth year, the PJCE Grasshoppers Project is expanding. We have selected nine student jazz composers and partnered them with accomplished mentors who assisted the “grasshoppers” in realizing their musical vision for a professional ensemble.
Students Composers:
Graham Lampe
Cameron Creitz
Jon DeVries
Leslie Koopmann
Keith Sprauer
Mentors:
Darrell Grant
Ben Medler
Ezra Weiss
Musicians:
Jeff Chilton – trombone
Lee Elderton – sax
Kerry Politzer – piano
George Colligan – Drums
Bill Athens – bass
Have a composition for our quintet you wanna hear? Bring it! Composers are encouraged to bring notated, sight-readable compositions and musicians are encouraged to bring instruments as well to sit in. Please bring parts and lead sheets in C as well as transposed to Bb and Eb.
The Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to commissioning, performing and celebrating new jazz music by Portlanders and Oregonians. The PJCE has enjoyed rapid growth and a strengthening reputation as a source for opportunity and community for jazz musicians, fans, and students in Portland.
