53rd Commissioned Composer Concert with Alan Ferber is April 4

March 21, 2019 --The University of Wisconsin-River Falls will welcome featured composer Alan Ferber to Abbott Concert Hall in the Kleinpell Fine Arts building on Thursday, April 4, at 7:30 p.m. for the university’s 53rd Commissioned Composer Concert. The concert is free and open to the public.  

Ferber is on campus April 2-4 for a three-day residency. He will also present a convocation in 129 Kleinpell Fine Arts on April 4 at 3 p.m. where he will discuss his new composition.   

The three-time Grammy-nominated trombonist-composer-arranger has been called “one of the jazz world’s premier composers and arrangers for larger groups” by All About Jazz NY. Jazz Times magazine describes Ferber’s compositions as “inspired and meticulous” and the L.A. Weekly deems him “one of the premier modern jazz arrangers of our time.”
 
For the last seven years, Ferber has been recognized as one of the leading trombonists of his generation in DownBeat magazine’s International Critics Poll and Readers Poll. Since 2011, he has been an adjunct professor of jazz studies at New York University’s Steinhardt School.
 
Ferber’s music draws from a broad stylistic base informed by the array of artists with whom he has closely worked. He has worked extensively in other genres as well with artists including Peter Gabriel (Live at the Ed Sullivan Theater), Paul Simon, Sufjan Stevens (Age of Adz & All Delighted People), The National (on Grammy-nominated Trouble Will Find Me), Dr. Dre, Harry Connick Jr, Michael Buble, and Beirut. His discography lists over 150 CDs on which he has played trombone and/or composed and arranged music. 
   
Ferber’s accomplishments as a writer are equally diverse. His recent work as a composer-arranger include ten 18-piece big band arrangements for Broadway star Shoshana Bean‘s new album, Spectrum; Two big band arrangements of Joni Mitchell compositions featuring vocalist Tutu Puoane with the Brussels Jazz Orchestra on their album, We Have A Dream. 

Each year, UW-River Falls commissions a composer to write a piece of music for the student body. The composer also makes a campus visit to interact with the students and take part in the premiere performance of that work.   

UWRF Professor Emeritus Conrad De Jong began the Commissioned Composer Project in 1967. It is the longest-standing program of its kind in the United States and places a national spotlight on the UW-River Falls Music Department.
 
For more information, call the UWRF Music Department at 715-425-3183.