LMC to host Jazz Festival concert with Grammy-recognized artists

BENTON HARBOR, Mich. – Vocal and instrumental soloists and ensembles will share the Lake Michigan College Mendel Center Jenkins Theatre stage with jazz artists Kim Nazarian and Jay Ashby during the Jazz Festival presented by the LMC Visual & Performing Arts Department at 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 2. The free public concert is a highlight of the two-day jazz festival conducted by the Grammy-recognized artists on the LMC Benton Harbor campus. 

 

“This is an incredible opportunity for the community to experience jazz performances from these top-notch industry professionals surrounded by outstanding collegiate and high school talent from our area. We are fortunate to have these artists visit our campus and work with students to expand their skill and understanding of the jazz art form,” said Rebecca Derbas-Selvidge, LMC director of choirs and music lecturer. 

 

Nazarian is a world-renowned, Grammy-nominated jazz performing and recording artist, educator, and clinician. In addition to her work as a sought-after solo vocalist, she has performed all over the world with the vocal group New York Voices (NYV) for more than 35 years. She will conduct two days of vocal solo and ensemble clinics with area high school and college students.  

 

Ashby is a four-time Grammy-winning producer who has received multiple nominations in other categories including Arranging and Engineering. For over thirty years, he has performed, toured, and recorded with some of the most renowned jazz artists in the industry. Ashby will share his expertise with students through band clinics and Brazilian percussion workshops. 

 

Area high school music instructors interested in having their students participate in this unique educational and performance experience can register online. For questions and further registration information, contact the LMC Visual & Performing Arts Department at mmccaffrey@lakemichigancollege.edu or 269-927-8876. 

 

This festival is made possible by a grant from the Monday Musical Club. The Monday Musical Club provides grants to schools and non-profit organizations in Berrien County to support music instruction, programs, performances, or other purposes that engage and educate people of all ages.   

 

About the artists 

Kim Nazarian 

From performing at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, and the Montreal International Jazz Festival to judging international vocal competitions and instructing the next generation of vocal performers, Kim Nazarian is recognized nationally and globally for her work in the jazz genre.  

 

Nazarian teaches jazz voice at Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York. Beyond the classroom, she shares her perspectives on music and life as a musician while teaching private students in her personal studio; offers clinics, workshops, and masterclasses; adjudicates festivals; participates in jazz camps; and guest conducts for singers on all levels in the U.S. and abroad. 

 

One of Nazarian's recent accolades was being named "Jazz Educator of the Year 2023" by the JEN organization. She is the first female and vocal jazz recipient of this prestigious honor. In 2022, she became the first woman to head the jury of the A Cappella Competition in Aarhus, Denmark. Continuing to climb the professional ladder, Nazarian has added artistic director to her list of titles, working with the established team of the DeMiero Jazz Festival. 

 

Harkening her heritage, Nazarian was recognized as one of the top 50 most influential Armenian artists in 2012 and was inducted into her hometown high school’s Hall of Fame. She is the lead vocalist for the Latin-influenced jazz ensemble El Eco spearheaded by Argentinian drummer and composer Guillermo Nojechowicz, and she appears as a featured vocalist on Gabriel Espinosa’s two latest CDs.  

 

Besides the many recordings of NYV, Nazarian can be heard on various projects as a soloist. Branching out on her own in 2015, she released her first solo CD, “Some Morning,“ with guests Paquito D’Rivera, Gary Burton, John Pizzarelli, and Sean Jones.  

 

Nazarian is proud to be one of the featured voices on Bobby McFerrin’s “VOCAbuLarieS“ CD, which garnered three Grammy nominations. Additionally, she collaborated with the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra and the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild on a concert tour dedicated to the late great Ella Fitzgerald.  

 

Nazarian’s work as a lyricist can be heard on the NYV CDs and in other projects worldwide, including those of Brazilian composer Ivan Lins and the Metropole Orchestra. Most notably, Nazarian wrote “World of Possibilities," the title track to the accompanying CD of Bill Strickland’s best-selling book “Making the Impossible Possible.” 

 

Nazarian is a magna cum laude graduate of Ithaca College and holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting. When not making music, she loves to be home in Oberlin, Ohio, with her husband, son, and sheep-a-doodle, Doxy, on her 6.5-acre farm, cooking, gardening, reading, and watching films.  

 

Jay Ashby 

Jay Ashby is a four-time Grammy Award-winning producer and has received multiple nominations in other categories, including Arranging and Engineering. A “consummate musician” whose talents “know few bounds” (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review), Ashby has performed, toured, and recorded with some of the most renowned jazz artists in the industry for over 30 years.  

 

As a member of the United Nation Orchestra, under the direction of Paquito D’Rivera, and the Dizzy Gillespie Alumni All-Star Big Band, Ashby forged long-lasting musical relationships with jazz greats, including Jon Faddis, Monty Alexander, James Moody, Jimmy Heath, Randy Brecker, and Slide Hampton, among many others.  

 

Through his association with trumpet master Claudio Roditi, Ashby developed a strong affinity for Brazilian Jazz. This led to many years as a soloist with Astrud Gilberto, as well as arrangements, tours, performances, and recordings with numerous Brazilian artists, including Tania Maria, Kenia, Ivan Lins, Trio Da Paz, and the fathers of Bossa Nova Joao Gilberto and Antonio Carlos Jobim.   

 

Ashby can be heard as both a trombonist and a percussionist on over 175 recordings covering a continuum of styles from jazz and pop to world music. Ashby’s latest release, “Mistaken Identity” (CD Baby 2011), with fellow trombonist Steve Davis, received critical acclaim within the jazz industry, remaining on the national air-play list for an unprecedented 16 weeks, reaching as high as #2.   

 

As an arranger, among numerous others, notable recordings include “Live in Paris” with Paul Simon, “Beyond Brooklyn” with Herbie Mann and Phil Woods, “A Day Like This” with New York Voices, and both of Nancy Wilson’s Grammy-winning albums, “Turned to Blue” and “R.S.V.P.”   

 

His versatility as a pop trombonist, percussionist, and arranger began in 1999 with the pop icon Paul Simon, with whom Ashby toured and performed extensively on stage and television. Appearances with Simon include the “Today Show,” “Saturday Night Live,” “The Late Show with David Letterman,” in addition to performing alongside James Taylor, Stevie Wonder, and a host of other artists honoring Paul Simon at the “2007 Gershwin Award Show.” Most recently, Ashby participated in the star-studded HBO broadcast of the “25th Anniversary of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at Madison Square Garden.’   

 

As a YAMAHA artist, Ashby conducts master classes, residencies, and clinics worldwide, including annual events in Germany, Brazil, and Russia. He holds degrees from Ithaca College and Duquesne University and has been on the faculty at Oberlin Conservatory, where he is currently the Director of Jazz Studies, for the past decade. 

 

 

About the Lake Michigan College Visual & Performing Arts Department  

The Visual & Performing Arts Department allows students to reach new levels of excellence through classroom instruction and public performance. Many programs, including theatre, instrumental and vocal music, and dance, are based in the Lake Michigan College Mendel Center, the only performing arts center of its kind in Southwest Michigan. Here, LMC students have opportunities to study the performing arts in a venue that attracts thousands of patrons annually. Programs including drawing, painting, and graphic design allow students to explore the possibilities in the visual arts. 

 

Auditions are held for select ensembles that perform on the same stages as world-renowned touring acts. Students in any major also have opportunities to audition for Broadway musicals and plays and join two different vocal ensembles, string and wind ensembles, a pop-rock ensemble, and jazz band. One of only two colleges in Michigan to carry the prestigious All-Steinway designation, LMC has a team of highly qualified faculty that bring real-world expertise to the classroom.