MANSFIELD, PA—The Mansfield University Jazz Festival will celebrate its 35th year with concerts on Thursday, April 27 and Friday, April 28.
Thursday’s concert will feature vocal jazz and Friday’s will highlight instrumental jazz. Both concerts begin at 7: 30 p.m. in Steadman Theatre. They are free and open to the public.
Kicking off the Thursday concert will be the outstanding MU vocal jazz ensemble, The Mansfieldians, under the direction of Sheryl Monkelien. The Mansfieldians will present a variety of great jazz literature including My Favorite Things arranged by Kelly Kunz, Gene Pureling’s arrangements of Sweet Lorraine, featuring sophomore Rachel Lehman and senior Jake Wilson. Other tunes include Puerling’s arrangement of London By Night, Billy Joel’s Just the Way You Are, arranged by Phil Mattson and featuring junior Victoria Royal and senior Eli Sauls, and You Don’t Love Me Like You Used to Do, arranged by Michele Weir, featuring junior Tayana Woodton and freshman Brady Bennett. 
Guest artists Vertical Voices, with members Julia Dolison, Jennifer Barnes, Kerry Marsh and Greg Jasperse, will work with area high school groups during the day and present an evening concert.
In 2010, after releasing their critically acclaimed album Vertical Voices: The Music of Maria Schneider (ArtistShare), Julia Dollison and Kerry Marsh joined forces with Jennifer Barnes and Greg Jasperse to form a vocal quartet that first focused primarily on performing Schneider’s music live. It was not long, though, before the group expanded their repertoire and focus to include their own original compositions as well as arrangements of music by Pat Metheny, The Yellowjackets, Imogen Heap and other contemporary jazz and pop influences. Now, the group performs music in a variety of styles, all with a fresh and innovative approach, venturing into new artistic territory within the vocal jazz genre, utilizing wordless vocals, new compositions, improvisation and more. Among their many performances at major festival venues throughout the U.S. and Canada, Vertical Voices performed on the main stage of the 2014 Jazz Education Network conference in Dallas. Their debut CD as a quartet, Fourward, was released in January 2014. All four members of Vertical Voices have extensive experience as vocal jazz judges and clinicians at major jazz festivals and workshops around the world.
To learn more about Vertical Voices, go to verticalvoiceslive.com/
Friday night will showcase the MU Concert Jazz Band, under the direction of Nate Rinnert. The band will perform a variety of swing favorites, including the Neal Hefti arrangement of Splanky, made famous by The Count Basie Orchestra, Thad Jones’ Groove Merchant, and Gordon Goodwin’s Count Bubba¸ recorded by Goodwin’s own Big Phat Band. The band will also perform the Mark Taylor rock trumpet section feature Brass Machine, the early 70s gospel rock hit Gospel John, by Jeff Steinburg, and the Dee Barton arrangement of Here’s Thar Rainy Day, featuring the trombones and tuba. Rounding out the band’s set will be the Bob Washut arrangement of Caravan, an expanded-instrument version of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band’s arrangement with more tuba.
The featured combo for this year’s Festival concert will
be the Jay Vonada Quartet. Jay Vonada is a 1997 graduate of Mansfield University and is back to perform with his quartet, which includes pianist Kirk Reese, bassist Bob Hart and Kevin Lowe on drums.
Vonada is a jazz trombonist in central Pennsylvania. He has been called, “the hardest working trombonist in central PA”, by his colleagues.
Vonada plays at festivals, restaurants, breweries, wineries, nursing homes, assisted living communities, independent living communities and many other venues in Pennsylvania and Maryland. Some festivals he has performed are The Lebanon Jazz Festival, Media PA Jazz By Night Celebration, Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts, Butler Fall Festival and Pittsburgh’s Stars at Riverview Park Concert Series. At Mansfield, he studied jazz with Michael Galloway and trombone with Steve McEuen.
To find out more about Vonada and his quartet, go to jayvonada.net
The MU Jazz Festival is sponsored by the Mansfield University Music Department. The Jazz Band and Mansfieldians are supported in part by student activity fees.