The 18th Annual Intercollegiate Jazz Festival
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. - The 18th Annual Intercollegiate Jazz Festival will take place on Friday, May 1 from 12 p.m. until 4 p.m. and on Saturday, May 2 from 9 am. until 5:30 p.m. on the MAINSTAGE of ‘62 Center on the Williams College campus. This free event is open to the public.College bands will be playing for adjudication by John Clark and Virginia Mayhew. As of press date, the bands participating are CCRI, Bancroft School, Amherst College, Westfield State College, UMASS, Yale University, Smith College, Ashland University (OH), Schenectady County Community College, the Williams Jazz Ensemble directed by Erik Lawrence and a small jazz ensemble coached by Freddie Bryant. Participants are subject to change.
This year the adjudicators are French horn player and composer John Clark and saxophonist, composer, and arranger Virginia Mayhew.
Clark, a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music, has performed all over the world with a tremendous diversity of musicians, in a variety of musical arenas: jazz, pop, Broadway, classical, and commercial studio work. The list of artists with whom he has recorded or performed is enormous, and includes Gil Evans, McCoy Tyner, Miles Davis, Joe Lovano, Julius Hemphill, Hank Jones, Wayne Shorter, David Sanchez, Chick Corea, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Diana Ross, Aretha Franklin, Sean “P-Diddy” Combs, Carly Simon, Billy Joel, Sting, Linda Ronstadt, Leonard Bernstein, the Boston Symphony, the Jazz Composers’ Orchestra, the New York City Ballet Orchestra, the Tanglewood Festival Orchestra, Carnegie Hall Jazz Band, Gerry Mulligan, Paquito d’Rivera, Elton John, Boyz to Men, The Absolute Ensemble, the Mingus Orchestra, Ornette Coleman, Natalie Cole, Luther Vandross, and Speculum Musicae, among many others. The recipient of a composition grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, Mr. Clark’s work has been performed and recorded by the Gil Evans Orchestra, McCoy Tyner Big Band, Paul Winter Consort, the Imani Winds, the Aspen Wind Quintet, and the Pugh-Taylor Project, among others.
Mayhew has been an active participant in the New York jazz scene since 1987. A native of San Francisco, Virginia came to New York to enroll in the New School's Jazz Performance program, and was awarded its Zoot Sims Memorial Scholarship. In the course of her career, Virginia has worked with such renowned artists as Earl "Fatha" Hines, Cab Calloway, Frank Zappa, James Brown, Norman Simmons, Al Grey, Junior Mance, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Doc Cheatam, Joe Williams, Leon Parker, Clark Terry, Terry Gibbs, Kenny Barron, Chico O'Farrill, Dena DeRose, Ingrid Jensen, Claudio Roditi, and many others.
Virginia has appeared in most of the New York City's jazz venues, including the Blue Note, the Village Vanguard, the Village Gate, Sweet Basil, Sweet Rhythm, Birdland, Carnegie Hall, the Jazz Standard, Lincoln Center, and Town Hall, as well as performing throughout the United States, Europe, the Newly Independent States, the Caribbean, Bermuda, Australia, and Southeast Asia.
Virginia has performed at many jazz festivals as a leader, including the Monterey Jazz Festival, JVC Jazz Festival, Floating Jazz Festival, Verizon Jazz Festival, Mary Lou Williams Jazz Festival at the Kennedy Center, San Francisco Jazz Festival, San Jose Jazz Festival, East Coast Jazz Festival, Panasonic Jazz Festival, Guinness Cork (Ireland) Jazz Festival, Verizon Music Festival, Perth International Arts Festival, Melbourne Jazz Festival, Llangollen International Music Festival, Jazz At Sea, and other smaller festivals.
The festival is sponsored by the Williams Dept. of Music, ‘62 Center, Greylock Federal Credit Union, Gala, Orchards Hotel, Spice Root, St. Johns, The Williams Inn, Berkshire Hills Motel, Café Latino, JAM, MASS MoCA, The Clark, Williams College Museum of Art, and Williamstown Chamber of Commerce.
