Vibraphonist-composer Stefon Harris, considered one of the leading young jazz artists in the country, will be at the Eastman School of Music on Thursday, March 26. He will conduct a master class with jazz and percussion students. In addition, he will lecture on the topic “Listening to Jazz” at 11:30 a.m. in Room ESM 120 in a program sponsored by the Eastman Diversity Initiative. His visit is the first event as part of a new speaker series sponsored by the Eastman Diversity Committee.
Acclaimed for his passionate artistry and energetic stage presence, Harris is a three-time Grammy nominee. He has been voted Best Mallet Player by the Jazz Journalist Association four times and was named Downbeat’s Critics Poll Winner for Vibraphone and Rising Star. Harris has performed at such distinguished concert venues as Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, the Kennedy Center, and the Sydney Opera House, and in such events as the Montreal Jazz Festival, the North Sea Jazz Festival, the Istanbul Jazz Festival, and the Umbria Jazz Festival.
Harris has also recorded and toured with such artists as Joe Henderson, Wynton Marsalis, Cassandra Wilson, Buster Williams, Steve Coleman, and others.
In addition to his performing, composing, and recording work, Harris is an active educator, conducting more than 100 clinics and lectures annually at schools and universities across the country. He is currently artist-in-residence at San Francisco Performances and serves on the executive board of directors for Chamber Music America.
Harris’s visit is sponsored by the Eastman School’s Diversity Committee, the Departments of Jazz Studies and Contemporary Media and of Winds, Brass, and Percussion, and the Office for Faculty Development and Diversity at the University of Rochester.
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