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Jazz Fest Concert
May 1, 2023 @ 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Come out to one of the most fun concerts of the year! Guest soloist and longtime GR Bands friend Rex Richardson will be performing with our groups as a culmination of a full day of Jazz Education. Groups featured include: 7th Grade Jazz Band, 8th Grade Jazz Band, GRHS Jazz Choir, GRHS JazzAm ensemble, GRHS Jazz One and the Grand Rapids Community Big Band.
Check out Rex’s Bio, you don’t want to miss this guy!!!!
“A startling display of virtuosity…This was something very different, played by a performer of rare gifts indeed.” — 4barsRest.com, in a review of Rex Richardson’s performance at the 2013 World Music Championship in Kerkrade, Netherlands
Renowned as champion of new, genre-busting music featuring the trumpet as a solo voice, Yamaha Performing Artist Rex Richardson was named the 2008 Brass Herald International Personality of the Year, has been called “One of the finest virtuosos of our time” (Brass Herald, 2018).
A veteran of the acclaimed chamber ensemble Rhythm & Brass, jazz legend Joe Henderson’s Quintet and Sextet, William Russo’s Chicago Jazz Ensemble, and the world-renowned Brass Band of Battle Creek, his hundreds of soloist appearances include festivals and ensembles on six continents, such as the Phoenix Symphony and Thailand Philharmonic Orchestras, the U.S. Army Field Band and Tokyo Symphonic Winds, England’s Fodens Brass Band, and the U.S. Air Force’s Airmen of Note Jazz Ensemble.
His latest CD Freedom of Movement: 21st Century Trumpet Concertos was released to critical and public acclaim, and named a top-ten finalist for 4barsrest.com’s 2018 Solo CD of the Year. The Journal of the International Trumpet Guild called it “A triumph of virtuosity and musicianship”(March, 2019).
Richardson has taught at Virginia Commonwealth University since 2002, served as International Tutor in Trumpet at England’s Royal Northern College of Music from 2012-2015 and at Austria’s JAM Music Lab University since 2018.